One of the blessed opportunities for such ministries is given to children in the cultivation of flowers. The entrance into a sick-room of a smiling, healthful child, bringing an offering of flowers raised by its own labor, is like an angel of comfort and love, “and alike it blesseth him who gives and him who takes.”
A time is coming when the visitation of the sick, as a part of the Christian life, will hold a higher consideration than is now generally accorded, especially in the cases of uninteresting sufferers who have nothing to attract kind attentions, except that they are suffering children of our Father in heaven, and “one of the least” of the brethren of Jesus Christ.
CHAPTER XX.
FIRES AND LIGHTS.
A shallow fire-place saves wood, and gives out more heat than a deeper one. A false back of brick may be put up in a deep fire-place. Hooks for holding up the shovel and tongs, a hearth-brush and bellows, and brass knobs to hang them on, should be furnished to every fire-place. An iron bar across the andirons aids in keeping the fire safe and in good order. Steel furniture is neater, handsomer, and more easily kept in order than that made of brass.
Use green wood for logs, and mix green and dry wood for the fire; and then the wood-pile will last much longer. Walnut, maple, hickory, and oak wood are best; chestnut or hemlock is bad, because it snaps. Do not buy a load in which there are many crooked sticks. Learn how to measure and calculate the solid contents of a load, so as not to be cheated. A cord of wood should be equivalent to a pile eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high; that is, it contains (8 x 4 x 4 = 128) one hundred and twenty-eight cubic or solid feet. A city “load” is usually one third of a cord. Have all your wood split and piled under cover for winter. Have the green-wood logs in one pile, dry-wood in another, oven-wood in another, kindlings and chips in another, and a supply of charcoal to use for broiling and ironing in another place. Have a brick bin for ashes, and never allow them to be put in wood. When quitting fires at night, never leave a burning stick across the andirons, nor on its end, without quenching it. See that no fire adheres to the broom or brush; remove all articles from the fire, and have two pails filled with water in the kitchen where they will not freeze.
STOVES AND GRATES.
Rooms heated by stoves should always have some opening for the admission of fresh air, or they will be injurious to health. The dryness of the air which they occasion should be remedied by placing a vessel filled with water on the stove, otherwise the lungs or eyes will be injured. A large number of plants in a room prevents this dryness of the air. Where stove-pipes pass through fire-boards, the hole in the wood should be much larger than the pipe, so that there may be no danger of the wood taking fire. The unsightly opening thus occasioned should be covered with tin. When pipes are carried through floors or partitions, they should always pass either through earthen crocks, or what are known as tin stove-pipe thimbles, which may be found in any stove store or tinsmith’s. Lengthening a pipe will increase its draught.
For those who use anthracite coal, that which is broken or screened is best for grates, and the nut-coal for small stoves. Three tons are sufficient in the Middle States, and four tons in the Northern, to keep one fire through the winter. That which is bright, hard, and clean, is best; and that which is soft, porous, and covered with damp dust, is poor. It will be well to provide two barrels of charcoal for kindling to every ton of anthracite coal. Grates for bituminous coal should have a flue nearly as deep as the grate; and the bars should be round and not close together. The better draught there is, the less coal-dust is made. Every grate should be furnished with a poker, shovel, tongs, blower, coal-scuttle, and holder for the blower. The latter may be made of woolen, covered with old silk, and hung near the fire.
Coal-stoves should be carefully put up, as cracks in the pipe, especially in sleeping-rooms, are dangerous.