The nineteenth century is nearing its close, and the house-fly is not a perfect insect; but, housekeeper, it lies with you to improve the breed. Exercise a little care in the choice of their food, and when the biting days of early fall come upon the land, make provision for warming your little guests of the summer days, and if the winds of winter whistle sharp they will be answered by the hot little buzz of myriads of flies. TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE Contractions such as “he ’s” and “she ’d” (with a space) have been changed to “he’s” and “she’d” (without a space). Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources. Except for those changes noted below, all misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained. Pg xii: ‘Harper’s Bazar’ replaced by ‘Harper’s Bazaar’. Pg 124: ‘what the concensus’ replaced by ‘what the consensus’. Pg 237: ‘dainty titbits’ replaced by ‘dainty tidbits’. End of Project Gutenberg's The Four-Masted Cat-Boat, by Charles Battell Loomis