In dusting, be careful not to rub your duster against the wall. Set all the furniture straight and in regular order—never leave the chairs standing awry, as if dancing a jig with each other. Make them square with the wall. When doing chamber work, observe the following directions about making a bed.
Open the windows, lay off the bed covering on two chairs at the foot, and let the bed air some time before making it. When ready to make it, shake the feathers from each corner into the middle, then take up the middle part and shake it well, then push about the feathers and turn the bed over. Then push the feathers so as to make the head a little higher than the foot, and the sides as high as the middle part. Then put on the bolster, and then the undersheet so that the _marking_ shall be at the head, and the _right side_ of the sheet _upward_, tucking in all around. Then place the pillows so that the open ends shall be at the sides of the bed. Then spread on the upper sheet so that the _marking_ shall be at the head, and the _right side downward_. This arrangement of the sheets is designed to prevent the part where the feet lie from being turned so as to come to the face, and to prevent also the parts soiled by the body from touching the bed tick and blankets. Then put on the other covering, tucking in all except the outside one. Then smooth the cover and draw the hand along the side of the pillows, to make an even indentation. When the pillow cases are smooth and clean, hem over the upper sheet, and put them on the outside.
Sweep clean under beds, and remove all articles that can be moved, so as to sweep behind them. Wash the bowl and pitcher and tumbler on the wash stand every day. Once a week, scald all the vessels used in a chamber. Dust the doors, ledges, window sashes, and every article of furniture.
Never allow yourself to look in boxes or drawers, as it is a temptation to honesty, besides, being contrary to the wish of employers. Never allow yourself to take the most trifling article that belongs to another. Nothing is more important to a domestic than a character for _honesty_, and nothing grows so fast as habits of dishonesty. If you will steal needles, thread, pins, cord, or tapes, you will soon take more valuable things. And it is not the value of the thing taken which makes it an act of theft. Stealing is “_taking or using any thing that belongs to another, without evidence that the owner is willing_.” And no matter how small the thing is, it is theft, as much as if it were greater. And it is not the harm done to another that is most to be feared, it is the injury done _to yourself_ in forming a habit of dishonesty, and thus searing your conscience, and ruining your character. Always remember that you are committing a sin, when you are handling or using any thing that belongs to another, if you would be unwilling to have the owner suddenly appear and see you doing it.