m. Indeed, I
believe we may economize in anything better than in fuel. It gives a
great sense of comfort in going into a house to find it warm all
through. Many people, however, cannot afford such luxury. But if you can
only have one fire in the house, see that that is always burning; and if
it must be in the kitchen in the cooking-stove, keep the stove so bright
that its black ugliness is a centre radiating cheerfulness. There are
plenty of homes in which there is no need of stint, where through
carelessness and neglect there are times when everybody in the house is
shivering, while perhaps at other times half the rooms are at a red
heat.

I remember one of Charles Reade's heroes who was wavering between the
attractions of two women, and the novelist represents the simpler of
the two as being careful that there should always be a blazing hearth
when the lover came. This innocent device gave him a sense of comfort
which almost won his heart. It seemed to me a touch of truth.

We cannot all afford open wood fires, though their beauty and
healthfulness make us wish we could; but most of us can keep the "clear
fire" and the "clean hearth," which Mrs. Battle wisely considered the
proper preliminaries to the "rigor of the game."

Though we want warm homes, we do not want close ones. Most houses are
not very well ventilated, and if we keep our windows open in winter
weather, we must expect our bill for fuel to be a large one. Some of us
are too poor to disregard this fact, but most of us could probably
afford to save enough in our dress to meet what I may call this
necessary extravagance. I have seen a great many landladies who looked
so severe on seeing a window open in a room where the register was also
open, that the unhappy boarder felt at once like a culprit for even
desiring both warmth and fresh air at the same time. Once, however, I
had the good fortune to know a woman of different views. She bought a
house expressly with the intention of letting it to transient lodgers.
She found, as is common, that the furnace-heated air which passed
through the registers into the rooms came from the cellar. She
immediately made alterations, so that the fresh outside air should be
heated and carried over the house. "It costs more," she said, "but dear
me! what is expense to fresh air?" Moreover she said so much to her
lodgers about the necessity of fresh air, that all the windows in the
house were always streaming open. "I once k