tress shaken,
beaten, taken up and opened several times, so as thoroughly to separate
the feathers: if too large to be thus handled, the maid should shake and
beat one end first, and then the other, smoothing it afterwards equally
all over into the required shape, and place the mattress gently over it.
Any feathers which escape in this process a tidy servant will put back
through the seam of the tick; she will also be careful to sew up any
stitch that gives way the moment it is discovered. The bedclothes are
laid on, beginning with an under blanket and sheet, which are tucked
under the mattress at the bottom. The bolster is then beaten and shaken,
and put on, the top of the sheet rolled round it, and the sheet tucked
in all round. The pillows and other bedclothes follow, and the
counterpane over all, which should fall in graceful folds, and at equal
distance from the ground all round. The curtains are drawn to the head
and folded neatly across the bed, and the whole finished in a smooth and
graceful manner. Where spring-mattresses are used, care should be taken
that the top one is turned every day. The housemaid should now take up
in a dustpan any pieces that may be on the carpet; she should dust the
room, shut the door, and proceed to another room. When all the bedrooms
are finished, she should dust the stairs, and polish the handrail of the
banisters, and see that all ledges, window-sills, &c., are quite free
from dust. It will be necessary for the housemaid to divide her work, so
that she may not have too much to do on certain days, and not sufficient
to fill up her time on other days. In the country, bedrooms should be
swept and thoroughly cleaned once a week; and to be methodical and
regular in her work, the housemaid should have certain days for doing
certain rooms thoroughly. For instance, the drawing-room on Monday, two
bedrooms on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and so on, reserving a day for
thoroughly cleaning the plate, bedroom candlesticks, &c. &c., which she
will have to do where there is no parlour-maid or footman kept. By this
means the work will be divided, and there will be no unnecessary
bustling and hurrying, as is the case where the work is done any time,
without rule or regulation.

[Illustration: SCRUBBING-BRUSH.]

2306. Once a week, when a bedroom is to be thoroughly cleaned, the
house-maid should commence by brushing the mattresses of the bed before
it is made; she should then make it, shake the cur