MAKING HOM1-; A'LTKAC TIVK. 75 



mixed boarding-school remains an unanswered question. Most people 

 after careful inquiry are brave enough to send their daughters to a board- 

 ing-school ; and there are some schools which are so admirable that they 

 can certainly do our daughters more good than harm. 



The public school is no doubt a better place for the acquirement of 

 "knowledge than the private school. It is a procrustean bed, but it cer- 

 tainly produces good scholars. 



XTTT. 

 MAKING HOME ATTRACTIVE. 



THERE are few women who do not try for this, and few women who, trying . 

 do not succeed. The poorest woman can now with very little money make 

 a pretty room, and save it from the lonely, sordid, or conventional look of 

 a room in a boarding-house. She can avoid horsehair sofas and violent 

 carpets, charges frescoes, and vulgar prints on the walls. Good engravings, 

 a little cretonne, some knick-knacks made by herself, a few grasses, a grow- 

 ing plant, and an open fire are all that are needed to make a room pleasant 

 and refined. 



What a pity it is that in a country covered with wood, a wood fire 

 should be an expensive luxury, for there is nothing like it to make h 

 attractive ! It burns up many a quarrel and morbid speculation, rights 

 many a wrong, and promotes peace. No picture is so utterly cheerful as" 

 that of the family gathering round it as evening falls. No conversations 

 are so fresh and witty as those which go up with the sparks. No compa- 

 nion is so lively and invigorating to the invalid, the recluse, the mourner. 

 or the aged as a wood fire. It is the most healthful of all ventilators, tli 

 most picturesque picture, the most enlivening suggestion of energy an- 1 

 thrift. It is the most fragrant bouquet, the most eloquent of oratora, I : 

 is a story-teller to the fanciful, and a juggler to th >se who love I 



'oils. What fairy tai it, not tell with its sparks on the back ot" 



the chiinnry ! What Combinations of initials it picscnts to the lovers. \vh.> 

 read "A" and " \. -u.sly combined in a troe-lovm' kn>t, Wli 



in fin-, as is their love.: What strang- shapes the logs (akfl f tb086 



intrust their fortune-telling to its mj What dn 



go up in tip- moke. 



Nothing is so In-all liful as a wood fire in a sick-room. Certain jhy>ician^ 

 . that it will cure son bav nothii 



take its place but cannel coal, which niak<- a bright and li^ and 



