colours; and after rinsing hang them out immediately. When ironing-dry, (or still a little damp,) bring them in ; have irons ready heated, and iron them at once, as it injures the colours to allow them to remain damp too long, or to sprinkle and roll them up in a covering for ironing next day. If they cannot be conveniently ironed immediately, let them hang till they are quite dry; and then damp and fold them on the following day, a quarter of an hour before ironing. The best way is not to do coloured dresses on the day of the general wash, but to give them a morning by themselves. They should only be undertaken in clear bright weather. If allowed to freeze, the colours will be irreparably injured. We need scarcely say that no coloured articles should ever be boiled or scalded. If you get from a shop a slip for testing the durability of colours, give it a fair trial by washing it as above; afterwards, pinning it to the edge of a towel, and hanging it to dry. Some colours, (especially pinks and light greens,) though they may stand perfectly well in washing, will change as soon as a warm iron is applied to them; the pink turning purplish, and the green bluish. No coloured article should be smoothed with a hot iron. Changes of Weather Indicated by the Clouds.-1. The clouds, called Cirrus, appear early after serene weather; they are, at first, indicated by a few threads pencilled as it were on the sky; these increase in length, and new ones are, in the meantime, added laterally. Often the first formed threads serve as stems to support numerous branches, which in their turn give rise to others. Their duration is uncertain, varying, from a few minutes after their first appearance, to an extent of many hours. It is long when they appear alone, and at great heights; and shorter when they are formed lower, and in the vicinity of other clouds. This modification, although in appearance almost motionless, is intimately connected with the motion of the atmosphere; and clouds of this kind have long been deemed a prognostic of the wind. 2. In fair weather, with light variable breezes, the sky is seldom quite clear from small groups of the oblique cirrus, which frequently come on from the leeward, and the direction of their increase is to the windward. Continued wet weather is attended with horizontal sheets of this cloud, which subside quickly, and pass to the cirro-stratus. The cirrus pointing upward, is a distant indication of rain; and downward, a more immediate one of fair weather. Before storms they appear lower and denser, and usually in the quarter opposite to that from which the storm arises. Steady high winds are also preceded and attended by streaks running quite across the sky, in the direction they blow in. These, by an optical deception, appear to meet in the horizon. 3. The shooting or falling star, precedes a change of wind. 4. If clouds appear gradually to diminish, and dissolve into the air, so as to become invisible, it is an indication of fine weather. 5. If the sky, after being for a long time serene and blue, become fretted and spotted with undulated clouds, not unlike the waves of the sea, rain will speedily follow. 6. It not unfrequently happens that two different currents of clouds appear; these are certain signs of rain, particularly if the lower current fly swiftly before the wind. Should two such currents appear during summer, or hot weather, they announce a speedy thunder storm. 7. When it rains with an east wind, it will probably continue for twentyfour hours. 8. While rain is falling, if any small space of the sky be observable, it is almost a certain sign that the rain will speedily cease. 9. When the solar rays break through the clouds, and are visible in the air, it shows that the atmosphere is filled with vapours, which will speedily be converted into rain. Cover for a Polished Box-Iron.It is of great importance to keep a polished steel iron used for laces and fine muslins, protected from the air and damp; it should, therefore, be provided with a cover. The one in our illustration is made of white frieze, in four pieces, put together according to that given above, and ornamented with scarlet star-braid, and a pattern worked in point russe, with scarlet crewel. The cover, it may be seen, buttons on the top. Coloured Transparencies.-Trace the subjoined design on a large square of moderately stout cardboard; or, instead of a square, say a piece fourteen inches by eleven. The tracing should be as light as possible. With a sharp penknife cut round the entire outline, leaving the vase and flowers attached only at the base, a to A. It will be perceived that none of the pieces are entirely severed from one another, every one being joined at some place to the whole. Thus there is one continuous outline, but none of the other lines must touch it or each other. The centres of the leaves are cut through in the middle, but the cut does not extend to the sidcs. Colour the portion of the card indicated by the dotted lines E to G, on the opposite side of the card from which it is to be looked at, from в to c, and from D to E, with a smear of strong carmine, from c to D with sap green, from F to F cobalt blue, and all the rest of the edges within the dotted lines with a paler tint of green. The part round the vase is left uncoloured. Let the colours be both deep and full. They must be put on very strong in tint; no skill is needed; any one can do it well with a paint-brush. When completed, bend the group of flowers and vase the very least bit possible backwards through the aperture. In this state hold it up towards the light of a candle or single gas-burner, the coloured part turned to wards the light. The effect is beautiful. Wall papers with floral designs will furnish ample models, or any vase or group of flowers, only in cutting them the operator must remember never to sever them entirely one from another. The best way to trace a pattern for this pur produce on transparent tracing-paper, | marrow is very nice eating, and unforplace it on the black, and with a sharp tunately it is only in season for three pencil mark the outline hard. Enough months in the year, July, August, and will remain on the card for the experi- September. menter to lightly draw in the subject when the papers are removed. The less the outline which is drawn is visible, the better the effect. Busts and statues also form charming subjects, and may easily be traced from photographs. Green Pea-Soup.-Into hair a gallon of water (stock, if at hand,) put a quart of old green peas, a slice or two of ham, two small onions, a little mint, and simmer the whole in a stewpan until the peas are done; after that press To Clean Feathers for Bedding. them through a colander, or a fine-holed -Mix well with a gallon of clear water sieve, with the back of a wooden spoon. one pound of quicklime; and when the Separately, but simultaneously, boil a lime is precipitated in fine powder, pour quart of young peas, with two lettuces, off the clear lime-water for use at the cut up small, and two ounces of butter; time it is wanted. Put the feathers to when the young peas are done, add them be cleaned in a tub, and add to them a to the older sort, and give them a boil sufficient quantity of the clear lime-up, and then serve. This soup is not water, so as to cover them about three often made in families, nor is it a very inches. The feathers, when thoroughly profitable one, nor simple in its preparamoistened, will sink down, and should tion. If the soup, when done, is not remain in the lime-water for three or considered thick enough, boil the crumb four days, after which, the foul liquor of a roll in a little of the soup, and rub should be separated from them by lay-it through a fine sieve, then add it to ing them on a sieve. Afterwards, well wash them in clean water, and dry them on nets, about the same fineness. as cabbage nets. Shake them from time to time on the nets; as they dry, they will fall through the meshes, when collect them for use. The admission of air will be serviceable in the drying, and the whole process may be completed in about three weeks. The feathers thus prepared, want nothing further than beating, to be used either for beds, bolsters, pillows, &c. Vegetable Marrot. Cut a marrow into three or four slices, take out the seeds, and put them in boiling water with a small handful of salt, and let them boil for half an hour, longer, if the marrows are old. Serve them on toast and cover them with melted butter. If they are preferred mashed, they should be well drained when taken from the water, and beaten smooth with a wooden spoon, and seasoned with pepper and salt, and the dish garnished with toast sippets. Sometimes, when served in slices, they are covered with egg and bread crumbs, and fried in boiling lard. Cooked any way, however, vegetable the soup, and boil. Serve very hot in a tureen with toasted bread. Pea Soup Without Meat.-At p. 72 we gave an excellent receipt for this soup with meat, the following is for pea soup without meat :-Put one pound of split peas into a gallon of liquor in which a piece of salt beef or pork has been previously boiled; add to this two onions and carrots, a little mint, and as much pepper aud salt as the taste may approve. The vegetables, cut in small pieces, should be first fried in dripping for a quarter of an hour before putting them in with the liquor and the peas. When the ingredients are brought together in the saucepan, they will take a good three hours before the peas are nice and tender; of course they should be well soaked, before boiling, for twelve hours, as mentioned in the previous receipt. When done, and taken up, crush the pulp of the peas through a sieve, return it to the soup, and let it boil for half an hour longer; then again press the peas through a fine sieve, and serve them and the soup with toasted bread. This excellent soup can be made for the sum of five farthings a quart. Pease Pudding.—The making of Pease Pudding may as well be noticed here. Dry before a fire a quart of split peas, and tie them up in a cloth, not too tight, just sufficient to give them a little play; then immerse them in a stewpan full of warm water, and let the peas boil until they are quite tender, when they should be removed from the cloth, and beaten up with salt and the yolks of two eggs, until the pudding is quite smooth, when it should be boiled in a cloth for another hour. Cucumbers, to Dress.-After the cucumber is carefully peeled, cut it in thin slices, commencing at the thick end; if begun at the thin end a bitter taste is imparted to it throughout. Sprinkle pepper and salt over the slices, and put them into a shallow dish, and cover them with equal parts of salad-oil and vinegar, in which turn the slices about that they may become perfectly saturated. Be it observed, that the slices ought to be very evenly cut of a uniform thickness, and not some half as thick again as others. To avoid this imperfection to a dish of cucumber, as well as trouble to those who have to prepare it, an instrument has been made on purpose for slicing cucumbers; this will quickly cut them up into mere shavings of slices, with unerring exactitude in thickness. Cucumbers are in their prime of season from the middle of July to the end of September; forced ones are to be had from March to June. They are generally used with salads, salmon, and cheese. all soups and gravies. The right and economical preparation of this material should be well understood by all housekeepers. Old meat gives more flavour to broths. than young meat, and brown than white. The remains of roasted meat put into the stock-pot greatly improves the fla vour of stock. Meat should not be put into the stock while boiling, as this prevents the extraction of the juices. Bones should always form a part of the stock-pot's contents; they are said to yield much more gelatine than is to be obtained from meat, two ounces of bones producing as much gelatine as one pound of meat; but as bones do not. contain any flavouring matter, soup made entirely from them would, though nourishing, be tasteless. The best kind of stock is made from beef, as it possesses more colour and flavour than other meats; veal lacks flavour, and mutton is apt to have a tallowy taste. Use fresh meat for stock, and mix various kinds; rabbit, old fowl, pigeons, or partridge, added to meat. stock, greatly improve the flavour. The liquor in which a joint of meat is boiled is good stock, to which bones. well broken up should be added, along with gristle and cuttings of meat useless. for other purposes. As the scum rises be careful to skim it off; the stock must not be allowed to boil before this is thoroughly done,. after which the salt and vegetables can: be added. A tomato gives fine flavour., Any cutting of meat nicely broiled and put in is also an improvement. Dried Peas as an Article of Diet. -Peas are a valuable article of diet, and their use might be extended with great advantage. For example, if your bread Supposing stock has to be expressly be made at home, sometimes add one made, the best way is to cut up the pound of pea-meal to every stone of meat into small pieces, set it on in cold flour, and it will make the bread all the water, allowing one quart of water to more nutritious. Peas are a very sup- one pound of meat. As the scum rises, porting food both for grown people and skim carefully, then let it boil, add vefor children. Medical authority recom-getables and seasoning, and simmer mends that peas should be eaten once slowly for six hours. or twice a week throughout the year. To Prepare Good Stock.-Broth, or, as it is termed, stock, is the base of Cow-heel jelly enriches soups, so also does butter. To preserve gravy meat. it should be peppered and lightly fried. |