HOUSECLEANING

WOMEN have always cleaned house! I wonder! Will they feel it necessary to dust the stars, come spring when they go to that bet and brighter home?

But in pioneer days we didn't call a decorator to take over, with all his ladders, buckets of paint and rolls of paper. We did it ourselves.

For paper, we used newspapers which we collected and saved carefully from our small supply. Flour paste was made and the fresh newspapers were pasted over the soiled yellowed ones. Win were washed. This was not usually too great a task, as the windows were simply tacked into the frames with nails, and could be removed easily. Curtains were washed, starched and ironed and hung before the shining glass. And very likely these snowy curtains were made of cheesecloth! The carpet was woven by Mother, at our house, after miles of carpet rags had been tediously sewn together. The carpet must be taken outdoors, shaken to get the dust out, then hung on the clothes line and beaten with a broom or some other instrument. Before replacing the carpet to its proper place, the floor was covered with fresh straw, carried by armfuls from the barn. The clean carpet was stretched over the sweet smelling straw and tacked down. The straw would sometimes be so deep that the doors to the room would open and shut with difficulty. And how our arms and backs would ache! But we had a lovely clean house, and that made up for much discomfort.