t the right.

Everything about our homes should be subjective to the one central idea
of _health_. Things of beauty or luxury, whether in or around the
dwelling, should, if on close scrutiny they are found prejudicial, be at
once removed.

The family sitting-room, if no other in the house, ought to be warmed by
means of a wood fire if a stove is used, yet a grate is far better, and
is the nearest approach to the old-fashioned fireplace attainable in
these times. A flue cut in the chimney near the ceiling, with a register
affixed, will, where stoves or furnaces are used, be of service, and are
quite easily and inexpensively constructed. The windows of
sleeping-rooms should be so made that the top sash can be as readily
lowered as the bottom one raised, and at night the former should be left
down sufficient for the free admission of fresh and the escape of foul
air, but it ought not to draw across the sleeper. Night air is not as
objectionable as the confined air of unventilated rooms. Invalids
should, however, avoid exposure to it as much as possible, since when
out in it, it envelops the whole person, and the chill and humidity may
work serious injury.

The old saw, that "early to bed and early to rise, makes people healthy,
wealthy, and wise," is deserving of more consideration than is accorded
it. Take any city-bred girl, who has been accustomed to late hours and
the excitement of entertainments and parties, and who, by these
unhealthful and killing rounds of so-called pleasure, has become
emaciated and prematurely old, and place her in a well-regulated
home,--the country is by far the best, where early retirement is a rule,
with a wholesome diet,--and she will in a few weeks show a marked
improvement. Mrs. Stowe relates a very interesting story of a city-girl
who had all to gratify her that fond parents could procure, and, though
constitutionally strong, this hothouse, fashionable life had began to
undermine her general health, and having exhausted the skill of the
regular physician, her condition became so alarming that other counsel
was sought; and this new disciple of Esculapius was a shrewd, honest
man, and wont to get at the root of difficulties. He saw at a glance
that the patient's disease was born wholly of _fashion_. He found her
waist so tightly laced as to admit of little room for full and free
respiration; this, with late hours and unwholesome food, was doing its
work. Being asked to prescribe, he firs