Dear Fred: Of course Miss Jane's ideas are good. When a woman honestly
tries to understand her work and do it well, she is sure to succeed,
especially in this matter of the equipments of home.

The basement arrangement depends mainly on the location. When this is
favorable it is undoubtedly economical, nor is it necessarily
inconvenient or unpleasant in any way, but quite the reverse. You are
fortunate if your site will allow it, for it adds enormously to the
capacity of the establishment. At least two sides of this lower
story, "basement" you call it, should be above ground to insure
dryness and plenty of light. Then all the heavier work of the house,
including the eating and drinking, can be done on this floor, leaving
the upper stories intact for loftier purposes. The old-fashioned
cellar as a storehouse for a half-year's stock of provisions--bins,
and barrels by the dozen, of potatoes, apples and cider, corned beef,
pork, vegetables, vinegar, and apple-sauce--is extinct. Hence the
space once thus occupied is almost a clear gain if made into finished
apartments,--an economy that will commonly allow a family room on the
next floor, whereby the going up and down stairs is no more serious
than if both are one story higher. The sketch is an illustration of
what the basement adds. The capacity of the little house is more than
doubled by it, while in point of style the augmentation is even
greater than in room.

[Illustration: WHAT THE BASEMENT ADDS.]

As to height of stories, you are quite as liable to make them too
high as too low. For rooms within the common limits of size, ten to
eleven feet in the clear is enough. Even nine is by no means