1867.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
rang MugiraLB. 
(ZS~ For other Household Items, see " Basket " pages.') 
$&$»-- 
Tig. 1.— 0UB RUSTIC SEATS. 
Stumps, Quilts, and Counterpanes. 
riilZE ESSAT BY 21ISS EVA 51. COLLINS. 
Jennie and I have spent the morning among the 
hemlocks. We started out after breakfast "with 
knives and baskets, for moss, with which to dec- 
orate our stump. An old sugar maple, standing 
by the south dining-room door, had been dying 
by inches for years ; — with the exception of the 
year it was struck by lightning, when it took a 
long stride in its process of decay. Its size sensi- 
bly diminished as its dead branches were one after 
another cut away, while the size of the hollow in 
its trunk was as visibly augmented, (Fig. 2,) until it 
would admit almost any of us but father. Last fall 
we discovered a number of new fissures through to 
the outside, and that it had become so open that 
Jennie could no longer hide there ; it was but a 
shell, aud the first 
frost proved a feather 
Wj& too much in its cap, 
and one morning we 
found it scattered 
about on the ground 
iu particles, somewhat 
larger than those of 
the "Oue-hoss shay," 
of poetic fame. Father 
spoke once of having 
the roots dug out, but 
the majority exclaim- 
ed against the mea- 
sure, and triumphed 
as usual. It was such 
a beautiful stump, of 
historic fame ! All that 
was left of the very tree into which our great, great 
grandmother climbed, when she was a little girl at 
home alone, to hide away from the unfriendly In- 
dians, whom she heard coming, and who killed 
her dog, that now lies buried under the tree, 
aud stole all the hams ; and no one knows what 
might have become of her had she made a lisp of a 
sound. II, reminds us too of the wolves she was so 
courageously chiving away with lire-brands, when 
sho was boiling sugar, in the night, hut which 
turned out to be our great, great grandfather, 
from over the creek, who was merely 'testing the 
bravery of the pretty maiden, and had come through 
the woods— a meadow now — to sit up and watch the 
syrup with her. Oh! the stump tells us many a 
THE OLD STUMP. 
Ralph filled the bottom of the stump with earth 
and muck, and carefully transplanted a wild honey- 
suckle there. The flowers are now filling the air 
with the sweetest fragrance. This spring, he drove 
iu a strong, branching stick for a support for the 
Ivy, which used to run wild over the tree, and fast- 
ened rude seats among the roots. Katie has plant- 
ed a rose tree on the other side, and Jennie aud I 
have added onr gift of moss. The stump is already 
a pleasing rustic ornament, and has the present 
appearance of Fig. 1, and promises to be a fa- 
vorite family retreat in the warm summer days to 
come, and an eloquent stump speaker of the past. 
I had been saving paper rags all winter, having 
iu view a white spread for my bed. The idea has 
prevailed with us that patchwork quilts alone were 
suitable in rooms that were commonly used. A 
patchwork quilt is a perpetual annoyance to me. 
The three that I pieced myself before I was five 
years old, my only oues indeed, were stored away 
on a shelf in the upper hall closet — carefully folded 
wrong side out, because I could never bear to see a 
feature of one of them — until the Sanitary Com- 
mission absorbed them. I only hope their presence 
afforded as signal relief to some poor soldiers, as 
their absence to "a friend." However, I totally 
relinquished my purpose of buying a spread, the 
first time I had an opportunity to price them, aud 
let the rags go for tin as usual, but did not renounce 
my intention of having one nevertheless. We have 
some coarse, heavy, double-width sheets, which 
Charlie had at College, but which have been used 
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Fig. 4. — THE QUILT COMPLETED. 
very little 6ince, on account of being so heavy. I 
thought the groundwork of the counterpane I was 
examining, was not very unlike Charlie's sheets, 
barring the price; so I told our storekeeper "I 
would not take any to-day," and hastened home to 
see what could be done with one of them. After 
PATTEKN FOR QUILT. 
tale of the past, and it seems almost liko sacrilege 
not to cherish it still. Soon alter the tree fell 
Fig. 5.— now it looks. 
spreading it over the bed, aud looking at it from all 
sides, I removed it to my large work table — the 
floor — and, bearing iu mind the dimensions of the 
bed, with a large bowl and small meat-plat Ut, drew 
a design in dots, and worked iu double caudle wick- 
ing with a darning needle over a smaller table, like 
that shown in Fig. 8. The wicking is merely drawn 
once through the cloth at each dot *, and the ends 
are trimmed off about a third of an inch in length. 
It was Mime trouble to make it, and when finished 
it looked as in Fig. I. It took all my leisure 
time for three or four flays; but it pays capitally, 
because I am so well satisfied with it, and it looks 
so nicely on my bed, (Fig. 5). Mary says she has 
Fig. 6. — whipping it out. 
seen wick spreads before, and that they will wash. 
It is only necessary to fasten them strongly with 
clothes' pins to a high line, Fig. 6, and frequently 
whip them out while drying. Katie and Jennie are 
thinking of making one for their room, but say 
they shall improvise a prettier pattern than mine. 
Leaves from the Diary of a Young House- 
keeper.— No. IV. 
PRIZE ESSAT ET MKS. LAURA E. LT3IAX, STA3IT0RD, CT. 
June 10th. — Mother has been passing a week with 
me. She seemed very much pleased with all my 
household arrangements. I took a deal of pride in 
showing her that the efforts she had made to teach 
me the art of housekeeping, bad uot been fruitless, 
and that the maxims she used to inculcate were 
not forgotten in my economy. How many thous- 
and times I have heard her repeat : " A place for 
everything, and everything iu its place ; " "A time 
for everything, and everything iu its time ; " 
"Once well done is twice done." I took her into 
my linen closet and showed her my sheets, snowy 
white and fok'sd nicely, with sprigs of lavender be- 
tween. 1 gave her a peep into my cedar chest, 
where my woolens, furs, and winter clothing were 
stowed away, secure from the moths; aud showed 
her my bags, hanging each upon its own proper 
nail, with a label stitched upon it ; one with all my 
paper patterns in it ; another filled with pieces of 
silk; auother with new calico pieces, aud auothcr 
with old ; my two rag-bags, one for white aud the 
other for colored ; my barrel, iu which all woolens 
destined for rugs and carpets are kept ; my button 
bags, aud all the series so arranged, that in the 
darkest night I can lay my hands on everything in 
the house which can possibly be called for ; my 
old lineu pieces clean and tied up in a roll ready for 
bandages or sore fingers ; my woolen pieces for 
patches aud my worn domestic for linings. AH these 
little evidences that I remembered the lessons of 
thrift, order, aud economy she had taught me, 
were exceedingly gratifying to her. 
In exploring the attic, she discovered two or 
throe old-fashioned, rush-bottomed chairs, the 
frames of which werestill sound as ever, though 
the rushes had long since disappeared. These, she 
said, could, with a little ingenuity, be covered, and 
with a coat of varnish, do service for another gener- 
ation. So we carried these specimens of a past 
OgC down into the kitchen, and stitched over the 
seat a piece of strong canvas which we covered 
with some furniture calico, and I have three new 
chairs in my kitchen which afford decidedly the 
most comfortable seats in it, except my sewing 
chair. The coat of varnish which I put on them 
makes them look like new. 
Mother was very much pleased with my milk 
room, and said it "would answer admirably for all 
the months, except the Uottest Her lather was an 
old-fashioned New Hampshire farmer, aud she was 
broughl up to wash and pick wool, card, spin and 
