THE BED-ROOM

The family bed-room should be on the first floor if possible, if the house is properly built and there is no dampness. Matting is better for the floor than carpet, because freer from dust, and this is the room used in case of sickness. If made properly it will wear for several years. Canton mattings are made on boats in pieces about two yards long, and afterward joined on shore into pieces of fifty yards. It is easy to see where these short piecea jure joined ; after cutting into lengths, first sew these places across and across

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on the wrong side, then sew the breadths together and tack down like a carpet. Matting should never be washed with any thing except moderately- swarmed salt and water, in the proportion of a pint of salt to a half pail of aoft water. Dry quickly with a soft cloth. A bed-room matting should be ^washed twice during the season; a room much used, oftcner. In this room there should be a medicine closet, high above the reach of children, where axe kept camphor, hot drops, mustard, strips of old linen, etc^-for sudden sickness or accident. There should also be a large closet, a part of which is especially set apart for children's use, with low hooks where they may hang their clothes, a box for stockings, a bag for shoes, and other conveniences, which will help to teach them system and order. The bedding should be the best that can be afforded. The inner husks of corn make a good under- l)ed. Oat straw is also excellent. Hair mattresses are best and, in the end, most economical. Mattresses of Spanish moss are cheaper than hair, but £Oon mat down. Those made of coarse wool . are objectionable at first on account of the odor, but are serviceable and less costly than hair. When the woven-wire bed is used, a light mattress is all that is needed ; and this <K)mbination makes the healthiest and best bed, because it affords the most complete exposure of tlie bedding to air. The best covering is soft woolen blankets. Comforters made of cotton should be used with great caution, as they need to be frequently exposed to sun and air. The best comforter is made of delaines, which may be partly worn, with wool Instead of cotton quilted in. Beds are almost always made up too early