served and place the plate, instead of having it taken from the tray at the left.
Take the potato dish from the side-table, uncover and place on the tray; put a tablespoon in the dish and pass. Serve each person from the left.
Place a platter of plain bread on the table, and then pass the hot muffins. If any one does not care for hot bread he may decline, because he knows that the cold bread is at hand.
Pass the butter and the bread.
Watch the water tumblers and fill when empty. Offer milk.
When the lady of the house begins to pour the coffee, take a cup as it is filled and move quickly to the right of the person for whom it is intended. Set the cup down. There is no choice about this. Each cup is made to suit the individual taste of the one to whom it is sent.
When the coffee is served, look about to see what may be needed at any part of the table.
Do not offer milk to one whose glass is still filled, or muffins to one who has an untouched muffin on his plate. Do not leave the breakfast-room until quite sure that everything that there is to do has been finished.
The breakfast described is served to a family of regular people, all of whom sit down at the same time, and it does not take any great amount of “mother wit” to serve it properly.
What really tests the skill of a waitress is to serve a breakfast in the manner necessary in many families.