g, a solid cake of soap, weighing 8-1/2 pounds, may be turned
out on a bake-board (previously covered with brown paper) and cut into
20 pieces of good hard soap. Lay the pieces of soap in a basket, cover
to protect from dust, and stand in a warm room to dry thoroughly
before using. Soap made according to these directions should be solid
and almost as white as ivory if the fat used has not been scorched.

This soap is excellent for scrubbing and laundry purposes. The greater
length of time the soap is kept, the better it will become. The grease
used may be clarified by adding water and cooking a short time. Stand
away and when cool remove fat from top, wiping off any moisture that
may appear. Soap-making is a _small economy_. Of course, the young
housewife will not use for soap _any fat_ which could be utilized for
frying, etc., but she will be surprised to find, when she once gets
the saving habit, how quickly she will have the quantity of fat needed
for a dollar's worth of soap by the small outlay of the price of a can
of lye, not counting her work. The young, inexperienced housewife
should be careful not to use too small a stew-pan in which to heat the
fat, and should not, under any circumstance, leave the kitchen while
the fat is on the range, as grave results might follow carelessness in
this respect.

TO IMITATE CHESTNUT WOOD

Before painting the floor it was scrubbed thoroughly with the
following: One-half cup of "household ammonia" added to four quarts of
water. The floor, after being well scrubbed with this, was wiped up
with pure, clean water and allowed to get perfectly dry before
painting. For the ground color, or first coat of paint on the floor,
after the cracks in floor had been filled with putty or filler, mix
together five pounds of white lead, one pint of turpentine and about a
fourth of a pound of yellow ochre, add 1 tablespoon of Japan dryer.
This should make one quart of paint a light tan or straw color, with
which paint the floor and allow it to dry twenty-four hours, when
another coat of the same paint was given the floor and allowed to dry
another twenty-four hours, then a graining color, light oak, was used.
This was composed of one pint of turpentine, one teaspoon of graining
color and two tablespoons of linseed oil, and 1 tablespoon of Japan
dryer, all mixed together. This was about the color of coffee or
chocolate. When the wood had been painted with this graining color,
before drying, a