"There will be no _pretense_ of style--if that is what you mean, no
vain endeavor to conceal poverty or ignorance, but a delightful
Arcadian candor and simplicity that will leave the mistress of the
house, who is also housekeeper, nurse, cook, dairymaid, butler,
waitress, laundress, seamstress, governess and family physician,
abundant time and strength for such other occupations and amusements as
may be most congenial. It would be a delightful way of living, and I
should not hesitate to try it if I felt certain that I _had_ a soul
above dress trimmings. I am not willing to be a household drudge,
overwhelmed by the 'work that is never done;' therefore, to be on the
safe side, we will keep two servants.

"The cooking range, whether of the portable or 'set' kind, will have a
brick wall behind it and at each side, which, carried above, will form
a sort of canopy to conduct into the chimney the superfluous heat in
warm weather and the steam and smoke from cooking at all times. I
suppose some housekeepers would object to separating the two pantries,
but they have no common interests requiring close proximity. The
kitchen pantry is a store-room and a kind of private laboratory, where
the mysterious experiments are made that develop our taste for esthetic
cooking and give us an experimental knowledge of dyspepsia. Its
operations precede the work of the range to which it is a near
neighbor, as it ought to be. It has also the merit of being in the cool
northwest corner of the house, with small windows on two adjacent
sides, which are better than a single window, for the air of a
store-room or pantry cannot be changed too freely in warm weather.

"Do you see the closets at the end of this pantry? One is for ice,
which is shoved in through a little door just above the sink where it
is brought by the ice-man; the other is for a cold closet and is built
in such a way as to get the full benefit of its cold-blooded neighbor.
Don't forget, in making the plan, that the door through which the ice
slides must be large enough to take in the largest cakes, and must be
so arranged that after being washed at the sink they will slide easily
without lifting or _banging_ into their proper places inside."

"And let me suggest," said the architect, "that the waste-pipe that
carries off the melted ice be allowed to run straight out of doors,
without making the acquaintance of the sewer or any other drain-pipe."

"Please remember that then, as wel