Linoleum or oilcloth may be used to cover an old floor. If the floor is rough it should be made even by planing before the linoleum is put down, and the cracks should be filled. If you can't get linoleum you can paint your floor with a hard floor paint. Be sure to get a paint that dries hard. The linoleum should be frequently washed with warm water and soap and then rinsed carefully before it is dried. _The Kitchen Stove._ The chief business of the kitchen stove is to provide heat for cooking. It must hold a fire, and so must be made of something which will not burn. Stoves are usually made of iron. Fire will not burn without air, so a place must be arranged to let air into the stove, and just enough to make the fire burn clearly and furnish the right amount of heat. That is what the front dampers or slides are for. The fuel, wood or coal, is held in the fire-box. The heated air makes the top of the stove hot for frying, broiling or boiling, and the oven hot for baking. The smoke and gases from the fire must not come out into the room to blind our eyes or suffocate us; the chimney is built to take care of the smoke and gases, and there must be a way for them to get into the chimney; the stove pipe is for this. But the game you have to play with your stove is to let the smoke and gases run up chimney, but to save all the heat you can for the work to be done. So your stove is supplied with dampers. When the fire is new, and there is much smoke or gas, you open the damper into the stovepipe, and in the stovepipe. Try to get a picture of the way the heated air goes from the fire-box up into the chimney. We call this direct draft. Of course a great deal of heat runs away through the chimney, and so your fuel is wasted. Now if you want to save heat, and particularly if you want to bake, and must have a hot oven, you will close the oven damper that has made the short easy way into the stovepipe. Then the heated air must find another way to get to the chimney, and it has to go around the oven to do this. While the hot air is finding its way around the oven, it heats it, ready for your baking. We call this the "indirect draft." Look over your kitchen stove and see how this happens. Take off the covers, open every door, and examine every part. Stoves must be carefully managed. The fires must burn readily and the cooking must be done with the least possible amount of wood or coal. This means a clean stove, free from ashes and with a clear draft. Wood or coal will burn freely in the air. They will stop burning if there is no draft. Learn to manage your draft. Remember that stoves are made with a damper, in order to control the current of hot air. If the oven damper is closed this heated air _must_ pass over and around the oven before it gets to the chimney and so heat the oven. If it is open the hot air can immediately escape up the chimney.