Every year, as the prosperity of this Nation increases, good domestics will decrease, and young mothers are hereafter to be called to superintend and perform all branches of domestic business, to nurse children, direct ignorant domestics, attend the sick, entertain company, and fulfil all other family duties; and this, too, in a majority of cases, with delicate constitutions, or impaired health. Every man, therefore, in forming plans for a future residence, and every woman who has any influence in deciding such matters, ought to make these probabilities the chief basis of their calculations.[S] [Illustration: Fig. 17.] [Illustration: Fig. 18. Ground-plan. _a_, Porch. _b_, Parlor, 15 by 16 feet. _c_, Dining-room, 15 by 16 feet. _d, d_, Small Bedrooms. _e_, Stairs. _f, f, f_, Closets. _g_, Pantry. _h_, Store-closet. _i, i, i_, Fireplaces. _j_, Kitchen. _k_, Bedpress. _z_, Cellar door. Scale of Feet.] The plan, exhibited in Figures 17, and 18, is that of a cottage, whose chief exterior beauty is its fine proportions. It should be painted white. Fig. 17, is the _elevation_, or the front view of the exterior. Fig. 18, is the ground-plan, in which, an entire break in the wall, represents a door, and a break with a line across it, a window. When a cross x is put by a door, it indicates into which room the door swings, and where the hinges should be put, as the comfort of a fireside very much depends on the way in which the doors are hung. A scale of measurement is given at the bottom of the drawings, by which, the size of all parts can be measured. The ten small divisions, are each one foot. The longest divisions are ten feet each. In the ground-plan, (Fig. 18,) _a_, is the porch, which projects enough to afford an entrance to the two adjacent rooms, and thus avoids the evil of an outside door to a sitting-room. If a door be wanted in these rooms, the front windows can be made to extend down to the floor, so as to serve as doors in Summer, and be tightly closed in Winter. The parlor, _b_, has the bedpress, _k_, and the closet, _f_, adjoining it. Figure 19 is intended to represent this side of the room. [Illustration: Fig. 19. Scale of Feet for the Doors.] The two large doors, in the centre, open into the bedpress, and one of the smaller ones into the closet, _f_. The other, can either be a false door, in order to secure symmetry, or else a real one, opening into the kitchen, _j_.