When there is no room in the house specially set apart as a library, cabinets and book cases form an important part of the sitting room furniture. I would have book shelves of some sort in every room of a house; but in the room where the family gathers there should be a special shelf for books of reference. An encyclopædia is of as much value to the household as a wood lot is to the farm. Better wear your old silk gown or shabby overcoat another year, or two years even, and have your book of reference always at hand for the general good. The unabridged dictionary is a necessity, and should stand in its rack easy of access to school children and their elders as well. A household book of poetry, Dana’s or Bryant’s, or whatever may be better, and an equally comprehensive volume of religious verse like Gilman’s, or Palgrave’s choice “Golden Treasury,” should be well thumbed by the children, and should be placed temptingly at hand, not locked behind glass doors. Glazed doors are demanded by collectors who revel in vellum, uncut leaves, and rare editions, but cases that are well backed and that have leathern, or even moreen or flannel, valences tacked to the shelves, will serve well enough to protect books in a house where all the reading matter is for daily use or study. A low book case three or four feet high and broad enough to fill a generous wall space, running, if need be, across one side of the room, may be found ample enough for a family whose library is limited. Pictures and vases can be ranged upon its top. I know a room that holds three or four such book cases of ebonized pine, filled with books and made gay with valences of scarlet moreen, which yet scorns to be called “the library,” and is only known as the family “sitting room.” Valences of leather or wool are sufficient to protect the books from dust if the cases are well backed. In addition to the book case, hanging shelves for children’s books, or cabinets for collections of any sort, can be made of pine, and when absolutely plain, if neatly varnished, need not prove unsightly. They may even be made very ornamental by a bright curtain, plain or embroidered, with rings attached that run lightly over a brass rod or wire, and screen the contents of the shelves from the too inquisitive eye.