XXIII.A TALK ABOUT BEDS.
ASwe look around silently among the many young housekeepers, we think we hear some of them say, or, if they don’t, they ought to, “I am ashamed to ask any one into my chambers, for my beds are a perpetual vexation to me. They look as if tossed up by a whirl-wind; the mattress laid on unevenly, every inequality as visible as if the occupants had just risen. The sheets and blankets never find their proper place, and the pillows are as hard and knotty as if made of cotton batting. I try to teach my girl how to do the work properly, but unfortunately am too ignorant myself to speak with authority, and I have no doubt she is aware of my deficiencies, so my words are idle breath to her.â€
If you don’t know how totella girl, go to the rooms with her andshowher how you wish the work done. That will be the easiest mode for you, and more likely to be remembered by the pupil.
“Alas! I don’t know how to make a bed neatly myself. I never attempted it in my life, until I was married. Ah! if I ever have daughters, they shall be taught how to care for their own rooms, and make their own beds neatly, however rich we may become, or however many servants we may employ.â€
That is wise and right. Though riches may relieve oneof much hard labor, they should not enervate, or incapacitate for such an amount of exercise as is necessary to secure a vigorous muscular development, and also enable one, in an emergency, to step in and perform with ease and independence whatever there is to be done. Riches cannot insure us against a “hitch†in the domestic machinery now and then, and every girl should be so taught that, in her father’s house or in her own, she can bring “order out of confusion†by an independent use of her own hands.
It is, as I have said in an earlier talk, important that once a week, at least, everything should be removed from the bedsteads in order that all the dust and lint, which will lodge about them, may be removed, and occasionally they need a faithful washing, to rid them of the dust and lint which will settle in the slats, about the joints, springs, and moldings.
The mattress should be thrown up every morning for a good airing, and when this is done turn it over, under side up, and then proceed to make the bed.
Making beds is a very simple thing. Every housekeeper may have some rules differing from her neighbor in this as well as in every department of labor; but there are some that are common to all.
Having placed the mattress evenly on the springs or palliasse, beat it hard to remove lumpy places, and next spread over the under sheetright side up, with the wide hem at the top, and raising up the mattress with the left hand, fold the sheet smoothly under at the top and bottom; then fold under at each side, bringing the sheet very tight and smooth across the mattress. By having a wide hem at the top and a narrow one at the bottom, there is less danger that by any one’s carelessness you may some time sleep with that part of the sheet to your face which the night before covered your feet. Now spread over the upper sheet,right side down; then as you put the finishing touch to the bed, in turning the uppersheet down on the spread at the top, the right side of the hem will be outside. In spreading on the upper sheet, bring it well up to the head of the bed, that you may have a handsome, generous width to turn down; lay it very smooth and straight, then put on the blankets, folding both upper sheet and blankets nicely under at the foot; but bring them only so far up at the head as will cover the shoulders, and not turn down doubled across them.
The bed-spread comes next. It should be put on very evenly, the middle fold of the spread coming just in the middle of the bed, drawing it up toward the head about as high as the upper sheet, a full foot above the blankets. Now lift the top of the blankets with one hand and fold the spread smoothly under them, on one side of the bed, then pass to the other side and proceed in like manner. By this mode, the spread will prevent you from being annoyed with the rough blankets, should the sheet get misplaced during the night. This done, turn the upper sheet down over all, drawing it as smoothly as possible, and tuck all down at the sides, between the bedstead and the mattress. When tucking under the last side, draw the spread, blankets, and upper sheet as taut and straight as possible, giving the sides of the bed as even and true a line as you can. Now put on thesheet tidy, if you use them; and they are desirable, even if made of cotton, and perfectly plain, as after one night’s use the upper sheet becomes wrinkled and tumbled, and the bed cannot be made to look as neat as one could wish. Then lay on the bolster, well beaten up, in its clean, white case, placing the pillows, which have also been faithfully beaten, above all, and dress them with tidies, to match the sheet tidy.
Some prefer to have the bolster put on beneath the under-sheet, in which case the sheet is drawn so high up as to allow plenty of room to fold under the lower side of the bolster, before turning under the head of the mattress.
A bed thus made will be smooth and level on the top, without a wrinkle, and as square and straight at the sides as if boxed in wood.
This is all so very simple, after one becomes accustomed to it, that the old ladies, who have all the mysteries of housekeeping as familiar and entirely at their command as the alphabet, will shake their heads and vote this a very stupid waste of time and space; but they have forgotten how acceptable minute directions were in their young days. So we will encourage ourselves by hoping that some tired young housekeeper, who has groaned over ill-made beds, may find a few crumbs of comfort here, which will remove a part, at least, of her many annoyances.