A Treatise on Domestic Economy; For the Use of Young Ladies at Home and at School

and combs. A pitcher of cold water, and a tumbler, should be added. When the company is small, it is becoming a common method for the table to be set at one end of the room, the lady of the house to pour out tea, and the gentlemen of the party to wait on the ladies and themselves. When tea is sent round, always send a teapot of hot water to weaken it, and a slop-bowl, or else many persons will drink their tea much stronger than they wish. Let it ever be remembered, that the burning of lights and the breath of guests, are constantly exhausting the air of its healthful principle; therefore avoid crowding many guests into one room. Do not tempt the palate by a great variety of unhealthful dainties. Have a warm room for departing guests, that they may not become chilled before they go out. A parlor should be furnished with candle and fire screens, for those who have weak eyes; and if, at table, a person sits with the back near the fire, a screen should be hung on the back of the chair, as it is very injurious to the whole system to have the back heated. Pretty baskets, for flowers or fruits, on centre tables, can be made thus. Knit, with coarse needles, all the various shades of green and brown, into a square piece. Press it with a hot iron, and then ravel it out. Buy a pretty shaped wicker basket, or make one of stiff millinet, or thin pasteboard, cut the worsted into bunches, and sew them on, to resemble moss. Then line the basket, and set a cup or dish of water in it, to hold flowers, or use it for a fruit-basket. Handsome fireboards are made, by nailing black foundation-muslin to a frame the size of the fireplace; and then cutting out flowers, from wall-paper, and pasting them on the muslin, according to the fancy. India rubber, melted in lamp-oil, and brushed over common shoes, keeps water out, perfectly. Keep small whisk brooms, wherever gentlemen hang their clothes,