d. The best way to prepare them is to beat them
well with milk and sugar. When it will be appropriate to the case, add
some fine pale sherry wine.

MILK FOR INFANTS.

Fresh cow's milk, one part; water, two parts; sweeten with a very
little loaf sugar. When children are raised by hand it is always
necessary to dilute the milk. As the child advances in age the
proportion of water stated above may be gradually lessened.

WATER GRUEL.

Corn or oat meal, two tablespoonfuls; water, one quart. Boil ten or
fifteen minutes, and strain. Add salt and sugar to suit the taste of
the patient. This should be used freely during and after the operation
of cathartic medicines.

CHAPTER XII.

THINGS CURIOUS AND USEFUL.

TO GET CLEAR OF MOSQUITOES.

Take of gum camphor a piece about one-third the size of an egg and
evaporate it over a lamp or candle, taking care that it does not
ignite. The smoke will soon fill the room and expel the mosquitoes.

HOW TO GET RID OF BEDBUGS.

Bedbugs cannot stand hot alum water; indeed, alum seems to be death to
them in any form. Take two pounds of alum, reduce it to a powder--the
finer the better--and dissolve it in about four quarts of boiling
water. Keep the water hot till the alum is all dissolved; then apply
it hot to every joint, crevice and place about the bedstead, floor,
skirting or washboard around the room, and every place where the bugs
are likely to congregate, by means of a brush. A common syringe is an
excellent thing to use in applying it to the bedstead. Apply the water
as hot as you can. Apply it freely, and you will hardly be troubled
any more that season with bugs. Whitewash the ceiling with plenty of
dissolved alum in the wash, and there will be an end to their dropping
down from thence on to your bed.

TO OBTAIN FRESH-BLOWN FLOWERS IN WINTER.

Choose some of the most perfect buds of the flowers you would
preserve, such as are latest in blowing and ready to open. Cut them
off with a pair off scissors, leaving to each, if possible, apiece of
stem about three inches long. Cover the end of the stem immediately
with sealing wax, and when the buds are a little shrunk and wrinkled
wrap up each of them separately in a piece of paper perfectly clean
and dry and lock them up in a dry box or drawer, and t