Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/60

52 better sort, and not only supplied them with a couple of large fresh loaves of good bread, but promised to step over in the morning, and give the inexperienced bride some little instruction in household affairs. She was as good as her word, and her young scholar was quite an apt one. The situation in which the latter found herself so unexpectedly placed caused her to reflect upon and to be ashamed of her deficiencies. She had spent years in the acquirement of various branches of information, many of them little better than useless; but not one of them was now available in this her first essay in life. Her education had been confined almost entirely to the ornamental, while the useful had been totally neglected. She had married, and commenced the world with her husband. He was fully prepared to do his part, but she was entirely deficient in ability to do hers. But she had the merit of possessing a fair proportion of common sense; had some quickness of perception; and, being willing to do the best she could, was not long, under the kind instruction of her neighbor, in acquiring a very fair knowledge of housekeeping. For six months, she did all her own cooking, baking, washing, and ironing. There was no help for it; unless she did it, it would have to remain undone. After that, she