coffee A, or best brown sugar, equals one

ounce.

Two and one half teacups, level, of the best brown sugar weighs one pound.

Two tablespoonfuls of powdered sugar or flour weighs one ounce.

Two and three fourths teacups, level, of powdered sugar weighs one pound.

One generous pint of liquid, or one pint of finely chopped meat packed solidly, weighs one pound, which it would be very convenient to remember.

KEEPING UP WITH THE CHILDREN.

She was a woman of middle age, thin and plain, with no claim to beauty except the eager dark eyes shining starlike from a wistful, carelined face. Twenty years ago she had slipped her trustful hand into that of another, and counting the world well lost for the sake of her love and faith, had entered upon a life of such toil, privation, and heroic endurance as only women in frontier settlements, amid primitive conditions, know.

"I have tried my best,” she said simply, "to keep up with the children. Father and I resolved when our first boy was a baby that stint and scrape and contrive as we might we'd educate all that heaven sent us. And we have done what we could. I wasn't willing that my children should get ahead of me; I've tried to study their lessons with them, and to enter into their feelings. I don't want them to outstrip me in the race."

This mother had been one of those to whom early rising and late retiring had been always essential, in order that the routine of the housework should not suffer. In that part of the country where she lived, hired help for domestic purposes was almost unheard of; women did their own work, a neighbor's daughter sometimes lending a kind hand in an exigency, and the men of the family doing their share at need. In her determined effort to keep step with her children in their intellectual development, she had in another direction builded better than she knew, for the children, boys and girls alike, had early been pressed into her service, and had, as she explained. "taken hold" of whatever was to be done. The boys could make beds and set tables as well as draw water and split wood. The girls were facile housekeepers, with a practical knowledge of cooking and laundry work-in American society as essential in the outfit for life to the richest as to the poorest. Though the living in the household was plain, it was abundant, and the ideal set before the family was something nobler than a mere strife for wealth. Everything was open and aboveboard. Books were read and prized in common, and so much was going on to interest everybody that there was no temptation to devour poisonous tid-bits in secret. So it came to pass that the keeping up with the children brought great good in its wake.

At last a day dawned when the mother felt as if the first stone had been set in a wall of separation. Two of her brood had found their wings. A daughter was going to college. A son was entering upon a business career. The

little, wistful woman yearned to keep pace with them both, yearned perhaps to ordain the pathway of both, as she always had done. But it was inevitable that there should be some parting of the roads. Brave as she was, she kept down a heart ache under her cheery show of courage.

"Have comfort, dear," said an older friend, who had been through a similar experience. "The children will never outgrow you; you had a twenty years' start of them. And you have SO disciplined your mind, and trained your heart, and elevated your own thoughts above the daily rut, the fret, and the stir, that you dwell in a serene atmosphere, favorable to expansion of every faculty. They may acquire facts, but they will fly like honey-laden bees back to the hive. The mother who has kept pace with her children from babyhood to adolescence will never lose them." - Harper's

Bazaar.

HOME-MADE RUGS.

Those who live upon farms where sheep are raised can make rugs at a small cost. The materials required are sheep pelts well tanned and bright-colored diamond dyes One rug which is made from a very large pelt is all one color. Two packages of crimson dye were dissolved and brought to a boiling point in a very large dish pan The pelt was well washed and carded, then one end was put into the boiling dye. The corners had strings tied to them to form loops. One person held each end and the rug was very slowly passed back and forth through the boiling dye until the desired color was obtained. It was then rinsed in warm water and hung up to dry. When dry it was again carded, and you do not know how pretty it is. Another rug is made by taking a pelt cut sixteen by twenty inches and dyeing it yellow. Around this is a border six inches deep sewed on, and this is a deep orange color. The effect is very pleasing. Save all the scraps in cutting the pelts, as they can be used for rugs or mats. Another rug which has been much admired is made of six-inch squares sewed together. Half the squares are dyed pink and the other half light olive green made by adding yellow dye to green. The whole is bordered with a six-inch strip of pink. Lovely lamp mats are made by taking a square of long wool and dyeing it any pretty color. When dry separate out the wool each way from the center and gently comb it until it is fluffy. Pretty dusters can be made by twisting narrow strips of prettily dyed wool around a wooden handle and then sew a piece of ribbon or velvet to the

cover where the wool is fastened on. These dusters gather the dust without scattering it or scratching, as feather dusters are apt to do. Any girl who lives where she can get wool pelts could earn a snug sum by making any of these articles for sale-Farm and Home.

CHINA PAINTING.

In order to decorate prettily some dainty little things for Christmas, it is not at all necessary to begin in the old way, with a full china-painting outfit.

The motive of the decoration to be used being simple in design and adapted to beginners, but few materials will be required. In every instance, however, the work, if well done, must prove very pretty in result, and of much practical

use.

By completely finishing one article at a time, and by investing only in such material as is necessary to the decoration of that article, you will be able to test thoroughly your ability without expending much money for an outfit which would be worse than useless to you, should you find yourself unfitted for this branch of artwork.

With a little ingenuity and careful attention to the details of each lesson, you will find that you can achieve satisfactory results, though you may possess but little artistic talent; for a china decorator needs not so much to be an artist -though of course that is important-as to be a persevering and painstaking workman.

Let us begin with cups and saucers. Such seemingly endless variety of design is to he found in these articles that you may find it difficult to decide on the prettiest shape. Select an after-dinner coffee-cup with few flutings for our first attempt. Let it have a quaint little handle, and if you are fortunate enough to find it, one with three or four little feet to stand upon.

This will cost about thirty-five cents. Then buy a bottle of bright liquid gold, costing seventy-five cents, and a camel's-hair brush costing twelve cents-one dollar and twentytwo cents in all.

It is also well to have on hand a bottle of weak alcohol, to remove stains from the hands at the close of the lesson. Now we are ready to begin.

Pour a little of the liquid gold-a brown, strange-smelling liquid-into a small, clean dish; a small butter-plate will serve the purpose. Dip in the new brush and paint, as smoothly as possible, the inside of the cup, the tiny feet underneath it, the little twisted handle, and then the circular space in the saucer where the cup rests. Then put away cup and saucer in some place entirely free from dust.

Always avoid dust as you would a contagion.

If there is sweeping in any part of the house, wait until afternoon for the painting If the ash-men are holding their usual noisy carnival in the back alley, wait until they have passed beyond hearing.

Be sure, also that the stoves and furnaces have been shaken before you settle down to work, for I have known the dust that came from a register to ruin a morning's work If the dust is once burned into your work, its elegant smoothness is destroved, and nothing can ever make it right.

When the cup and saucer are perfectly dry, they are ready to be fired. The firing will cost ten or fifteen cents, unless you should want the burner to put a line of gold on the edge of the saucer, which will cost a trifle more.

At times this is a great addition. The burner does it very deftly by means of a wheel; but it is too trying a piece of work for a beginner to undertake. At all events, do not try it on the first cup and saucer.

Mark your brush, Bright gold," and never use it for anything else. Never wash it out. Each time before using, soften it in the tiny bottle of lavender-oil which now comes with every bottle of bright liquid gold; dry it carefully, and use as the first time.

Be very careful, too, that none of the liquid is on any part of your hand; for if you have the slightest particle on your fingers, a purple stain will come wherever they have touched the china. Sometimes, after firing, you can sandpaper such a stain away, but prevention is the best corrective.

The most beautiful of all after dinner coffee is one of the Belleck cups and saucers, with cactus handle, Trenton make, costing about a dollar each It has to be gilded, fired, regilded, and fired again to bring to perfection, owing to its thin, shell-like texture.

You will find, however, that the result will more than repay you for all your trouble. One cup alone makes a most exquisite weddinggift.

There is a very pretty custom now of sending a cup and saucer to a newly-engaged friend; and one of the white and gold ones would be just the thing

If you are very ambitious, owing to the suc cess of your venture, try making a set of six. A half-dozen, different in shape, but similar in decoration, will make a most beautiful wedding gift.

A friend, not long since, striving for originality, gilded a set of six on the outside of cup and entire surface of saucer. The result was a beautiful brownish-looking gold, owing to the reflection; but though odd and unique, they were not quite as dainty as the white and gold of our first lesson.-Youth's Companion.