182 HOME LIFE m FLORIDA. 



that it "was too cool to be comfortable." It was mid-day 

 in the middle of July, and, according to the Northern ideas 

 and Northern practice at that hour, we should have been 

 melting with fervid heat. We looked at the thermometer, 

 and it marked 88° ! The breeze and the thermometer were 

 quarreling as usual, you see, and the breeze had the best 

 of it ; it really was too cool to sit out of doors, in the shade ; 

 and this was not a rare occasion either. Of course the sun 

 is hot, so it is North, with no breeze three fourths of the 

 time to temper its rays ; and who does not dread the swel- 

 tering, breathless days and nights of intense heat that 

 sandwich the cooler times all summer long? There is 

 never a night in Florida when one can not sleep in comfort 

 or is compelled to toss or wander about seeking a cool sjjot ; 

 more often than not a blanket is needed before morning. 



And now as to furniture. A great many Floridians 

 live on bare floors all the year round ; but that is not the 

 way the better classes like to live, if they can help them- 

 selves. 



We have heard of settlers who, before leaving their old 

 homes, sold or gave away all of their household carpets. 

 " What on earth should we do with carpets in Florida!" 

 they exclaim. Do ! why tread them under foot to be sure. 

 A Florida house has floors, surely ; and they are the better 

 for being covered, not only for their attractiveness, but for 

 their owners' comfort. There is something utterly cheerless 

 about bare floors that takes away all the home feeling from 

 a room, no matter how well it may be furnished otherwise ; 

 the intrusive sound of every footstep, the scraping and 

 thumping whenever a piece of furniture is moved, carries 

 with it a sense of discomfort to the ear, as the bare boards 

 do to the eye. As to the statement made by some, that 

 *' carpets bring fleas," it is simply humbug. 



Matting is just the thing for summer use, and will do 



