When you have finished eating, drop your napkin unfolded, beside your plate since at a dinner party a napkin is not supposed to be When You Have Finished Eating used again; and lay your knife and fork on your plate, side by side, not crossed. Don't pile up your dishes, with the idea that you are helping the waitress. She has her own method of collecting dishes and you may confuse her. Don't use a tooth pick at the table, nor anywhere except in the toilet, unless it is absolutely necessary. In that case hold a napkin before your mouth. Of course you will not go about with a tooth pick in your mouth. If you are obliged to leave the table before the others do, ask the hostess to excuse you. At home that's mother, remember. She will say "certainly," graciously. Then rise and bow to her, and bow again to include all the others at the table.
SHOULD WE "INVITE OURSELVES?"
It is not good manners for children to "run in" to meals with friends and neighbors. Grown people do not invite themselves in Boys and Girls and "the Neighbors" other people's houses, so why should children? And boys and girls should not invite company to meals in their own homes without their mother's permission. They are putting her to trouble and disarranging the work of the maid. One mother made it a rule that when her sixteen-year-old daughter brought a guest to dinner, she must return from school in time to set the table properly, arrange the flowers and make an extra salad or dessert. That was excellent social training. Men and boys cannot do the extra work that is necessary for the proper entertainment of guests, so they should ask in the morning or call up over the telephone to make sure that company is convenient for mother to have.
- The small courtesies sweeten life; the
- greater, ennoble it.
- —Bovee.
