ir,
and all this needed was wiping off with a cloth instead of rubbing,
which was a great saving of time; though this brass was not quite as
nice looking as that which they rubbed till it shone like a mirror, in
the old-fashioned way. It happened that the chandelier in the hall was
covered with the enamel, and here her aunt told Margaret she did not
dislike it, because it would have been nearly impossible to rub a
chandelier clear up to the ceiling every week. They brought out the
step-ladder and wiped it off with a dry duster, however, and then they
washed the globes nicely in warm water, and dried them. Globes often
got very dusty, the aunt said, and nobody remembered to wash them off
instead of merely dusting them once in awhile, and then the family
thought the gas must be very poor because the light was dim.

"Now, auntie, what next?" Margaret asked, when this work was done.

"The sitting-room fireplace," her aunt replied. "It is full of wood
ashes."

Margaret went once more to the broom closet and got a shovel, a
dust-pan, a whisk-broom, a damp cloth, and a newspaper.

There were andirons in the fireplace and the ashes lay all over and
around them, so her aunt first helped her lift these heavy things out on
the newspaper at one side. Then she told her to sweep most of the ashes
into a small pile right in the centre of the hearth, at the back.

"But, auntie, they won't burn any more; why don't I take them right
out!" asked Margaret.

"Because they make the fire burn better and last longer. You can take up
part of them and put them in the scuttle, but leave some, and
especially all the bits of charred wood; it would be wasteful to take
those away."

Margaret carefully swept up the greater part of the ashes, working from
the edges of the hearth toward the middle, and put them into the
scuttle. Once she spilled a shovelful, but as a newspaper was spread on
the carpet it did not matter. Her aunt told her to be sure and always
have plenty of papers ready to use in housework, because in the end they
saved so much work. "Suppose you had to sweep up those ashes," she said,
"and clean the carpet, too, would not that be a bother! Now if the
hearth is clean, wipe it with the damp cloth, and dust off the andirons
well. If there had been a grate here you would have had to polish it
with the blacking from the kitchen stove. When you have finished you can
get more paper and kindling and lay a fire."

They put crumpled pa