The hearthstone; or, Life at home

The taste for the beautiful — The influence of flowers — " The wilderness to blossom" — A beauty which Solomon saw — ^The love of flowers — Matthew Arnold's expression— As aids to memory — Ophelia's emblems of the feelings of the heart — The "sweet gardening toil" — Where there are no flowers — The garden of Eden — " Nothing but leaves " — General directions for flower growing — Roses — Their training and their enemies — A window plant — Watering window plants and window gardening — Geraniums — Plow to preserve flowers in sand — Repotting plants — The Catalonian jessamine — A water bouquet — A flower-bed — Seasonable hints — Plants at rest — Flower raising — English ivy — To keep cut flowers fresh — Tuberoses — Fancy fern-pans — Fuchsias — How to set grafts — The cause of buds blasting — To grow hyacinths in water and in moss — Propagating plants — Begonias — Camellia japonica — Preserving autumn leaves — Rockeries and grottos— The preservation of bouquets — To transplant mignonette — Planting flower seeds — Training tomato plants — ^How the Japanese restore faded flowers — Hyacinths — Tulips, etc 263 A restful sight — To wash well — Some hints to housekeepers — Soaking clothes over night — Washing directions — Washing and bleaching flannels — Sprinkling clothes — Colored wool fabrics — To wash black goods — Light-colored cashmeres — Removing spots — How to wash blankets, light-colored calicoes, delicate muslins, cambrics, silk handkerchiefs and stockings, white cashmeres, and lace curtains — Tlie virtues of borax — To remove mildew — To do up and renovate black silk — XVI CONTENTS. Putting away clothes — To remove stains from linen — Various recipes — Cleaning cloth garments — Removing fruit-stains — To bleach cotton — Some recipes for dyeing^To revive kid-gloves— Bleaching process — Starch — The care of towels- Stains, etc 290 THE TOILET. A trite old saying — The beauty worthy a name — A tell-tale feature — A good complexion— Madame Recamier — Her strongest point — A cosmetic for the face — To be handsome — To remove wrinkles — Directions for painting wrinkles out of the face — A nice preparation for chapped hands — A harmless cosmetic — To disperse freckles — A pleasant perfume — Buttermilk as a cosmetic — Toilet soap — A good method for removing superfluous hair — To remove flesh-worms — Crimping hair — A mouth wash — Preservation of the teeth — Some bad liabits — To remove pimples — Care of the hands — To clear the complexion — To reduce the flesh — A harmless dye J04 The choice of friends — What true friendship is — Two proverbs — Charles Kingsley's saying — Don Quixotte and Sancho Panza — Constant familiarity — Pope's lines — With whom not to be intimate — Dr. Johnson and his Boswell — The reminiscences of silent hours — Our neighbors — A French exile and Napoleon the Third — The household a sheepfold — Scabby and healthful sheep — "Avoid bad company" — Mischief-making persons — Home rulers — Tittle-tattle — Gossips — Hackneyed expressions— The tragic and melodramatic incidents in the village circle — "I always said so" — The tell -tah — Victims and critics — The enemies of peaceful homes — Untimely and unprofitable visitors— The distinguishing trait of homelife — Altered manners of friends — Malevolent people — A rack of self-torture — Miss Tattle — Mr. Teller — Underground misunderstandings — Dr. Griswold and Thackeray — "Do I look like a snob?" — The natural curiosity of the idle — • Strong measures against gossips — Busy people — Mrs.