is only to supply the average home, don't you see? Where only one or
two are kept--that's their idea."

"And do they suppose that the average American woman is willing to
go right on paying thirty-seven dollars and fifty cents for a maid?"
Mrs. Salisbury asked mildly.

"For five in family, Mother! Justine would only be thirty if three
dear little strangers hadn't come to brighten your home," Sandy
reminded her. "Besides," she went on, "Justine was telling me only a
day or two ago of their latest scheme--they are arranging so that a
girl can manage two houses in the same neighborhood. She gets
breakfast for the Joneses, say; leaves at nine for market; orders
for both families; goes to the Smiths and serves their hearty meal
at noon; goes back to the Joneses at five, and serves dinner."

"And what does she get for all this?" Mrs. Salisbury asked in a
skeptical tone.

"The Joneses pay her twenty-five, I believe, and the Smiths fifteen
for two in each family."

"What's to prevent the two families having all meals together," Mrs.
Salisbury asked, "instead of having to patch out with meals when
they had no maid?"

"Well, I suppose they could. Then she'd get her original thirty, and
five more for the two extra--you see, it comes out the same, thirty-
five dollars a month. Perhaps families will pool their expenses that
way some day. It would save buying, too, and table linen, and gas