def parse_labels_and_features(dataset):
  """Extracts labels and features.
  
  This is a good place to scale or transform the features if needed.
  
  Args:
    dataset: A Pandas `Dataframe`, containing the label on the first column and
      monochrome pixel values on the remaining columns, in row major order.
  Returns:
    A `tuple` `(labels, features)`:
      labels: A Pandas `Series`.
      features: A Pandas `DataFrame`.
  """
  labels = dataset[0]

  # DataFrame.loc index ranges are inclusive at both ends.
  features = dataset.loc[:,1:784]
  # Scale the data to [0, 1] by dividing out the max value, 255.
  features = features / 255

  return labels, features