HOMES AND ORNAMENTxVTIOX OF HOMES. 115 



leaf a picture of itself, with its dottings, shadino:, and veining, one is ready to 

 exclaim : 



" See (and scorn all duller 



Taste) how Heaven loves color : 

 How great Nature clearly jo)'s in red and green, — 



Utterance, mute and bright, 



Of some unknown delight, 

 And a thousand flashing hues, made solely to be seen." 



These leaves are treasures for the decoration of homes. Take them as soon 

 as the bright colors are developed, and have several folds of soft paper or 

 cloth on a table, lay the right or upper side of the leaf down, pass a flat-iron, 

 not hot enough to sere, crisp, or fade the colors, over the leaf until it is rather 

 dry. You can do many as they grow on the twigs, and for most purposes the 

 arrangement is far prettier than any you can make. It is said that touching 

 the leaves very lightly with a feather dipped in any thin kind of oil will im- 

 prove their beauty. I have never tried it, but it is easy enough to experiment 

 in that way. 



Premising that you have a fine collection of ferns, which you have gathered 

 and pressed as they have matured through the summer, with a store of these 

 bright leaves you have the materials for lovely wreaths, groups, and bouquets, 

 which will serve for a variety of very delicate and graceful adornment, partic- 

 ularly if you have pressed ferns. The common running myrtle pressed makes 

 a pretty green to mingle with the colors. During the last winter I saw a suit 

 of richly furnished parlors, whose walls and lace curtains were beautifully dec- 

 orated with garlands, groups, and bouquets of these richly colored leaves. 

 Among them was a delicate and exquisite tracery of green from pressed ferns. 

 The effect was beautiful, exceedingly. While adorning our homes with the 

 rich treasures so lavishly scattered around us, let us n^ver forget that our 



"Father made them all." 



He could have provided for all the needs of the body, without any regard to 

 beauty. The life of the physical does not need it. Then, truly, its mission is 

 evidently to furnish food for the soul, the divine in man, and it seems to me 

 that it is almost crime to ignore it, as too many do. Every home in the coun- 

 try, however humble, should be set amid flowers, shrubs, and trees. Creepers 

 should wreath and dra2)e its doors and windows, that a portion of the grace 

 and adornment of nature may smile upon its inmates, refining and elevating 

 their ideas, inciting them " to look from Nature to Nature's God." I feel 

 that in this my poor effort I have only reached the A B of the "ornamenta- 

 tion of homes;" but if I lead one to see more of the good Father in His 

 glorious manifestations of the beautiful, I shall be content. May all so live 

 and learn as to more and more appreciate 



*' * * * that unwearied love 

 That planned and built and still upholds a world 

 So clothed with beauty." 



To each one let me say : 



" Acquaint thyself with God, if thou wouldst taste 

 His works. Admitted once to His embrace, 

 Thou shalt perceive that thou wast blind before : 

 Thine eye instructed and thine heart 

 Made pure, shall relish with divine delight. 

 Till then unfelt what Power Divine has wrought." 



