In household linen, again, it is false economy to buy common or cheap materials. For sheets, linen, union, calico, and Swiss twilled calico are used; these substances are now woven wide enough to render a seam unnecessary, and all we have to do is to measure the width of the beds and allow an extra half yard; the ordinary length of a sheet is three yards and a half. The pillow-cases must be of the same material as the sheets. Marseilles quilts are too heavy to be beneficial to health; any industrious housewife may knit very serviceable and pretty counterpanes in squares or shell-shaped pieces, during those periods when she is chatting, or between the lights, or at hours when she would otherwise most probably be doing nothing. It is for such useful purposes as these we value knitting, crochet, &c., for they can be made the means of economy and usefulness, instead of being, as they too often are, employed on useless expensive trifles. Table-cloths, tray-cloths, and dinner napkins will of course come under the category of “linen,” and can be obtained at very reasonable prices compared with what they were twenty years since. Towels, too, are included in this list. In the case of chamber towels, again, comes diversity of opinion, some preferring a soft, some a hard, some a rough, and some a smooth towel; damask and diaper are not soft enough for some delicate skins. For our own part we like towels which administer a certain amount of friction to the skin, and all medical men agree that this is requisite to health. For the kitchen, round towels, tea-cloths, and glass-cloths, will be required, as well as dusters, pudding-cloths, knife-cloths, house-cloths, and flannels for cleaning. These, although they do not come precisely under the head of “linen,” will have, by young housekeepers newly furnishing, to be purchased at the same time, and therefore may as well be mentioned here. Old sheets make good glass-cloths; old table-cloths make nice soft towels; all dresses of cotton, or old dress-linings, will serve for dusters, and old blankets for house-flannels. Besides these, there are needed toilet-covers for chamber tables, chests of drawers, &c., carpet covers, muslin for chamber window-curtains, muslin for drapery for the toilet-table, coarse sheeting for dusting-sheets to cover the beds or drawing-room furniture when sweeping and cleaning; a yet coarser sheet to lay down in front of the stoves when they are being cleaned, chamois leathers for cleaning the plate, brass, steel, and windows; and bags for the best brooms.