510 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
[December, 
In good condition in the morning, except when 
deeply cracked. It is very good to apply to the 
hands after “ washing-day.” This is an excellent 
preparation to use by those afflicted with the 
distressing trouble known as haemorrhoids or piles. 
Decorations for Home and Elsewhere. 
In the October number, page 390, reference was 
made to the gathering of leaves for purposes of dec¬ 
oration, and in the last issue (November, page 471,) 
some of the most showing autumn berries were de¬ 
scribed. The season of collecting these is over, 
and we now come to not the least interesting part 
of the work, that of the arrangement. To so place 
the gathered treasures that they will show to the 
best advantage requires skill and taste, for what 
may suit one person will not please another. We 
give a few designs which, when made of a size 
to correspond with the surroundings, will be found 
pleasing in any room, be it church, school-room, or 
the home. The Harp, figure 1, is made upon a 
foundation, consisting of a wooden frame and base, 
with small strips of lath for the strings. The size 
of the harp will depend upon the place it is to oc¬ 
cupy ; for a mantel, it, of course, should be smaller 
than when used to decorate a large hall. The 
largest one we have seen was eight feet in hight, 
made of boards and lath strips. The frame was 
covered with different and many-colored leaves; 
Arbor Vitae was used for the base, and the lath- 
strings covered with the bright red berries of the 
Climbing Bitter 
Sweet, or Wax- 
work. This harp 
was suspended in 
a church by a fine 
wire, and held in 
position by invis¬ 
ible side wires, 
and appeared to 
stand in mid-air, 
somewhat back 
of and, above the 
pulpit. The same 
design may be 
used for wall dec¬ 
oration, making 
the background 
or frame from 
paste-board or 
heavy c a r d- 
Fig. 1* -DESIGN FOR HARP. boardj to which 
{he leaves and berries may be fastened. After it 
Is finished, a few small tacks driven into the 
wall will serve to hold it securely in its place. 
Another pleasing design is the ancient Lyre, fig¬ 
ure 2. This being symmetrical, that is, alike on 
both sides, it is to many a more pleasing figure than 
the harp. Its construction, both as to frame and 
covering with leaves and berries, is much the same 
Fig. 2.— A LYRE OF LEAVES. 
as for the harp. The strings will be fewer, and 
may therefore be made broader. Another design 
is the Cornucopia, two of which are shown in figure 
3. These horns-of-plenty, like the other designs, are 
made of any size from one foot in length, for or¬ 
dinary rooms, to giant ones of six feet or more, to 
decorate halls, churches, etc. The back is-flat, and 
is cut from stiff paste-board, and the front is made 
of heavy wrapping paper that will bend, and be 
sufficiently firm to hold its place. This outside 
should be cut after the back piece as a pattern, 
with an allowance of some space on both sides, this 
being the greater the nearer to the larger end, in 
order to give the form of the horn, when the two 
pieces are stitched together. The front surface is 
decorated with colored leaves and gilt bands. The 
cornucopias are fastened to the wall by tacks or 
hooks, one on either side of some large object, as a 
picture, the lower portion of the cornucopia turn¬ 
ing away from the center. The horns should be 
represented as full; a loose cluster of fine grasses 
is appropriate, with here and there a bunch of red 
berries, or whatever else taste may suggest. The 
grasses and other objects should be light, loose, 
airy, and, to our taste, not artificially colored. 
Home Topics. 
BY FAITH ROCHESTER. 
Sunday Morning 
in many homes is the worst morning in the week. 
On other days work and school require early rising 
and prompt action. The regular routine is usually 
broken iu upon on Sunday morning. All wish to 
have their sleep out. The mother of young chil¬ 
dren has little share in this extra sleep. Indeed, it 
is hard to see when she can get any chance to make 
up for broken rest and abbreviated hours of sleep, 
for babies wake up as early as usual on Sunday 
mornings, and the actual cares and labors of that 
day, which is to be one of “ rest” to some of the 
family, make it impossible for the home Mana¬ 
ger to doze aw'ay the morning hours. She remem¬ 
bers a bit of mending which surely ought to have 
been done in preparation for a Sunday-school out¬ 
fit ; shoes that have lost some of their buttons; a 
little suit should have been sponged with Ammonia 
Water before this Sunday came; the fact that Katie 
has not a single pair of clean stockings left in her 
drawer, or that she has forgotten to have John get 
himself some new collars—something of this kind 
is pretty sure to haunt the wearv brain of the moth¬ 
er of a numerous and growing family. She blames 
herself for neglect when she ought not, and per¬ 
haps feels more or less of discouragement. 
Let me, right here, put in a word of sympathy 
and encouragement. I know what I am writing 
about, having had abundant experience. Let no 
woman, overburdened with cares and labors, im¬ 
agine that her case is peculiar, and by no means 
let her envy childless mothers or unmarried wo¬ 
men who have more quiet and leisure. There is 
no other way out of the hard place in which she finds 
herself, except to go ahead and do the best she can 
and have hope for the future. With intelligent 
care and judicious training now, these little ones 
who add to the present labors, will all, in a few 
years, become helpers. But they will not grow up 
to it naturally, they must be trained by “ line 
upon line and precept upon precept,” and es¬ 
pecially by good example. 
When I advise the weary and disheartened moth¬ 
er to persevere and simply do the best she can, I by 
no means intend to advise her to try to do all the 
work she can. That may be the worst, she can do* 
by breaking down her health and adding to the 
cares and toils of others. There is such a thing as 
wise selfishness. I remember an old lady whom I 
met at a railroad station several years ago. Ob¬ 
serving my two little children, she began to ask me 
about my family. She was the mother of thirteen 
children, and, in answer to my inquiries, she told 
me that the hardest time to get along'with her 
children was when there were only three of them, 
as none of them were able to help her. I have 
found, in my own experience, that five are more 
easily taken care of than two small ones. What a 
relief it seems when some of them are old enough 
to dress themselves, and to get ready for church or 
Sunday-school with only a very little help and 
watching. Soon they are able to attend to their 
own buttons and darning. By this time they help 
about the house-work, and mamma begins to find 
some rest on Sunday, as well as the others. When 
there is a good deal to do on Sunday morning, as 
there is apt to be where there is a large family and 
insufficient help, it is only fair that the father of 
the family should lend a hand about the house. 
Why cannot he dress one or more of the little ones? 
He ought to be able to help about all that button¬ 
ing and tying which usually fill up the mother’s 
time, and make it such a tiresome thing for her to 
get ready for church herself, or to fit the little ones 
out for Sunday-school. 
Evidently it is the part of wisdom to have every¬ 
thing done iu preparation for Sunday that can be 
done in the week preceding. Our Puritan fore¬ 
mothers set us a good example in this respect. We 
think they carried matters too far at times, but we 
do well to learn what we can from their example. 
If the children can have their baths and clean 
clothes on Saturday afternoon or evening, it is so 
much clear gain. If there is cold meat for slicing 
or for warming over, plain baked pudding and 
plenty of the most nourishing bread, and vegetables 
of easy preparation without the mother’s labor, it 
is a good thing... Many persons are strong friends of 
Christmas Trees. 
These are very well in their way, sometimes very 
well indeed, but I do think the tree business is of¬ 
ten overdone. We found that we could not man¬ 
age the tree in our family, for many reasons. We 
love to keep all our little secrets from each other 
until the time for the grand jubilation. And then 
we want to make such presents as will give the 
most lasting pleasure, considering their cost, and 
often these are quite unsuitable for a tree. The 
tree tempts to extravagance, or to an outlay for 
merely showy toys. If one family of children have 
a gaily decked Christmas tree, their neighbors feel 
that they must have one, as no one wishes to be 
outdone by others. I do not know the origin of the 
Christmas tree. Within the last twenty years it has 
grown from very small beginnings, and spread it¬ 
self wonderfully in this country, until of late its 
popularity appears to be somewhat on the wane. 
Yet present-giving is as popular as ever. There is 
room for great improvement in this, all in the way 
of consulting the happiness of others, rather than 
our own praise and pleasure. 
But I do not like to be thought wholly opposed 
to Christmas trees. They are sometimes so well 
managed that no fault can be found with them. In 
some families, the same decorations and ornaments 
are kept and used from year to year, and very 
pretty effects are produced by the arrangement of 
the dolls, soldiers, horses, and other animals about 
the grounds underneath the tree, where bits of 
looking-glass simulate water and where flowers 
seem to grow among the moss. Trees arranged in 
this artistic manner are often kept on exhibition 
through the Holiday Week, with pleasing effect. 
I like the Christmas stockings best of all, perhaps 
because of long habit and early associations. But 
there is every year much happy expectation and 
genuine wish to please among my little flock as 
each one hangs up a clean stocking on going to 
bed, and puts parcels done up in paper so as not to 
show the shape of the contents into the other 
stockings, or hangs them on the same nail as the 
