50 FARM HOMES, Itf-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



The walls have two very good chromo landscapes, 

 framed by the boys. A deer's head and an old Indian 

 hatchet hang among the guns and fishing-tackle, that 

 give a vigorous boyish tone to the room. Over the door 

 is a lovely thing to my eyes: a motto done with water- 

 paints and by young hands, but it is easy enough to read 

 the words "REMEMBER MOTHER" among its gay leaves 

 and blossoms. And in this home "mother "is remem- 

 bered, and she has always remembered her boys. 



It does not follow that every farm-house mother must 

 have a large room with a blue-counterpaned bed for each 

 boy, although I would strongly recommend the arrange- 

 ment, with a variation of color ! " Individual" beds are 

 not only more conducive to health, but in this case they 

 do away with a great deal of the characteristic pinching 

 and squabbling of nocturnal boyhood ! They make a 

 little more washing, to be sure, but the sheets are small 

 and easily laundried. 



I quote this room to show that it is not much more 

 trouble to have things comfortable and harmonious than 

 it is to have them the reverse. The three boys might 

 have been pitched into this room if I may be permitted 

 the expression with one bed, a broken looking-glass, a 

 three-legged chair, and a shelf for a tin candle-stick, 

 with their only chance for washing and bathing offered 

 by the kitchen sink or the mill-pond. But I do not be- 

 lieve they would have liked this room for a reading-place, 

 or a studio, or been proud to invite their mates there, or 

 tli at they would have worked so laboriously to create 

 that blessed motto over the door. 



The chief beauty of any room, whether richly or 

 plainly furnished, is its purity and orderliness ; and the 

 Boys' Room needs daily attention to make it a place they 

 will look back to in after years with the keenest and teu- 

 derest memories. How many grown-up hearts there are 

 who can say, with Hood : 



