If the room is sunless: well, I should like to say that this is impossible: but, alas! I know that it is not: the room should be done in yellows and browns, and have blue curtains and carpet. But a sunless room is a crime, and should never be allowed. Neither should a tree-shaded house be chosen. Trees mean damp and flies and all sorts of misery; and if the trees which luxuriate in some suburbs cannot be cut down these suburbs must be avoided, for trees are all very well in their way, and lovely and pleasant enough in a big park, but they always come much too close to a small house, and I personally have been almost crippled with rheumatism and obliged to make two or three expensive moves, because I did not understand how very much the nearness of trees to a house had to do with the damp which caused me so much unnecessary suffering. Besides they keep out sunshine and light, and moreover harbour insects and dirt; and I think flies are among those miseries of suburban or country life which are never properly taken into account when folks think and speak of the delights of either existence. By the way talking of flies let me give one or two simple ways of dealing with these torments and with their friends, the wasps, which however should never be destroyed heedlessly, because they in their turn prey on the flies and reduce their numbers pretty considerably. For flies the eucalyptus spray is a capital treatment, the only drawback being the extreme stickiness of the eucalyptus water which falls about, and often marks our cherished possessions. Then, Sanitas is very valuable, and if people are not sensitive to smells, no flies have ever been found which would face carbolic acid, a fact that I proved during one damp summer, when we were almost eaten alive by the little wretches. For one of my children caught scarlet fever, and the moment the orthodox sheets were erected, and the mop used freely on the floors to spread about the same disgusting stuff, with one accord the flies departed, and as far as I can make out have not yet returned at anyrate in any great numbers. I discovered, too, that wasps dislike eucalyptus, but not as much as flies do (these by the way retreat also before paraffin), while they vanished absolutely before Liberty’s ‘joss sticks.’ These when burned liberally, kept them entirely at bay, and that in a year when the newspapers were filled with complaints as to their numbers and ferocity. Gnats are sometimes circumvented by hanging ‘southernwood’ on the bed, or about the windows, while, if the house be old or much covered with creepers--I advise nothing but tiny virginian creepers and clematis, roses bring blight and increase one’s insect troubles at once--it is absolutely necessary to stretch very fine black gauze or net on a frame to cover entirely the window outside. This keeps out every insect, does not show, and does not keep out the very smallest amount of air or light. Only are earwigs circumvented by these means, or by a