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 fine graining comb was passed lightly over to imitate the grain of wood.  This was allowed to dry twenty-four hours, when a coat of floor varnish was given.  The room was allowed to dry thoroughly before using.  The imitation of natural chestnut was excellent.

MEASURES AND WEIGHTS

When a recipe calls for one cup of anything, it means one even cup, holding one-half pint, or two gills.

One cup is equal to four wine glasses.

One wine glass is equal to four tablespoons of liquid, or one-quarter cup.

Two dessertspoonfuls equal one tablespoonful.

Six tablespoonfuls of liquid equal one gill.

Two tablespoonfuls dry measure equal one gill.

Two gills equal one cup.

Two cups, or four gills, equal one pint.