feel much better than if you keep still and see your house burning up. A lady in Milton made up a fire in an open fire-place in an upper room, where children slept in the night. Returning soon after to the room she found it in flames. Carefully pouring upon it the water of the pitcher first, she found a pail of water and another pitcher full, and with them she succeeded in quelling the fire. The quilt, comforter, four blankets, flounce, feather bed, and mattress were well burned before she arrested it. The smoke from all this must have quite filled the room, and I fear most of you would have cried for help or given the alarm, when the house would have been destroyed. The lady put out the fire without giving an alarm to the inmates of the house. While I commend her for her selfpossession, I think it would have been more safe to have called them up. Mr. Braidwood never allows a man to enter a house alone which is on fire. I have no doubt, however, she measured the work to do, saw she could do it, and then went about it and finished it. All honor to her, and may her example be followed by all females (and males, if they dare to) who find such fires at work in their homes. A smoke arising from the cellar is much more dangerous than from a room upstairs. If it is dense you had better not risk your life without help, if it is at hand.

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Fires in the ceiling, partitions, in the stairway: first have your water and dipper ready, then break a hole with an axe, through to it, and throw the water with all your force, from the dipper, upon it. You may have to make several holes, but if you work with energy you will soon have it all out. It will be better to exert yourself very much indeed, saving your home, than to lose it. And here let me ask you to purchase for this purpose a Johnson pump. It is so light, so easy to handle, and a woman can work it so nicely, and it is so efficient that no family should be without one. The Milton lady could have put out ten times more fire with one of them than she could without it. Then the water can be thrown by women to the roofs of most houses.

But I wish to tell of a fire at Athol, Mass., and of an excellent rule of a family there. A fire was built in an air-tight stove, and a basket of chips, left too near, took fire. When discovered, the wooden mantel was on fire, and the carpet and floor; and the flames had risen to the ceiling. The lady who saw it went through two rooms, took a pail of water and a dipper, returned with them, and put out the fire. The rule was that there should always be a pail full of water ready in the house. It was ready, and the house was saved. I have given directions in another place for you if

your clothes take fire. Will you do me the favor to read them. If "fire is found on the roof, and you have a pump, you can easily put it out if your house is not too high. The pump is worth its cost

for cleaning windows. safety, which is of much more value than its expense; and the having it will call your attention to the subject, and you will think of what you should do if you were in danger from fire. The following anecdote of a great fire will, I think, be of use to persons living in villages:

But it gives a feeling of

A great manufactory, some distance from a village, was in flames; the wind was blowing the sparks and pieces of burning wood over the entire village, which consisted almost entirely of wooden buildings. The men were all off to the fire, and the fire was catching on every house. The women were equal to the occasion, and every fire was climbed to and dashed out before it could do any harm. No doubt they ran some risk; but what a pleasure it must have been, what a comfort, that their beautiful village, the home of a thousand people, was not in ruins, as was the great manufactory, the cause of the danger. In another place I have related how well a woman mopped out a fire, and do not forget that the best managed fire I ever saw was directed by one. It is much more pleasant to fight a fire with all your might, even

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if you lose your house, than to stand weeping while it is burning, while the chances are twenty to one that you will save it. It is not fair to have the stories all on one side, therefore here is one of caution. A woman, having a pot of grease, for some strange reason placed it in the stove. Soon it was time for tea, and the fire was started. A great puff of smoke, a flash of flame, and open burst the stove doors, to show the pot of grease about to make a monstrous grease-spot! Her son, however, a bright boy, caught it, and it was out of the window in a twinkling. The house was saved from almost certain destruction, but the hands of the boy were badly burned by his brilliant exploit, as it would be termed if telling a story of a battle.

I do not suppose any lady ever wears jute about her head; but will you be so good as to say to your servant that it is very dangerous. Too often do women lose their lives by this means. It is, however, so much more respectable to say that a person was burned to death by her clothes taking fire, than that her head was burnt off by the jute taking fire, that we seldom hear of such a "shocking catastrophe!"

Sometimes the clothes on a clothes-horse take fire. Throw it flat on the floor, if possible. In all such cases take care that your own clothes do

not take fire, as this is a greater danger than all others. When children are on fire, if they run at you, be careful, or you may also be enveloped in flames. If by running away from them a few steps you can grasp a rug, shawl, overcoat, or any other woolen cloth, you had better do so, as it will be more safe for you and the sufferer also. Of course, if the fire is not large, you can manage it; yet even then, if your hands are not covered with a woolen cloth, they may be burned so as to give you much pain. If in the night you find the house on fire and full of smoke, and cannot go down the stairs, tie the ends of two sheets together, and come down on the outside as fast as possible. I think that families in the country should as much as possible avoid sleeping above the second story. There is no great danger at that height, but one other adds greatly to it.

But there are other points than the safety of life and from fire in the house which ladies may understand and defend from the attack of fire. Seldom have I received such pleasure as one day the past winter at the mansion of one of the princely merchants of Boston. A daughter, who had looked into the subject since the great fire, described the dangerous places on the outside of the house where sparks could light, and light the house into a new fire. Then she described how she could reach and