luncheon over, and our rooms swept, rugs shaken, stairs and passages
thoroughly brushed and wiped, we polished the windows with cloths dipped
in ammonia water and wrung out, and followed them by a dry rubbing with
soft linen cloths. Then it was time to restore the furniture to its
place, and bring out the ornaments again from their seclusion.

Now we saw what an advantage we had gained in having prepared these
before we began the campaign. In a very little while the work was done
and the house settled, and so spotless and speckless we felt sure it
would keep clean for weeks.

Mother's way is to use a patent sweeper daily in rooms which are
occupied for sewing and other work, and she says that she does not find
it necessary to give her rooms more than a light sweeping oftener than
once in six weeks. Of course it would be different if we had a large
family.

Paint should be wiped, door-knobs polished, and a touch of the duster
given to everything on these sweeping days.

The Clover Leaves voted that feather-dusters, as a rule, were a
delusion. One often sees a girl, who looks very complacent as she
flirts a feather-duster over a parlor, displacing the dust so that it
may settle somewhere else. All dusted articles should be wiped off, and
the dust itself gotten rid of, by taking it out of the house, and
leaving it no chance to get back on that day at least.

When I reached home in time for our one o'clock dinner, I found
Great-aunt Jessamine and grandmamma both waiting for me, and the former,
who was a jolly little old lady, was quite delighted over the Bloomdale
girls and their housekeeping.

"All is," she said, "will those Downings do as well when there are no
other girls to make them think the work is play?"

"Oh!" answered grandmamma, "I never trouble my head about what folks
will do in the future. I have enough to do looking after what they do in
the present. Alice here gets along very well all by herself a great part
of the time. By-the-way, child, did Aunt Hetty give thee mother's
letter?"

I rushed off to get my treasure. It would soon be the blessed day when I
might expect a letter telling me when my father and mother would be at
home again.

CHAPTER V.

A LITTLE OF EVERYTHING.

Just as I began to be a wee little bit tired of housework, and to feel
that I would like nothing so much as a day with my birds, my fancy-work,
and a charming story-book, what should happen but that grandmamma's
head