ld let it slip, but she watched how her grandmother handled it.

"If I had done as some careless maids do," her grandmother began, as she
wiped, "I might have put this bowl right into the very hot water the
tumblers can bear, and cracked it at once. Cut glass cannot bear either
hot or cold water. I once had a beautiful bowl broken in two because it
was held directly under the faucet in the sink while the hot water ran
into it, and another dish was broken by having a piece of ice put in it
on the table. Iced lemonade often breaks lovely and costly pitchers.
You must always wash each piece by itself in lukewarm water, and never
put it in the pan with other things. Make a suds with good white soap,
scrub the cracks well with a soft brush which will not scratch, and wipe
dry without rinsing, and you will have beautiful, brilliant glass, and
your care will make it last a lifetime. I will set this away in the
dining-room while you draw some hotter water with soap in it for the
china. Put in the cleanest things first, and only a few at a time, so
they will not be chipped."

"Why do I take the cleanest china first?" Margaret inquired, as she put
in the fruit-plates. "Why don't I take them as they happen to come on
the table!"

"Some plates are greasy and some are not, and the greasy ones would
spoil your dish-water," her grandmother explained. "Now rinse those, and
while I wipe them, wash the rest and then change your water."

When Margaret lifted out the plates, she turned them up edgewise and let
the water run back into the rinsing-pan, so that they were already
half-dry when she laid them on the tray. But her grandmother got a fresh
towel for them, because the first one had become damp, and the dishes
would not dry easily with it.

Margaret decided that the easiest way to empty the dish-pan before
putting in more hot water would be to tip it up, so she took it by the
handles and turned the water directly into the sink. Her grandmother
stopped her.

"Use the sink-basket," she said. "See, the wire one in the corner. Pour
the water through that, and then if any bits of food are in it they will
stop there and not get into the drain; it's a great convenience, and one
we never had when I was a little girl. So with the dish-mop; that goes
into hot water where the hands do not like to go, and into cups and
dishes where it would be much more trouble to take a cloth, as we used
to do. Nowadays we do not use dish-cloths very ofte