PREFACE. THIS work was first designed and undertaken at the earnest solicitations of two young ladies who were about to enter upon the important duties of married life, and, at their suggestion, the book proposed was to serve as a Counsellor, from the outset of their career, through all the various arrangements of a well-regulated household. This, doubtless, my readers will say was a very daring and difficult undertaking. And so indeed it was. Yet when the motives are weighed, the writer cannot but hope her lenient judges will be inclined to view the undertaking as more the result of affectionate solicitude than that of presumption or conceit. By the critical eye of numerous superiors in this important branch of human knowledge, no doubt many omissions, mistakes, and imperfections will be discovered: these, she trusts, will be excused for the sake of her motives. If this book should prove the happy Counsellor of one successful housewife, the writer will consider herself well rewarded for her pains. Having been written expressly for the benefit of residents of the Southern States, before emancipation, the advice respecting the management of servants may appear unsuitable in some degree for those who are non-residents: nevertheless it will be easy to make allowance for these different circumstances when the above fact is borne in mind, so that the writer sees no necessity for altering the original directions. The culinary receipts of this book are all tried and long-practiced receipts, and the writer has taken pains to select them from a more multitudinous list, so as to have them the best and most approved. Her endeavor has been to make her directions perfectly intelligible, unmistakable, and exact, so that no one may say the whole process is not understood of any one receipt. If she fails in this, it will not be from indifference or want of honest endeavor. And be well assured, most indulgent reader, that no efforts will be spared to render the Counsellor so useful and faithful a friend to every young housewife that no bridegroom in the land will think it possible to complete his number of bridal presents till he has included this book among them.