There is no one convenience on which so large a part of house comfort depends as on a good cooking-apparatus, whether in the form of stove or range; and however perfect the patent, nothing can so easily be put out of working order by careless management. Before starting a new fire, examine if the stove has been thoroughly cleaned from the last one; then open the dampers; roll up and put into the grate a few pieces of paper,--or some shavings, if you can have them, are still better; lay lightly on this some splinters or small bits of kindling wood. Do not throw them on in a heavy mass, but so arrange them as to give free breathing-holes; on this foundation put a few larger pieces of pine kindling, and if you are hurried, and need a quick, bright fire, sprinkle over a small shovelful of _coke_, if you have it. Nothing kindles quicker than coke. Now replace all the covers, and set fire to the paper with a match, held underneath the grate. If lighted from above, it must be, of course, before the covers are put on, and that fills the kitchen with smoke. When the wood is well blazing, before at all wasted, take off the covers and cross-piece (the paper will have burned out by that time, and little smoke will trouble you), and pour on the hard coal, scattering it evenly at the sides, but a little heaped or rounded in the center. Be careful that the grate is not _filled_ ABOVE _the fire-brick_. This is a very important consideration, for if heaped above, it injures the stove, burning out the iron-work, and obstructing the draught, so that the coal cannot kindle readily, but wastes and smolders without doing much good. As soon as the coal is well kindled, close the draughts, or dampers, and you will have a clear, serviceable fire. It is a great mistake to use a large amount of paper or kindling. The paper, when burnt out, makes a smothering, black kind of ashes, that deadens the fire, and the pine kindling, if used too profusely, fills the stove with so much bituminous smoke as to clog the pipes needlessly.