water? Does this help explain why soap and lots of it must be used to get greasy things really clean?

Perhaps your teacher can get for you from your State or City Board of Health some little round glass dishes filled with a certain kind of food material on which germs like to live. If so, try this experiment. While some one is sweeping at home or in school open the little dish for a few moments. Then close it and put in a warm dark place. Now get a dry cloth and dust the room. While you are doing so open another little dish for five minutes near where the dusting is going on. Then close dish. Now get a damp cloth and dust another part of the room. Open a third dish near-by. Label all the dishes, and in a couple of days look at them.

What does the experiment tell you about good ways to clean? What proof does it give that germs may be in air?

Try the experiment Father Weston showed Paul. You can use a lemonade straw very well. Explain the result to some one so that he will understand what a vacuum is.

THINGS TO REMEMBER

The problem in cleaning wood is to take away the dirt without spoiling the paint. Read these wise rules: To clean painted wood get ready warm water, white soap and a soft cloth. Wipe the wood gently with plenty of the warm soapy water. Rinse off the soap and dry the wood. Too much rubbing or too strong soap or washing powders will take off the paint.

Painted walls can be wiped down the same way. They are cleaner than paper for this reason.

Hardwood floors can be kept pretty by wiping them with a soft cloth that has a little kerosene in it. There are many other expensive floor oils, but this is as good as any if you are careful with it.

Rugs should be taken outside to be beaten and shaken because of the dust which we do not want in the house.

When you sweep remember to have windows open. When you dust remember to use a damp or slightly oiled cloth. Dust may contain germs brought in from the street with dirt on our shoes. The dust does not usually carry dangerous germs; it does irritate our throats if we inhale it. For this reason bare wood floors, painted or polished, are more sanitary than carpets. Little or no dust is stirred up if we clean them correctly.

We wash windows with Bon Ami or some other cleaning powder in water. We let the windows dry and when the glass looks white we polish it with paper till it shines.

Sinks, wash-basins and toilet-bowls or bathtubs will get greasy. Soap and warm water and some ammonia put on with a brush are needed to remove the grease. We use its own long handled brush for the toilet. We always rinse out the basins we have used with hot water after cleaning them.

Faucets and metal trimmings need to be polished with silver or nickel polish and a chamois to get them bright.

Mops and brushes and cloths used in cleaning should always be washed out in soapy water and aired before we put them away.

TO THINK ABOUT

Make a trip through your kitchen and cleaning closet. Write a list of all the articles you find there used to keep the house clean. What would you choose to cleanse the woodwork of your room? The windows?

How would you sweep and dust? What do you think would be a good costume to wear?

How would you clean up the bathroom? Can you give any reasons for what you do?

Find out how railroads clean the coaches at the end of a trip and tell about it. Notice how your school is cleaned at the end of a day. Do you or do you not think these are good ways?

CHAPTER XVII

THE MARKET BASKET

THE washing and wiping of the dishes was made more interesting because it was accompanied by a discussion as to what should be ordered for the housewarming dinner. Mother washed, Ruth wiped and Paul put away the dishes, while Father sat with pencil and paper, ready to write down the list of groceries that must be bought.

"Let's begin with the meat. What kind of meat shall we have?" said Father.

"I'd like to have Irish stew," said Ruth. "Stew isn't so stylish as chops, but I know how to make it. We learned how at the farm last summer, and it was fine, and I know Uncle George likes it."

"Very well," agreed Mother. "I think it would be nice to have a dinner that you could cook yourselves, since this is really your own housewarming. Now what vegetables shall we have?"

"There will be vegetables enough in the stew," said Father, "but let's have a salad. Something fresh and green always looks and tastes nice and is good for us, besides."

So it was decided to have stew and a tomato and lettuce salad, with home-made ice-cream and crushed peaches for dessert. Mother was to make the icecream and Father agreed to help Paul freeze it. Ruth

proudly copied out the bill of fare for the dinner on a special writing tablet that she had fixed herself. It hung with a pencil attached, beside the kitchen table in the play-house. It was ruled with red ink

MENU SUPPLIES

into two lists, one showing what was planned for the day's meals and one what must be bought. Ruth had spent all one afternoon designing a fancy border for it and with its red-ink ruling and pencil tied on with red ribbon, it was really an ornament to the kitchen.

As Mrs. Weston went down the street with a child hanging on each arm, they were hailed by Dorothy Frost. "Come along, Dot," called Ruth, "Aunt Louise is coming home and we are inviting her to dinner in our new play-house, so we've got to go marketing for the things. Want to come?"

"Oh," exclaimed Dorothy, raising her eyebrows, "do you go to the store and buy your groceries? Mother always telephones. It's ever so much quicker and easier. No, I don't believe I care to go along—I don't feel very well to-day; I've got a headache."

"Isn't that just like Dorothy!" cried Ruth, in rather a vexed tone. "Why is she always so snippy? I suppose it is easier, though, to telephone, especially on rainy days."

"Of course, it's easier, if you are willing to take whatever the butcher and grocer choose to send and

pay whatever they ask. Mrs. Frost met me on the street the other day on her way to the grocer's. She said she had never been so angry in her life, that Chase and Smith had been sending her stale vege

tables and charging her twice what they were worth. I told her that I always went to the store or market and picked out what I wanted, and paid for it, so I always knew what I was getting and what it cost, but she said that was too much trouble."

As Mother ended, they turned into the meat market. It was a little farther away than some other stores, but it was always neat and clean, with spotless counters and meat blocks and Mr. Sullivan, who kept it, always wore a snowy apron and a broad smile. As Mrs. Weston explained that she wanted two pounds of beef from the top of the round, cut up for a stew, he scoured off the top of the meat block with a wire brush, leaving it smooth and clean. Ruth and Paul watched him as he quickly and deftly cut the meat and laid it on the automatic scale. It marked just exactly two pounds. "I want you to notice the scale carefully, Ruth and Paul," said