Crossing to the west coast of British Columbia one meeting might be given to the Alaskan Island of Saint Lawrence and others of the Aleutian group; then, coming down the coast, Queen Charlotte's Island and Vancouver should be noted briefly. On the west coast of South America is the little island of Juan Fernandez, on which the sailor Alexander Selkirk spent five years alone, whose story suggested to Defoe his "Robinson Crusoe."
Just around Cape Horn lies the strange, wild land of Tierra del Fuego, of which little is known. Darwin, however, wrote of it in his "Voyage of a Naturalist," and scientists find in it much of interest.
CHAPTER VI
The Business of Being a Housekeeper
The following topics have been arranged in ten groups, but as many more may be added by dividing each main group into two, or even three or four. There may be readings at each meeting from the books given for reference, and discussion by club members.
I—INTRODUCTORY
The subject for the first meeting may be the Old Housekeeping and the New. One paper may take the comparison of housekeeping twenty years ago and more and that of to-day. Is there a real difference, or only a seeming one! Are rents, food, and clothing actually higher for the same things, or does life to-day demand that we add to what we then had? Assuming that prices have really gone up, and are to stay there, what can women do to adjust themselves to the fact?
The second paper should speak of the necessity of a woman's knowing exactly what she can have to spend; of knowledge of her husband's business; of an allowance; of the need of training in keeping within a fixed sum.
The third paper is to be on the budget. That is, on preparing a list of expenses, setting them down in a book, apportioning the income among the items, and then putting down each day and month the actual outgo, and so, year by year, altering and arranging the expenses to meet the income. The discussion should take the form of personal experiences in keeping household accounts.