1SC7.] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
331 
srrnunp 
(73~ For other Household Items, see ''Basket. " pages.') 
Dashes at Honse-Keeping with a Free 
Pencil. 
IT.IZE ES3AY BT JOSS ETA JI. COLLETS, BOCHESTEB. 
THE PLAT-E001I 1LADE OTEK. 
Jennie thinks she is getting to be too large a girl 
to have a play-room any longer, and quite surprised 
mo a few days ago by asking if I could not help her 
convert it into a spare bedroom for her. Little 
•FLAT-ROOM CONVERTED. 
cousin Helen is coming to spend her vacation here, 
and probably that was what put the idea into Jen- 
nie's head ; but at that moment the little black-eyed 
lady did not occur to me, nor did the possibility of 
bestowing any of our friends there seem very feasi- 
ble, so I could only echo the last of her sentence, 
" bedroom for me," as Miss Betsy Lavender would 
have done. The play-room is sis feet by nine, or 
would be of those dimensions, only that a chimney 
•occupies a third of one end of the room, protrud- 
ing eighteen inches into the apartment, which 
makes it appear even smaller than it is in reality. 
It was originally a large closet, but had been from 
time immemorial, so far as I am concerned, given 
up to the little girls for a play-room, and had now 
for years belonged exclusively to the baby. And 
so the baby wanted to convert the play-room into 
a spare room. '-Well ! 
what next?" Where- 
upon little sister ex- 
plained herself. It 
would make such a 
nice little room, just 
large enough for Hel- 
en — and herself — and 
very likely the spare 
rooms will all be in 
requisition for larger 
company, especially 
while the boys are at 
home. She is sure 
she and Helen will 
like the room all the Fig. 2- — toilet table. 
better for its small size, and it will seem like keep- 
ing house iu earnest to have the room where she 
has always pretended to live, for her own. Dim 
visions of the possibility of having to tike one of 
the children into my room had been hovering iu the 
distance for several days, but this disposition of 
the play-room dispelled them at once, though I 
Eliould never have thought of it. Ralph was, as 
usual, our right hand man. He brought down the 
oldest cot-bed from the garret, and by shortening 
it half a foot, removed 
a large rent in the foot 
of the canvas, and made 
the bed fit in the short 
way of the room, so Jen- 
nie has still a passage way 
from the door to the win- 
dow, fig. 1, besides the 
spaces each side of the 
chimney. In the space back of the door, Ralph lias 
put up a number of hooks, and by hanging a cur- 
tain in front of them, it makes quite a respectable 
wardrobe. For the oth'-r space, the one near the 
window, Ralph has coutri .1 a toilet table, whivh 
Fig. 3.— TOILET CASE. 
bookcase. 
Jennie declares is just the thin"-, 
securely fastened over cleats with 
frozt, and a cloth over 
the top, fig. 2. Over the 
toilet table and near the 
window we hung a case 
for combs and brushes, 
made of pasteboard and 
covered with tissue paper, 
fig. 3. I tell Jennie she 
and Helen will have to be 
very neat, or they will 
make a deal of washing, as 
everything in the room is white— bed, window cur- 
tains, wardrobe, and toilet table. Jennie thought 
she wanted a place for a few books, so we hung a 
little shelf, fig. 4, at the foot of her bed, op- 
posite the " Lord's Prayer," which hung over the 
head of it. Then she thought " nothing was want- 
ing but a light stand which would not take up any 
room." Ralph has suited her exactly, fig. 5, and 
has made the bottom of the stand so much heavier 
than the top, that it will not easily tip over. The 
room is cunning enough. The small red and white 
squares in the matting look brighter than ever be- 
fore, and the view from the window is lovely either 
in winter or summer, as it looks off down one of 
the most beautiful valleys in the world. 
Two little sets of hands to keep out of mischief 
this summer! Jennie has a box at the bottom of 
her wardrobe, where I am to put work for her and 
Helen, as I come across anything that will answer 
for them, the only conditions being that no work 
placed in the box can be under- 
taken before the article under way 
is completed, except by permis- 
sion. Jennie, and I believe children 
generally, likes the plan of being 
obliged to decide for herself, and 
then of being held to her own 
decision, even though some different course may ap- 
pear more attractive. Grandmother has taught her 
that little girls who are driven about by every passing 
fancy, almost always grow up into wavering, weak 
minded v silly women, while it is the privilege, the 
right, the duty of each little girl to grow into a noble, 
beautiful woman. It will be entirely optional with 
the children whether any work in this box shall be 
commenced or not, but if begun, it must be finish- 
ed unless there is some very good reason why it 
can not be done; therefore the pro's and con's 
must all be considered beforehand. This piece of 
thick Bristol-board, six inches by eight, will make 
them a transparency to hang in their window. If 
I draw the design lightly with a pencil, they can 
cut it upon a board with a penknife, wherever it is 
marked, bend 
all the points 
out, and paste 
a narrow rib- 
bon around the 
edge, fig. 6. 
Jennie called 
us last evening 
to sec how the 
moonlight _ 
shadowed the S 
grotesque fig- S 
urcs in the B 
window cur- m 
tains over the jj 
1)1 and walL II 
The cross gj 
among the U 
haves will m 
form an agree- flj 
able variety. B 
Here is a bun- 
dle of bright 
cambric and silk for linings to muslin bags, which 
have long been waiting to be made. I will roll 
the 'white cotton yarn with this parcel, and put it 
into the children's work-box. A pattern in Un- 
roll, tig. 7, will show them what this is intended 
for, and please them better than verbal instruction. 
It seems r little sad to see the play-room thus 
" converted," as Jennie calls it. I really almost 
mm 
Fi: 
(>. — TRANSPARENCY. 
the little people's 
in the play-room ; 
it is onl} r the play- 
not veiy materially 
wish I could have dressed 
dolls for one more Christmas, 
but after all, Jennie is right ; 
room still in a different dress- 
diffjrent, because suddenly clothed aucw. Real 
changes are slow in their growth, necessarily, be- 
cause growth requires time. The little room will 
be the play-room probably for some lime to come. 
Mothers ! do not hastily wrest 
the play-room from the chil- 
dren. It has a mission to ful- 
fill. It teaches them by con- 
stant practice bow to make 
the most of every thing ; to 
cover over neatly the most 
outlandish shapes ; to make 
homely things pretty, and to 
see all the naughty traits iu 
themselves in their true light, 
as they are reflected iu their 
imaginary little ones. The 
lessons learned iu the play- 
room, more than elsewhere, 
are industry, patience, gentle- 
ness, economy, and aceuracv, 
while the taste is cultivated, 
and affection sacredly cherish- 
ed. No matter if the hun- 
dredth attempt is still rude and 
unsuccessful, it is yet a step in the right direction. 
A suggestion now and then will not be lost. The 
child maybe taught, but the lessons can be learned 
only by itself. The most beautiful paiuting was, 
iu its first stage, a mere daub, and so the child, iu 
its first endeavors, can not be expected to fore- 
shadow the ingenious woman, which, in a con- 
genial atmosphere, its mature growth may unfold. 
Leaves from the Diary of a Young House 
keeper.— No. IX. 
PRIZE ESSAY BY MIS. LAUBA E. LY3IAX, STAHTOnD, C] 
Sept. 7fh. — On our way home from our delight- 
ful visit to Mr. and Mrs. George, I expressed to 
Edward my unbounded admiration for a farmer's 
life, such as we saw it in their establishment, and 
I thought over in my mind some improvements I 
might make in housekeeping, and especially in the 
care of my milk, cream, and butter. The secret of 
Mrs. George's splendid success in the production 
of butter is, that she has every facility for preserv- 
ing nearly a uui'orm temperature in every part of 
her dairy establishment, the year round. Since 
coming home I have endeavored to imitate her so 
far as the arrangements of my house will, as yet, 
permit. I have no ice chamber for keeping my 
cream in as she has, but talkiug the matter over 
with Edward, he suggested that iu one corner of the 
cellar the soil is damp and cool, and that a little 
pit might be made there to answer the purpose. 
So he took his spade and made a little hole 
about eight inches deep, where I place my cream 
jar and fill it round with the moist, cool earth, so 
that I can preserve it at nearly a uniform tempera- 
ture. My hist churning showed the difference; it 
was as good September butter as I ever saw. I 
have also put less milk iu a pan than I used to, 
and fiud the cream rises more perfectly. 
Sept. V2t!t. — The past week has been a very busy 
one. The apples aud tomatoes are ripening rapidly 
and must be cared for in their proper time ; so, 
earl; and late, Sue and I have kept our knives in 
motion, and in the evening Edward has kept the 
paring machine running. Instead of the old mode 
of quartering and coring them, we find slicing 
them in thin pieces, uniform iu thickness, is a bet- 
ter and more expeditious way of preparing them. 
As apples, when drying, very readily absorb flavors, 
I have observed the utmost care iu keeping them 
where they could acquire no taint Edward made 
me a scaffolding of hemlock boards upon which I 
spread some old sheets that were perfectly clean, 
and laid over the apples some fly netting to pre- 
serve them from the contact oi kflsects of all Kinds. 
These hot days of September I thought beat to 
improve in drying tomatoes, in imitation of dried 
