61 



to be looped back at either side, and held in place by bows 

 of ribbon, or bunches of pressed leaves. 



Now arises the momentous question of a floor covering. 

 Straw-matting is desirable, but it costs half a dollar, and 

 more, a yard. Rag-carpeting would be neat, if made in 

 blue or pink, or buff, mingled with gray ; but it requires 

 a good deal of time, a good deal of material, and there 

 may be no weaver within fifty miles. The cheapest of 

 " ingrain " is forty or fifty cents per yard, and fades easi- 

 ly, and is generally in ugly patterns. If the floor is 

 smooth and close-jointed, and there is not much money 

 to spend, I would send to some house-furnishing firm in 

 the nearest city for a roll of wall-paper in a dark, rich 

 "tile" pattern, which might cost, including postage, 

 fifty or sixty cents. This I would paste smoothly around 

 the floor next the walls as a border, taking pains to make 

 neat joints in the corners, and when dry apply a coat of 

 good varnish. Over the remainder of the floor tack 

 down a carpet made of heavy unbleached cotton cloth, 

 sewed in neat straight seams that will not draw or pucker, 

 and bound all about the edges with a braid or cloth of a 

 color to match that chosen for the room. Until seen on 

 the floor no one can imagine how pretty and cheerful and 

 thoroughly neat such a carpet appears. With care it can 

 be used a whole summer without showing much soil, and 

 when washed and tacked down again, is just as good as 

 new. There should be gay little rugs of Turkish towel- 

 ling or braided rags to place before bedstead and toilet 

 table. 



If the bedstead is some old dingy, creaking thing that 

 would spoil all these efforts, let it be used for kindling 

 wood ; or what is better, let the father or the big brother 

 make from it a stout frame three feet wide by five and a 

 half in length, with slats nailed across the top, and not 

 more than sixteen inches in hight. Drape around it a 

 white valance, and make for it a thick mattress of split 



