Draper}/ of Collayex and (Gardens 169 



prove that grace is a quality as positive as electro-magnetism. 

 Would that you could span the world with it as quickly as 

 Mr. Morse with his telegraph. To come to the point, we 

 want to talk a little with you about what we call the drapery 

 of cottages and gardens; about those beautiful vines, and 

 climbers, and creepers, which nature made on purpose to 

 cover up every thing ugly, and to heighten the charm of 

 every thing pretty and picturesque. In short, we want 

 your aid and assistance in dressing, embellishing, and deco- 

 rating, not for a single holiday, fair, or festival, but for 

 years and for ever, the outsides of our simple cottages and 

 country homes; wreathing them about with such peren- 

 nial festoons of verdure, and starring them over with such 

 bouquets of delicious odor, that your husbands and brothers 

 would no more think of giving up such houses, than they 

 would of abandoning you (as that beggarly Greek, The- 

 seus, did the lovely Ariadne) to the misery of solitude on a 

 desolate island. 



And what a difference a little of this kind of rural drapery, 

 tastefully arranged, makes in the aspect of a cottage or 

 farm house in the country! At the end of the village, for 

 instance, is that old-fashioned stone house, which was the 

 homestead of Tim Steady. First and last, that family lived 

 there two generations; and every thing about them had a 

 look of some comfort. But with the exception of a coat of 

 paint, which the house got once in ten years, nothing was 

 ever done to give the place the least appearance of taste. 

 An old, half decayed ash tree stood near the south door, and 

 a fe\v decrepit and wornout apple trees behind the house. 

 But there w r as not a lilac bush, nor a syringa, not a rose 

 bush nor a honeysuckle about the w T hole premises. You 

 would never suppose that a spark of affection for nature, 

 or a gleam of feeling for grace or beauty, in any shape, ever 

 dawned within or around the house. 



Well, five years ago the place was put up for sale. There 

 were some things to recommend it. There was a "good 

 well of water;" the house was in excellent repair; and the 

 location was not a bad one. But, though many went to 



