the most
satisfactory restored houses we have seen has very few fixtures and
many portable lamps chiefly made from old jugs and converted astral
oil lamps. In bathrooms, kitchen, cellar and garage, no attempt was
made to affect the antique. Being strictly utilitarian rooms, simple
fixtures that would provide the maximum of light were employed.

So "if only" has become an actuality. The old house is now comfortably
settled on its new site and like most transplanted things will thrive
better if some faint flavor of its old surroundings is present, such
as an apple orchard or one or two fine old trees that look as if they
and the house had grown old together.

THE SMOKE GOES UP THE CHIMNEY

[Illustration]

_CHAPTER VIII_

THE SMOKE GOES UP THE CHIMNEY

"Remember that the new chimneys are not to smoke," wrote General
Washington from New York in 1776 to his kinsman and overseer, Lund
Washington, regarding the remodeling of Mount Vernon. That admonition
is just as necessary today as then. A chimney is still an essential
part of a house. Also, despite the newest and most effective heating
systems, family life, in the country at least, still centers around
the hearth. Old, new, or merely middle-aged, no country home is
considered properly equipped without at least one fireplace.

There is no use in pretending that they are needed for heat, but the
leaping flames and brisk crackling of burning twigs are a cheery sight
and sound. "Harriet _will_ have her fireplace fire even though she
has to open all the doors and windows," chuckled one householder. This
ceases to be a pleasantry if doors and windows have to be thrown wide
to let out smoke instead of excess heat. Then this center of family
cheer becomes as exasperating as any other inanimate thing that
doesn't work.

If, by purchase of an existing structure, a householder has become
heir to such a problem, simple things, like fireplace hoods, capping
the chimney, or increasing its height, can be tried. If these fail,
architectural counsel is the next step. Such trouble is more frequent
in houses dating after the stove era than before. The old masons built
fireplaces for practical use rather than for occasional indulgence.
They had never heard of aerodynamics but they knew how to construct
fireplaces that would give out real heat as well as chimneys that
carried the smoke where it belonged, up and out.

Of course some unwise features are to be found in th