NOTHING makes a room look more untidy than blinds drawn up crooked, and faded flowers on the table. Cultivate a spirit of neatness in all the rooms, but especially those in which you receive your friends. LOOSE sofa covers and spare blankets should be constantly inspected in summer, and periodically shaken, to prevent moths fastening on them. BEDS should never be placed against a wall except just at the top. If the side of a bed is against a wall, it cannot be properly made, nor can there be sufficient air moving around it for health. IT is well that one member of a family should keep a diary to record family and other events. These diaries prove valuable for reference in after years. [Illustration: “THE HEARTS OF THESE OLD MOUNTAINS.”] MAN AND THE MOUNTAIN. BY WILLIAM T. SAWARD. Men who dwell beside the rivers! Ye who build eternal towers— Empire-makers, poets, heroes— Ye who chain the vivid lightning, Till the rocks, and span the ocean, Make th’ unfriendly desert smile! See, afar, the peaks of ages, Lifting tempting hands to heaven! Beckoning to the lowly-dwellers, “You have conquered all the ages With your wondrous kingly minds!” Here, your broadly flowing rivers, In the hearts of these old mountains, Leap to birth, and give you life! Here the winds take sudden refuge, Here the stars spell out their secrets, And the heavens speak to us! Here is solemn meditation, Dignity and peace majestic; Time unmoves us, and the currents Of the spheres that roll above us, Beat eternal harmonies! Ask the eagle of its freedom, Ask the gentian of its blueness, Ask the torrent of its swiftness, Ask the lovers’ edelweiss! They will answer, “River-dwellers, While you toil among the vineyards, Fret and toil, and age with fretting, There’s a music in these mountains Ye have never, never heard!” Winds that beat across the ocean, Wand’ring stars and clouds that kiss us, Bring your broken, sobbing music To our feet, and die, confessing— “This is greatness, this is rest!” [Illustration] LETTERS FROM A LAWYER. PART IX. The Temple. MY DEAR DOROTHY,—I was very sorry to hear that your holiday had commenced in such a disastrous manner; but you were quite justified in leaving the furnished house which you had taken for a month at the end of the first week, when you found that the drainage was in a defective condition. It is all very well for the landlord to threaten Gerald with proceedings to recover his rent for the three weeks which you did _not_ stay at his house. There is an implied condition in the letting of a furnished house that it shall be reasonably fit for habitation; if it is not fit, the tenant may leave without notice.