248 



HOME AND FLOWERS 



HOME SAlSriTATIO S UBJECTS FOE DSCUSSIOlN" 



1. What can a woman do for improved sani- 

 tation ? 



2. Discuss the water supply of the neigh- 

 borhood, 



3. JDiscuss impurities of the soil about a 

 dwelling and danger therefrom, 



4. Consider the best location for sleeping 

 rooms. 



5. Is there any public or neighborhood 

 nuisance which threatens the health of the 

 neighborhood ? Is there any preventive to 

 be had ? 



6. Discuss the best means of ventilating 

 the rooms in a home. 



7. Are the children exposed to any danger 

 from disease in the surroundings at school ? 



THE HOUSE OF HAPPY HOURS 



(Concluded from page 225.) 

 eluded to the fair satisfaction of all, and that 

 evening Mr. Tucker sat talking over with 

 the Warings the events of the day and the 

 changes of the year just past. All at once he 

 broke into a laugh, and turned to survey him- 

 self critically in a mirror near him. 



"What do you think?" he said; "what do you 

 think Mrs. Millirons said to me today?" 



"I'd not presume to guess/' replied Mrs. 

 Waring. 



"Why, I was congratulating her on the im- 

 provement in the neighborhood, and delicately 

 ackaowledging her own part in it, and she said, 

 ^Faith, an' it's yersilf that nades congratulatin', 

 for sez I to Mike this blissed mornin', sez I, 

 "I niver has seen such a comeout as there's bin 

 in iMisther Tucker! Why-ee," sez I, "it's rale 

 pritty he do be a-gettin' in his ould age!" An' 

 me man Mike he up and sez, sez he, "I dunno 

 so much about his lookin' pritty, Nora, me dar- 

 lint, but thin, ye know, pritty is as pritty 

 does." ' 



"Do you think the League can trot along by 

 itself another year?" he asked, after the laugh 

 had subsided, "Mr. Waring tells me that you 

 see your way clear now to having an ideal home 

 of your own very soon." 



"Why, yes, I think so," said Mrs. Waring, 

 and a sweet flush rose into her face at the 

 thought of that home, of which little had been 

 said, but which was already almost in sight. 

 "Wiih the help and encouragement they are sure 

 to have from you, I am sure they will keep up 

 what they have begun. They are convinced now 

 that their own lives are made pleasanter by 

 their being banded together in the work, and 

 that will help to hold the league together. 

 Many things which would help them to finer 

 lives they can never have, because, as children, 

 they were not taught to see and hear, and not 

 given ideals to dwell within them, and their, 

 minds, dwarfed in the very act of unfolding, 

 cannot expand readily now, but— their chil- 



Appoint,, if necessary, a committee to investi- 

 gate this. Can individual drinking cups be 

 supplied in the school ? Are the floors of the 

 schoolroom kept free from dust ? Do the chil- 

 dren sit in draughts ? Are the outbuildings in 

 a sanitary condition ? 



8. Is the care necessary for exquisite clean- 

 liness conducive to the happiest homest 



Eeferences—Rome Sanitation, Mrs. E, H. 

 Eichards, Estes & Lauriat, Boston. $0.25. 



Cost of Living— Mrs. Eichards. John Wiley 

 & Co., New York, $1,00, 



The Story of Bacteria, Dust and Its Dan- 

 gers, Drinking Water and in Supplies— T. M. 

 Pruden, Putnam & Co. $0,75, 



dren!" She paused, as though for an answer. 



"Yes, those children!" echoed Mr. Tucker. 

 "I never saw their like for numbers. Do you 

 know, I am hatching up a plan for those 

 youngsters?" 



"Eeally?" And Mrs. Waring laughed softly. 



"Yes, and if you are very good, you, Alice, 

 and Carl and Anita, yes, and you, too, Ned— 

 though you are rather old— you shall help me 

 to think up the finest playground that these 

 Wimbledon people ever dreamed of! I doubt 

 if you will be willing to move away after you 

 hear all about it." 



"What are you going to do with our house 

 after we are gone?" asked Anita, innocently. 



"Your house, my dear?" The old man looked 

 all about him, with a tender, half -sad expres- 

 sion on his wrinkled face. "If thoughts were 

 things, and if feelings were infectious," he said, 

 gently, to Mr. and Mrs. Waring, "I'd keep it 

 as it is, and come to it myself very often, or 

 maybe send discontented people to it for a 

 while. But no, Anita, your little house is 

 neither fish, flesh, fowl, nor good red herring — 

 it isn't a Tucker cottage, and it isn't a Waring 

 model, so as it lies midway between the two, I 

 shall have it torn to the ground, when you 

 leave it, and some day when you come back, 

 my dear, you will see a beautiful house in its 

 place, and a broad and lovely garden. The 

 house will be of heavy stone and brick, for it is 

 to be an old man's monument, my little girl, 

 and there will be large, sunshiny rooms, and 

 lots of books and pictures. There will be piay- 

 rooms for little children, and pretty ladies to 

 teach them to think, to play, and to sing." 



Mr. Tucker's hand was straying softly back 

 and forth among the pale golden curls of the 

 child looking up at him so steadfastly, but 

 the old' man's eyes were looking far into the 

 future, at the beauty of a dream come true. 



"I think," he concluded, in a voice that was 

 sweet and tender, "that over the dooj", in letters 

 of stone, shall be carved, 'The House of Happy 

 Hours.'" (the end.) 



