112 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



home.'' Fathers, I pray you remember this and profit by it, and so aid the wife 

 and mother to make a home such as will help to develop all tiie higher quali- 

 ties of the soul and mind of your children. "The child will grow, the child 

 will learn to think and feel. Whence shall come the breath of its very life, 

 and the incentives by which it shall unfold for good or evil ?'' 



But I am occupying too much space and time with aV)stractions. I must 

 hasten to the practical, and hint at possibilities within the reach of even the 

 unfavorably circumstanced. It is of course presumed that comfort in the 

 home has been reached, before the idea of ornamentation has found admission. 



HOW TO BEGIN ORNAMENTATIOX. 



Do you ask ivTiere shall I begin ? I answer, in your sleeping rooms. Let 

 your children's eyes open each morning on a window shaded with a snowy cur- 

 tain, if it be made only of ten-penny cotton, and in summer vines and creep- 

 ers, if possible, should hang their verdant wreathes around it, and the cheerful 

 morning-glory peep in to gladden the young eyes and hearts. Have some pic- 

 tures, if they are only prints cut from some periodical ; many of them are 

 beautiful and artistically executed, and convey sweet and touching lessons of 

 benevolence, sympathy and affection. If you can not, or do not wish to af- 

 ford frames, lay them on a piece of stiff pasteboard, put a pane of window 

 glass over each, and bind them by pasting around them a strip of dark fancy 

 paper, which you can get at any stationer's, and an old pasteboard box can al- 

 ways be found about the house. A bright chromo, too, is very desirable, such 

 as all our seedsmen and florists now send out, which 25 cents will procure, if 

 you do not patronize them in any other way. Remember, " A thing of beauty 

 is a joy forever," and the young eyes that have beauty to gaze upon have al- 

 ready in a degree learned to value it. Have 3'Our beds covered with white, uo 

 matter how cheap the material, for it is important that all the appointments of 

 a sleeping room convey an idea of purity. 



ORNAMENT THE KITCHEN. 



The next most important portion of the home to be made attractive is the 

 kitchen. A bright, amusing or comical picture or two can not fail to arrest 

 attention, and will lighten the monotonous, ever- recurring, never-ending 

 household duties to be performed there. In the warm season, hang green 

 branches over the doors and windows, and at angles, for the double purpose of 

 adornment and to keep flies from paint and walls. Let a bed filled with bright 

 flowers lie before the doors, and creepers drape the windows and door casiugs, 

 and be trained to shade them. Such surroundings divert the mind, make the 

 toils of daily life less wearisome, and give zest to the performance of them. 



There is no fear, with this attention to bed rooms and kitchen, that other 



rooms of the home will lack any effort that comes within the knowledge or 



ability of the ministering spirits, who find joy and 



"Peace hi love's unselfishness," 



and by adorning home, are ever 



" Weavins; through the poor details 

 And homespun warp of circumstance, 

 A golden woof-thread of romance." 



THE COUNTRY, 



to one wlio walks through it, with eyes to see, affords rare opportunities for 

 gathering beautiful grasses, than whicli nothing is piettier or more graceful 



