kes me so
awfully hungry."

"Precisely so, Jim; it gives you am appetite. I had the house planned
in this way for that very purpose."

"Now that you have introduced the subject," said Jill, "I will tell you
how _I_ should have planned it. There should have been a 'cut-off'
somewhere--a little lobby between the kitchen and the rest of the
house, with a ventilating flue so large that neither smoke nor steam
nor perfumed air could pass it without being caught up and carried to
the sky. Of course these odors ought not to get away from the
ventilator above the range, but the best contrivances are not proof
against the carelessness of the cook when she is in a hurry--as she
always is just before dinner."

When they returned to the sitting-room Bessie brought down a set of
plans her father had sent for Jack and Jill to examine, thinking they
would suit their lot and taste. They did suit the lot fairly, but
Jill's mind was too fully made up to accept any change from her own
plan. The exterior she approved cordially, but to Bessie's despair
would not promise to imitate it, preferring to leave the outside to her
architect without reserve.

While they were spoiling their eyes in the twilight Jack pressed the
electric "button" that lighted the gas instantaneously all over the
house, causing Bessie to cry out in protest against such a sudden
transition. "It is so violent, so unlike the slow, sweet processes of
nature. I never shall learn to like gas, and the electric light is
absolutely _horrid_. Don't you love tapers, Mr. James?"

"Tapirs? I don't think I'm a judge; I never had one. I should rather
have a tame zebra."

"Oh, I mean tapers for light!"

"Excuse me--certainly: yes, that is, I think I do. We don't use them
very often. Do you mean tallow or wax?"

"Wax, of course! They have such elegant decorations on them. I had a
most exquisite sconce Christmas, with two of the loveliest tapers
completely covered with Moorish arabesques in crimson and old gold."

"What becomes of the decorations when the tapers burn up?"

"Well, we don't burn them much. Indeed, I don't think we ought to use
artificial light at all. The mysterious light of the moon and stars is
so much more enchanting. Don't you love to muse and dream in the fading
twilight?"

"No, not very well. The trouble is if I get to sleep before I go to bed
I don't sleep as well afterward."

"Oh, I don't mean actual dreams, but vague, dreamy musings, esthetic
asp