_Musquitoes._ Close nets around a bed, are the only sure protection at night, against these insects. Spirit of hartshorn is the best antidote for their bite. Salt and water is good. _Red_ or _Black Ants_ may be driven away, by scalding their haunts, and putting Scotch snuff wherever they go for food. Set the legs of closets and safes in pans of water, and they cannot get at them. _Moths._ Airing clothes does not destroy moths, but laying them in a hot sun does. If articles be tightly sewed up in linen, and fine tobacco be put about them, it is a sure protection. This should be done in April. _Rats and Mice._ A good cat is the best remedy for these annoyances. Equal quantities of hemlock, (or _cicuta_,) and old cheese, will poison them, but this renders the house liable to the inconvenience of a bad smell. This evil, however, may be lessened, by placing a dish, containing oil of vitriol poured on saltpetre, where the smell is most annoying. Chloride of lime and water is also good. CHAPTER XXXIII. ON SEWING, CUTTING, AND MENDING. Every young girl should be taught to do the following kinds of stitch, with propriety. Over-stitch, hemming, running, felling, stitching, back-stitch and run, buttonhole-stitch, chain-stitch, whipping, darning, gathering, and cross-stitch. In doing over-stitch, the edges should always be first fitted, either with pins or basting, to prevent puckering. In turning wide hems, a paper measure should be used, to make them even. Tucks, also, should be regulated by a paper measure. A fell should be turned, before the edges are put together, and the seam should be over-sewed, before felling. All biased or goring seams should be felled. For stitching, draw a thread, and take up two or three threads at a stitch. In making buttonholes, it is best to have a pair of scissors, made for the purpose, which cut very neatly. For broadcloth, a chisel and board are better. The best stitch is made by putting in the needle, and then turning the thread around it, near the eye. This is better than to draw the needle through, and then take up a loop. A thread should first be put across each side of the buttonhole, and also a stay-thread, or bar, at each end, before working it. In working the buttonhole, keep the stay-thread as far from the edge as possible. A small bar should be worked at each end. Whipping is done better by sewing _over_, and not under. The roll should be as fine as possible, the stitches short, the thread strong, and in sewing, every gather should be taken up. The rule for _gathering_, in shirts, is, to draw a thread, and then take up two threads and skip four. In _darning_, after the perpendicular threads are run, the crossing threads should interlace, exactly, taking one thread and leaving one, like woven threads. The neatest sewers always fit and baste their work, before sewing; and they say they always save time in the end, by so doing, as they never have to pick out work, on account of mistakes.