Page:Advice to young ladies on their duties and conduct in life - Arthur - 1849.djvu/63

Rh Under ordinary circumstances, a woman whose husband enjoys a moderate income has no need to do much in the way of cooking; but as most of the domestics to be obtained know very little about this very important branch of household economy, it is absolutely necessary that the mistress of a family should herself be able to give the most particular directions on the subject—should, in fact, know how to cook every dish ordinarily served upon the table. But there are occasions when to no second hand should be delegated the task of preparing certain articles of food. We now allude to sickness. No hand but the hand of a wife should prepare the good of her husband when he is sick; and no hand but the hand of a mother, the food of her child. A remembrance of the badly-prepared, tasteless food, which almost every woman has had served to her, in sickness, from her own cook, will be felt as a sufficient reason for this declaration. To cook for the sick requires an experienced hand. A woman who knows nothing at all about cooking will fail entirely in the attempt, and if her husband be sick, he will be fortunate, indeed, if he can take more than a few spoonfuls of the tea, or a few morsels of the toast, that is brought to his bedside as he begins to convalesce.

If for no other purpose, a young lady should