43 



surface that perhaps nice paint and an outer coat of var- 

 nish can be afforded. 



For the walls select a light gray paper of a small flow- 

 ery or geometric pattern, without color, with a border of 

 pink roses and golden-green leaves, or of any other 

 pretty design in these colors. A cheap paper of modest 

 pattern and neatly put on, has quite as good an appear- 

 ance as the more expensive sorts, and there is less arsenic 

 in its composition for poisoning the air. 



For the windows, plain bleached cotton shades, with a 

 bordering of pink "chambrey" stitched on in bias 

 bands, will look neatly. Or lambrequins may be made 

 of the chambrey, with pinked ruffles about the edge and 

 across the top. Fashion journals generally send lambre- 

 quin patterns for twenty or twenty-five cents, and it is 

 worth while to have a graceful pattern, if any. Beneath 

 these lambrequins nothing can be prettier in the way of 

 inexpensive fabrics than book-muslin, made to hang in 

 ample folds, the bottoms of the curtains just clearing 

 the floor, and finished with a wide hem. In place of 

 book-muslin, plain bleached cotton cloth the lighter in 

 quality the better can be used, with two bands of pink 

 chambrey stitched across six inches from the bottom. 



For the floor there is nothing more cheerful or more 

 serviceable, or freer from dust, than straw matting. It 

 is also cheap, compared with other carpetings. Direc- 

 tions are given for making inexpensive carpets of wall- 

 paper, but the process seems a tedious and not a very 

 money-saving one. First, the floor must be covered with 

 cotton cloth sewed together in breadths and tucked down 

 very smoothly ; this is to be covered with a coating of 

 glue or thick flour paste. Upon this is laid the wall-pa- 

 per, and upon the wall-paper two coats of varnish, when 

 the "cheap" carpet is completed. In the long run, a 

 good white matting would prove much less expensive, 

 besides being more grateful both to vision and touch. 



