tradesmen and other business callers. It is also more suited than the
parlor for use as a family reading-room and working library. Disorder
that betokens use, such as magazines on the center-table, or of papers
on the desk, is here not inappropriate. Indeed, it gives a homelike
appearance even to the social guest.

China and glassware and silver arranged in proper array in wall closets,
cabinets, and sideboards are the most appropriate decorations of the
dining-room. It is not at all necessary that there should be pictures
on the wall of game, fruit and flowers, or "still life" studies of
vegetables and kitchen utensils. Indeed, these have become so expected
that a change is quite a relief to a guest, who would welcome even the
death's head that was the invariable ornament of the Egyptian feasts.
Any pictures which are lively and cheerful in suggestion are suitable.
Those that have a story to tell or a lesson to point are never out of
place in a room frequented by children.

For convenience the table-linen should be kept in drawers or lockers
built beneath the shelves containing the china. A butler's pantry is
not an essential when such arrangements as these are made.

The kitchen, pantry, storeroom, and laundry form, as it were, the
"factory" of the house, with the range as the central "engine."
Accordingly they should be planned with respect to each other to save
steps. Fortunately this means also saving expense in construction.
Architects have been most ingenious as well as practical in perfecting
these arrangements, and the housebuilder, therefore, needs no advice
from us.

It cannot be too much emphasized, however, that the cellar is, from the