FUEKISHING. 69 



and flies can be excluded in summer, where meals can be 

 eaten in the healthful serenity and comfort which is al- 

 most as essential as the food itself. What can be more 

 refreshing to the laborer than to enter from the blister- 

 ing glare of a harvest day into a cool, softly-lighted room 

 in which the fragrance of freshly gathered flowers, or the 

 aroma of leafy boughs, mingles its poetry with the cheer- 

 ful prose of the beef and vegetables ? And how pleasant 

 and restful it is for his helpmate to lay aside her kitchen 

 cares and kitchen-apron together, and oome smiling and 

 tidy to her little throne behind the tea-service. 



Such a room requires very little furniture. The walls 

 should be of neat and quiet tint, with two or three pleas- 

 ing pictures and sgme brackets for pots of ferns, or such 

 vines as will grow prettily in the shade during the hot 

 summer weather. In winter a few petunias and two or 

 three foliage plants will fill the sunny windows with 

 brightness and bloom. There should be a long, sub- 

 stantial table, with plenty of elbow room for all, and a 

 side-board or cupboard for table crockery. A small table 

 will be found a convenience if there is no side-board 

 for holding such dishes as are'used toward the end of a 

 meal at dinner time, when the varieties of food have a 

 tendency to crowd each other. .The window curtains 

 may be plain shades of color suited to the walls of the 

 room. Nothing can be better for the floor in summer 

 time than an oiled surface, like that of the kitchen, 

 which can be made comfortable to the feet in winter 

 by a large " crumb-cloth " of drugget or home-made 

 carpeting. 



In more opulent farm-homes where the wife has liberty 

 to devote more time and means to house decoration and 

 furnishing, very handsome dining-rooms can be achieved 

 with a moderate outlay. There should be high walls, a 

 fire-place, and a fine large window looking to the south or 

 east. All the rest is in the hands of the mistress. If 



