e operation. Except for a solid brick or stone
house, inspect the point at which the sills rest on the foundation
walls. The fillet of mortar may have come loose or cracked in places.
Any such breaks should be repaired.

Before leaving the cellar notice the windows. Does cold air leak
through joints of sash and frame? If so, make them tight with batten
strips or, if very loose, calk them with oakum. The window through
which coal is delivered, of course, cannot be sealed so thoroughly as
it may have to be opened now and then for additional fuel.
Weatherstripping it as well as the hatchway door is advisable.

Some houses built on side-hill sites have at least one cellar wall
more exposed than the rest. Where this condition exists, it is a real
economy to cover the inside of it with insulating material. Either
special plastering or fiber-insulating board can be used, as
individual conditions warrant. At the same time any water pipe that is
close to an outside wall should either be re-located or insulated,
lest it freeze some day when it is abnormally cold or a high wind is
blowing. Freezing cold air blowing through a fine crack in an
exterior wall acts about as does the flame of a welder's torch, only
in the reverse. The flame cuts by melting; the cold air solidifies the
water in a pipe and sometimes does it so thoroughly that a cracked
pipe is the result.

From the cellar one now goes to the attic. Are windows in place here
and weather tight? How about end walls and the under sides of roof? If
not insulated, your house can lose a quantity of heat at these points.
Remember, heat rises and, after a storm, if the snow on the roof of
your house melts quicker than on those of your neighbors, it is a
clear demonstration that you are wasting heat by letting it ooze
through certain minute apertures. Another way to combat this upward
radiation is to pour a loose, featherlike insulating material into the
space between the attic flooring and the plaster of the bedroom
ceilings. As it comes in bags prepared especially for this purpose and
is very light, sometimes it is only necessary to raise a small
proportion of the attic floor boards and the insulating material can
be spread evenly through these openings.

There remains still a major escape for heat, the fireplaces. If each
is equipped, as is customary with all built during the last half
century, with a cast-iron damper that closes the throat when not in
use, make sure it is