The upper portion of the house remains to be considered. The remarks concerning one sleeping-room will apply to all unless there are many and the desire is to furnish them differently: taste will then decide the variations.

First, in regard to air and light, without which in abundance we cannot live; healthful, normal sleep demands that sleeping-rooms should be freely exposed to light — sunlight, if possible, during the day — and should be well aired. For night ventilation where freely opened windows are not considered advisable, the window-board described below will meet all the requirements of health. In ordinary sleeping-rooms, opening to the external air, perfect ventilation without draught can be secured by the following device : raise the lower sash three or four inches, and fit under it a thin board which entirely fills the opening between the sash and the window-seat; the air will enter through the aperture where the two sashes overlap in the middle of the window, without creating any perceptible draught.

The fittings of all sleeping-rooms should ensure comfort, order, convenience, and cleanliness; employ only enough furniture to secure these; all other things are superfluities. Avoid heavy or excessive draperies; their effect is tempting, but remember that all except the lightest fabrics make a sleeping-room seem stuffy. Above all never exclude light and air. If the toilet-table and bed are draped to match the windows use only the lightest fabrics of linen, cotton, or silken texture, sheer, and delicate of hue.

Entire bedroom sets are now made of rattan and bamboo ; they are light to move, easily kept clean, healthy, and durable. A set consisting of table, lounge, and half a dozen chairs, costs from fifty dollars upwards. Bedsteads and bureaus are more expensive than the smaller pieces. Chiffoniers and toilet-tables replace the old-fashioned bureau in many houses. Entire bedroom sets in light natural and enameled woods are now sold as low as twenty-five dollars. In short, the sleeping-room can be furnished at low cost, or no end of money can be spent upon fanciful and dainty fittings. For absolute use there is needed either a bureau or chiffonier with a mirror, or a toilet-table or wash stand with glass and drawers and the accompanying china; a table, and a small work-basket for traveller's emergencies, and writing materials for the use of passing guests, a lounge or easy chair and two small chairs; these may be of bamboo, cane, or wood, with comfortable cushions ; the bed, rugs, and light window curtains or shades complete the necessary furniture of the room.

The bed is the most important article of furniture. As a rule wooden bedsteads are cumbersome, difficult to handle and keep clean, although one would fain believe that unpleasant pests never appear in well-kept houses; however, as they do gain access in clothes brought from the laundry, in travelling trunks and divers ways, unceasing vigilance is the only safeguard ; keep the bedsteads and woodwork of the room dusted with Persian insect-powder, and occasionally wash them with alum water, or a weak solution of carbolic acid.

Brass bedsteads are pretty, healthful, and easy to handle; they are very durable on account of the lacquer with which they are finished. Iron bedsteads enamelled in white and other colors are less expensive than the brass ones. Beds intended to be closed in the daytime are seldom healthful because there is imperfect provision for ventilating the bedding; the best ones are open at the back, fitted with a mattress of woven wire and covered with blankets. Woven wire mattresses and pillows, with a thick blanket folded under the sheet, make the most sanitary beds. Health demands that thick mattresses of hair or any kindred substance should be remade every two years; otherwise they accumulate un sanitary substances from various sources.

Bed-coverings should be made of woollen, as light as is consistent with warmth; cotton coverlids are not desirable; when blankets are too expensive it is better to tack several thicknesses of newspaper between two thin covers, and use them in place of the so-called comforters made by quilting cotton between two folds of cloth. When feathers or down are used in the sleeping-room they should be sunned and aired daily.

Hammocks, or cots canvas-covered or fitted with woven-wire, covered with blankets, make very comfortable and healthful beds. Let some young mother fit up one beside her bed instead of the ordinary crib, and see how baby will thrive in this nest, warm and airy at the same time. The addition of the baby's bed, bath, and dressing-basket transforms the ordinary bed-room into a nursery.

Polished or oiled floors with rugs or mattings are better suited for sleeping-rooms than nailed carpets, which accumulate dust, afford shelter for moths, and gather germs of disease from any chance cource. Mattings can easily be kept clean by rubbing them occasionally with a cloth tied over a broom and moistened with salted water. A fur rug at the bedside is a great comfort, and needs but shaking for neatness' sake: the Japanese goatskins sell at about two dollars and a half each, either two or four making a rug, the latter six feet square. A rug at the bedside and another at the toilet stand, make a hard-floored room entirely comfortable for the occupancy of any save an invalid, for whom the number of rugs may be increased, but even a scant supply is preferable to a nailed carpet.

A word of caution about mirrors: do no allow the sunlight to fall upon them, because it occasions a separation of the particles of amalgam upon the back, and gives them an inequality of surface which interferes with reflection and light.

In furnishing bedrooms, generally, the lighter the material used the better for comfort and health ; light-weight furniture, light, sheer fabrics for draperies, light woollen coverings for warmth. Light, neutral colors are better for paint and upholstery, and neutral-tinted carpets or rugs that will not fade in strong light; all these things show ordinary wear less than darker and heavier ones. In those parts of the country where soft coal is used, the question of expediency may arise. So far as my personal experience goes, and that of friends who have long been residents in the West, the dark-hued fabrics gather the obnoxious dust as quickly as lighter colored stuffs, but it is not so apparent to the eye ; to the touch it is instantly revealed, even under the most favorable circumstances. The question is whether one shall choose dark woollen and silken goods that must accumulate smoke and dust, until the semi-yearly cleaning day arrives ; or whether materials shall be used that can be washed frequently and so kept fresh, like one's personal clothing.

In the furnishing of bedrooms, a capable housewife, who has strength and some artistic taste, can economize, and at the same time beautify her home, by purchasing unpainted furniture at the factory, or through some dealer, and finishing it at home in any chosen color, or with ebony varnish. The paint-shops sell a glossy mixture of paint called china-finish, which can be applied to hard, well-seasoned wood, which has first been tinted as desired. Light hues, with darker lines of the same color, or panels outlined with gold paint, produce good effects when harmonizing with rugs and draperies. Ebony finishes well with brass, which can be bought in great variety at the house-furnishing and cabinet-makers' shops. Rooms fitted up in this way, with bright-colored chintz draperies and homemade rugs, are really beautiful, besides being monuments to the designer's good taste and ingenuity. If not in too great haste to furnish at first, such a housekeeper may indeed become the home-maker, and every part of her habitation show her culture and ability.