April, rg1t 
of using each article, but to the far-sighted hostess they 
will serve but as suggestions of the countless effects which 
may be obtained. The materials which may be used for 
such work are the cheapest 
of their kind, as, for in- 
stance, cheesecloth, crépe 
paper, paper muslin, buck- 
ram, cotton batting, mos- 
quito netting, and card- 
board. These may all be 
utilized for different effects, 
and at different times of 
the year. 
A half-dozen toys, out- 
grown or forgotten by the 
children, or selected, at five 
cents each, from a counter 
of damaged goods after 
the holiday season, may be 
repaired and _ freshened 
with glue and paint, and 
made to take the place of 
more costly favors at each plate. Often one of these toys 
is sO appropriate for a certain guest that it is scarcely nec- 
essary to point out the fitness. An automobile that has 
been discarded for a locomotive may bear a small basket 
of almonds before the motor enthusiast; the chafing dish, 
which the little girl has perhaps forgotten in the joys of 
Doll coachman and Bunny steed 
a new gas stove, belongs, according to tradition, to the 
college girl; and the last cup and saucer of a toy tea set 
may be used, as a warning against spinsterhood, at the 
plate of an unquestionably popular girl. 
Toy carts of all sizes, from a three-inch tin affair to 
a large express wagon, can be used as often as one finds a 
superfluous number about the house. The wheels and 
shafts may be wreathed with flowers, and the body filled 
with them, unless the load to be carried must have direct 
AMERICAN HOMES AND GARDENS 
The chums and their bugler brother 
133 
bearing upon the scheme of the entertainment, as, for in- 
stance, a cart full of Easter eggs to be distributed at an Easter 
Flowers from summer hats may be used for such dec- 
- orating, or one may buy in- 
expensive artificial flowers 
at the ten-cent stores, or 
make paper ones. 
Baskets, such as the one 
carried by the chums, will 
supply the whole basis for 
a table decoration, and the 
fresh, unpainted willow 
will be found very cool and 
attractive for a _ spring 
luncheon. <A large one in 
the center may hold a basin 
filled with long-stemmed 
flowers or branches of small 
green leaves, or it may be 
used as a Jack Horner pie. 
A small one at each plate 
may be filled with nuts or 
candy, or oval ice cups of plain white paper may be placed 
inside and the ices served in them. 
_ If one can procure wire frames, or can make them, as 
one can do occasionally, she has a most helpful addition 
to her stock of materials. The Easter bell, the Easter 
egg, the spring bonnet which is used as a Jack Horner 
party. 
Centerpiece of hen and chicks. Chicks to be distributed as favors 
pie, the basket to be filled with flowers, and the beehive 
may all be made over wire frames. ‘These frames, as sold, 
are made of stout wire that is not easily crushed out of 
shape, and they may be kept and used from year to year, 
as the foundation for Easter decorations. The color and 
design of the covering may, of course, be changed each 
year, and the accompanying favors may be so varied as 
to give the effect of an entirely. different arrangement as 
occasions demand. 
