Should the housemaid be called away, even for a moment, while she is using this mixture, let her not leave the room till she has put this phial out of the reach of every one. If the beds are kept free from dust, and every spring anointed with this mixture, there will be no risk of their becoming infested by those creatures which it is impossible to name, but which are very dreadful. Clothes-baskets from the laundress for this reason should never be brought into the bed-rooms. The clean linen should be carefully looked over below, and hung upon a screen before the fire, to be made thoroughly dry before it is put into the drawers or wardrobes. The dusting and anointing of the bed-frames being completed, proceed next to switch and brush the bedding—an old riding whip is an excellent thing for switching bedding or the cushions of chairs, as anything heavy and unyielding is apt to cut them; as soon as you have made the bedding free from dust, replace it on the bed, and cover all up with a sheet, well tucked in, leaving the bed-curtains to be put up, and the bed-linen put on after the cleaning of the room has been completed. We come next to sweeping the floor previous to having it scoured. There are various modes of sweeping, and of non-sweeping; the non-sweepers follow the principle of letting _the wee pickle stour lie_ (as they say in Scotland)—they wash on the top of the dust, and the inky appearance of the boards brings no feeling of shame to their darkened minds; other young housemaids, again, sweep with an air, giving a slight toss up with the broom, at every motion of the hand, so as to make the dust mount up and settle on all that has been previously cleaned; a tidy young woman, on the contrary, sprinkles the floor first with tea-leaves, she then lays the broom close to the boards as she moves along, sweeping gently, but thoroughly, and leaving no spot unswept. If there are closets in the room, let them be first swept, and the doors shut, then sweep under the beds and chests of drawers, &c., before sweeping the other parts of the room. The scouring should then commence: the first thing to be washed is the paint of the window shutters, doors, chimney-piece, and wainscots all round, and this should be done with the following mixture. To every quart of soft boiling water, add half an ounce of soft soap, and half an ounce of pearlash. Soda is too strong, and injures the paint. Let this mixture dissolve before using it. If the room is to be in immediate use, boiled yellow soap may be used with the pearlash, as the smell of the soft soap is disagreeable at first. Scour the paint (a small portion at a time) with a coarse flannel and this mixture; rub straight up and down, then wash with a clean flannel and plenty of water a little warm (cold water makes paint look clouded), and dry with a linen cloth, rubbing briskly: where there is carving above doors or mouldings, use a painter’s brush,