While the kettle is boiling or the cereal simmering she may have to set the table, or if this has been done the night before and a light cloth thrown over it to protect from the dust, the dust-pan and broom may be called into service or the carpet-sweeper run over the places which demand attention. The fortunate woman who has a vacuum-cleaner, either one of the hand variety or the larger style which connects with the electric current supplying the house, has work simplified and time saved, as well as strength conserved. In those homes where an early and rather hasty breakfast is obligatory for the sake of the commuter or the business man who must get to his office promptly, or the children who must be off to school, it is better to have done what superficial tidying was possible the night before and to let the sweeping and dusting go until after the morning meal is despatched and the workers on their way. If a system is followed which obliges the readers of books and newspapers to put them in their place before going to bed, which insists that toys, tools, and clothing shall not be left lying about for some one besides the scatterers to put away the next morning, there need be no confusion encompassing the breakfast-table. A few moments should have been snatched for dusting the more conspicuous portions of the dining-room furniture, and distress of digestion should never be induced by the presence of dirt or disorder in the surroundings. When the housekeeper has the home to herself, has disposed of the details of dish-washing, bed-making, etc., has planned for her meals and made out the list for her marketing, she should turn her attention to the removal of the “matter out of place,” as dirt has been gracefully termed. The living-room will probably require her first efforts after she has reduced the dining-room to the proper condition of shining tidiness. I have referred to the vacuum-cleaner. I wish I could put one into the hands of every housekeeper! Several kinds are on the market and I carry no brief for any special make, but I know there is more than one good variety. The woman of slender means can use one of the hand-machines, which, while perhaps more tiresome to work than the cleaner run by electricity, will yet make much less call upon the strength than the ordinary broom and do the work much more effectively. Not the least of the advantages of the vacuum-cleaner is a merit it possesses in common with the ordinary carpet-sweeper--that it does not scatter dust as well as gather it up.