=To get rid of Rats and Mice.=—A cat is the best remedy. Another is to half fill a tub with water, and sprinkle oats and meal on the top. For a while they will be deceived, jump in, and be drowned or caught. ODDS AND ENDS. There are certain _odds and ends_ where every housekeeper will gain much by having a _regular time_ to attend them. Let this time be the last Saturday forenoon in every month, or any other time more agreeable; but let there be a _regular fixed time_ once a month in which the housekeeper will attend to the following things: First. Go around to every room, drawer, and closet in the house, and see what is out of order, and what needs to be done, and make arrangements as to time and manner of doing it. Second. Examine the store-closet, and see if there is a proper supply of all articles needed there. Third. Go to the cellar, and see if the salted provision, vegetables, pickles, vinegar, and all other articles stored in the cellar are in proper order, and examine all the preserves and jellies. Fourth. Examine the trunk or closet of family linen, and see what needs to be repaired and renewed. Fifth. See if there is a supply of dish-towels, dish-cloths, bags, holders, floor-cloths, dust-cloths, wrapping-paper, twine, lamp-wicks, and all other articles needed in kitchen work. Sixth. Count over the spoons, knives, and forks, and examine all the various household utensils, to see what need replacing, and what should be repaired. Seventh. Have in a box a hammer, tacks, pincers, gimlets, nails, screws, screw-driver, small saw, and two sizes of chisels for emergencies when no regular workman is at hand. Also be prepared to set glass. Every lady should be able in emergency to do such jobs herself. A housekeeper who will have _a regular time_ for attending to these particulars will find her whole family machinery moving easily and well; but one who does not will constantly be finding something out of joint, and an unquiet, secret apprehension of duties left undone or forgotten, which no other method will so effectually remove. A housekeeper will often be much annoyed by the accumulation of articles not immediately needed, that must be saved for future use. The following method, adopted by a thrifty housekeeper, may be imitated with advantage. She bought some cheap calico, and made bags of various sizes, and wrote the following labels with indelible ink on a bit of broad tape, and sewed them on one side of the bags: _Old Linens, Old Cottons, Old black Silks, Old colored Silks, Old Stockings, Old colored Woolens, Old Flannels, New Linen, New Cotton, New Woolens, New Silks, Pieces of Dresses, Pieces of Boys' Clothes_, etc. These bags were hung around a closet, and filled with the above articles, and then it was known where to look for each, and where to put each when not in use.