iv PREFATORY NOTE. 



for homeliness ; and I hope it may make country prose- 

 lytes." 



I have still faith that the simplicities it teaches, and its 

 common-sense suggestions, may have good influence 

 notwithstanding the great aesthetic gains which have been 

 made during the last fifteen years, in all that relates to 

 the equipment of suburban homes : and I am quite sure 

 that the intelligent and tasteful interpretation of the text 

 which has been made by the drawings of my friend Mr. 

 E. C. Gardner, of Springfield, Mass., will give wholly new 

 force and piquancy to the suggestions I have urged. 



D. G. M. 



EDGEWOOD, April, 1884. 



