The want of a maid to wait on the table is no excuse for the sort of every-one-for-himself style of serving which is too often seen. Children, boys as well as girls, should be taught and allowed to help in the serving, even if one have a waitress. If they can have a daily share in the duties, filling the glasses, passing butter or sauce, removing the dishes between the courses, etc., nothing will give them more ease and self-possession when unexpectedly called to fill the place of mother or father at the table, or better help to counteract the evil habits of hurried eating and indifference to the wants of others, or better enable them to direct if they should ever have homes and domestics of their own. The following general directions may be adapted to any style of living.

If the serving be done wholly by the family, special pains should be taken, in laying the table, to provide everything necessary, that there may be no occasion to leave the table. Spoons for tea or sauce may be laid at the plates, butter-plates and glasses filled, and other things made ready before the family are seated.

At breakfast, nearly every one wants coffee or other drink first, and there should be no undue haste in passing the substantials until these have been served. As-certain the preference of each one as to sugar and cream, and put them in the cups, instead of passing them separately.

Do not fill the plates indiscriminately, and send them to go the round of the table, but consult individual tastes or needs, and give each one the opportunity of choice as to the various dishes. Serve first those whom vou wish most to honor.

It makes less confusion for some one to sit near the one who carves, and to help to the vegetables and various dishes that are to be served on the same plate with the meat, instead of passing them back and forth. Be careful to pass all the accompaniments with the principal dishes, - the butter and syrup with hot cakes, the cream and sugar with mush and fruit, the condiments and relishes where they are needed, etc., and avoid having many things passing round at the same time.

There are many families where the lady of the house is the only person who can leave the table to arrange for the change of courses, but if there be other and younger members of the family capable of such service, it should be performed by them. No girl, old enough to carry a dish without breaking it, should ever permit her mother to leave the table for any such purpose. A side table on castors may be placed within easy reach, and will save much confusion in family serving.

Whether the waitress be one trained to the work, or one of the children, the same rules will apply. The waitress should remove the cover from the tureen or any other dish, turning it over deftly so it will not drip on the cloth, and lav it on the side table. Stand at the left of the one who is serving, and take on the tray each plate in turn to the one for whom it is intended.

In passing a plate of soup or meat, set it on the table in front of the person; the cup of coffee or any other

LESSON XX. - WAITING ON THE TABLE. 2l7 drink place at the right hand, and thus avoid reaching across the plate, and also relieve the one at the table from the awkwardness of taking the dish from the tray. But in passing vegetables or any dishes from which a person is to take a portion, pass them on the tray at the left, that it may be taken with the right hand. The tray should be held firmly, and low and near enough that the dish may be within easy reach. Put the dishes back on the table in their places, and keep everything on the table in good order.

In passing a plate hold it so the thumb will not rest on the upper surface. In filling glasses, take the glass near the bottom, never with the hand over the top, draw it to the edge of the table, but do not remove it, and fill only three-quarters full. When a change of plates is required, remove the plate on the table with the left hand, before attempting to put the other plate in its place.

At a dinner of many courses, as soon as a guest has finished the course remove his plate; but at the family dinner do not remove any plates until all are through. When one course is finished, take the tray in one hand, and with the other remove from the left all the spoons, or knives and forks; this will prevent the danger of dropping them if taken away on the plates, and make less confusion in washing. Take away the plates, never more than one in each hand; and also everything not needed for the next course. Before the dessert, remove the crumbs with a broad knife or scraper into a plate.

After a meal, first set the chairs in their places, and always brush up the crumbs that may have fallen, lest they be trodden into the carpet. In clearing a breakfast or tea table, where there has been no change of courses, remove the glasses and silver first. Put any food that may be used again on small dishes, never on the table dishes. Scrape the dishes, empty and rinse the cups, and neatly pack together those of a kind, near where they are to be washed. Brush the crumbs from the cloth, fold it in the creases, and put it away carefully.