A FEW SIMPLE LUXUKIES. 173 



slight cost many times over in the amount of food it would 

 help to preserve. 



A WATER FILTER. 



Serious sicknesses would often be averted from the 

 household if, among other sanitary regulations, none but 

 filtered water was drank by its members. Water may 

 look and taste like the purest, and still contain disease- 

 germs that we would retreat from in horror if they but 

 presented themselves duly labelled. Wells, cisterns, and 

 springs that occupy ground lower than that of drains, 

 vaults, or barn-yards, within a hundred feet or more, 

 should be regarded with suspicion, no matter how "splen- 

 did '* the water may appear. 



A good and efficient filter can be made in this way : 

 Take a cask, remove one end and set it upright, the open 

 end at the top. At one third of the distance from the 

 bottom place a round partition, pierced with small holes. 

 On this arrange a layer of clean, small pebbles, and over 

 them a layer of charcoal and another of sand, topping it 

 with more pebbles. Over this put another partition with 

 holes in it, or a layer of good-sized stones, to prevent the 

 pebbles from being disturbed when water is poured in. 

 A faucet is to be placed in the bottom to draw off the 

 water. A pail of water and a lump of ice, placed in the 

 top of the cask and closely covered, supplies the perfec- 

 tion of drinking water for twenty-four hours. 



ICE-CREAM WITHOUT A FREEZER. 



Make a smooth, thin custard of one pint of milk, one 

 pint of crearn, one cupful of white sugar, two eggs, a tea- 

 spoonful of lemon or vanilla extract, and a dessert-spoon- 

 ful of corn-starch. When cool, pour it in a tin pail with 

 a close cover, which set in a large pail or tub containing 



