18G7.J 
AMKRICAX AGRICURTUKIST. 
105 
(•y" yifr othi^ II>tH'<ehoUt lUyns^ wd ** Bucket'* 
Home-Made Household Ornaments. 
W’o pn-sont tliii month Bomc ornumcnta a little 
more cluboruto than those j^iveu in tlie iast number ; 
Fill- 1, i' rustic’ llower stand, made to hold two 
eiixlit ineli i)Ot<, witli Geraniums, Fuchias, or any 
other ll.»wers suiUble for the living-room or parior. 
Tlie foundation of tlic stand is a piece of board 
abinit 'JO inches long, and }{ ineli tliiek. Fine or 
s line soft wood is tlie best. This is cut out on 
the front in the shape of a capital B, only the inden¬ 
ture is not ipiite so deep, and the edge upon nhich 
the sluts are to be nailed, are leR a little flaring, so 
U-- to give tlie reipiired sln^pe to the stand, tlie top 
of wldeh should incline outward, about an inch from 
a perpendicular line. A strip of rattan or willow, 
tliree clghth.s of an inch diameter, is flrst nailed 
with small brads upon tlie lower edge of tlie board, 
against which tlie slats arc to fit. The slats arc 
made of light and dark colored wood, with tlie bark 
on split from sticks 1 to l -.j inches in diameter, and 
Whitt: d down to a inch in tliickncss. Tlicy arc 
Fig. 3.— PIK CUSHION. 
1.—nUSTIC FLOWER STAND. 
made a little narrower at the bottom than at the top, 
t.i provide for the flare of the sUnd, and arc picketed 
at the top as shown in the sketch. These slats arc 
fa.ste;e d to the board at the bottom, with small 
brad:, about inch long, and at the top, to strip 
of ratUn, willow, or any other lithe wood, about half 
an inch in diameter, whittled flat upon one side to 
fit neatly to the slats. The nails or brads at the top 
should be much smaller than those at the bottom. 
The Imttom of the sUnd is linishedby nailing strips 
upon it in the same style as those at the side, fitting 
them neatly to the rattan or willow on the edgm. If 
the slats have not been previously finished, rub 
sli-htlv with flue sand paper to remove any rough¬ 
ness but not to di.sturb the original bark color. 
You now want a pot of warm glue, and a good 
selection of acorns, in the cups and out of them. 
A row of these should be fa.stcncd around the bot¬ 
tom next to the willow band, taking care to put 
^ ’ them so that they will 
not hit the floor or 
window ledge, when 
the stand is in its 
place. The rosettes 
at the sides arc made 
of acorns, and the 
cones of the Black 
Spruce, and those in 
front of single aconis 
__ with the scales of the 
- - Korway Spruce cone 
Y\.r, 2.— RUSTIC BASKET. pjaccd around them 
„ Let ween the rosettes are 
•n.o ornaments seen b t^^^ 
inude of sprigs of „,,ruec eones at the bot- 
cups on them, and snia I 
tom. In the , i u ^astc These are 
for the home artist to ^^sp ay 1 H 
f..,-tened on with glue and after they f 
few days, the whole should have 
nish. The inside bottom o 
,'v’■''ftuall. ll.» u,..m ll.= I..-'™- 
; t r’ V-... « . ..Uc m u,« sa... 
general style of work, varied by handles and legs. 
It is about eight inches across the top, and the 
same in height. The handles, the edging at the 
bottom, and tlie band upon the inside, to which 
the slats arc fastened, are made of rattan, but n il- 
low will answer. The slats arc made of dogwood 
and hazlcnut, about a ^'^•ineh through, and are 
fastened with brads or tacks. The legs arc about 
B^inch in diame- I OTr. .J 
ter, and raise tlie _ 
basket about an 
iucli from the 
stand or shelf. It 
may bo a appro¬ 
priately used to 
hold a flower pot, 
a vase with a bou¬ 
quet, or for the 
work-table to hold knitting or sewing when laid 
aside. All wood that is used for tliis kind of 
w'ork should be first tlioroughly seasoned. We 
have several varieties well adapted to this work. 
The main thing in the selection is to have unifor¬ 
mity of size and a pretty contrast in the color. 
Fig. 3 represents a pin-cushion. The founda¬ 
tion is a bit of pine board, cut or turned in a lathe, 
round, about seven inches in diameter. It is fur¬ 
nished with legs or % inch 
long, and the underside is cover- 
' ed with morocco paper. The 
pin-cusliion on top is any pretty 
pattern of w'orsted work, stuffed 
with wool. The border of rustic 
work, about inches wide, is 
quite elaborate, presenting a 
dozen varieties or more of acorns, 
cones, seeds, and berries gather¬ 
ed from the woods. The top and 
bottom courses are made of the 
scales of the cone of the Norway 
Spruce, turned inside out, and 
fastened to the paste board with 
thread and needle. There are 
three courses at the bottom, and two at the top. 
The space between is filled in with acorns of sever¬ 
al varieties of oak, beech nuts, hard hack seeds, 
black spruce cones, dried berries, seeds of weeds, 
and buds of evergreen trees stripped of their 
Almost any small shrub or weed, whose seeds hold 
on in the winter, will furnish appropriate material 
for this kind of work. They may be fastened on 
with needle or glue, as can be done to best advan¬ 
tage When tastefully wrought up, they make 
beautiful pin-cushions. They not only ™m^ 
the toilet table at home, but command a ready sale 
at fairs, and are a source of profit to the maker. 
ILeavcH from tlic l>iary of a Yoimg 
Ilowsclceepcr.— Yo. II. 
rnizE ESSAY BY MBS LAURA E. LYMAN, STAMFORD, CT, 
Jau 31 -For a few days past I have been sending 
broth and other delicacies to a poor family Bbout 
,alf amile down tl-^ 
til war with a shattered constitution and a gloomy 
tnrPF or four girls in the flmiily, one 
There are three or fojir 
about twelve years of a , 
talking about the before many 
a number of farm laborers, I ®°“Af she 
to — 
good wages in serv me ^ 
I sliould prefer to ^ ^ to 
thrifty and great class of 
have; for the ^ j^jent, who always were 
the shiftless and tl 1 ^ ^ ^11 
- a„ .o, 
who con S‘VC Bno IJ „f bj. 
and perhaps 1 may put 
coming an excellent housekeeper, and eventually 
the mistress of a home of her own. 
Feb. 25.—The poor soldier died. Edward and I 
went to the funeral, and it made my heart ache to 
see those five little ill-clad orphans shivering on the 
heap of frozen dirt at their father’s grave, their 
feet only half protected from the snows of mid¬ 
winter, and their future apparently as dark as the 
lowering skies above them. 
The next day we went down in a sleigh, and got 
Sue with her little bundle of clothes, tied up in an 
old handkerchief. She has been here ten days, and 
I’ve been thinking a good deal as to how, both for 
her own sake as well as for mine, I can make the 
most of her. She is cheerful and always willing, 
but lias no ideas of thrift, economy, or neatness. 
To teach her these, and, at the same time, divert her 
mind from her grief and loneliness, I have devoted 
a good deal of time to her. I find I must not ex¬ 
pect very much, and must have great patience 
I with her dull preeeption, and her weak memory. 
On one point I have been very successful, and this 
giv’es me encouragement that tlie same system 
in other departments will be equally effective. 
She seemed to have no idea as to how a table 
should be set. So, to assist her conception, I wrote 
out in a very clear hand the following list, and 
pasted it on the inside of the closet door: “ Table¬ 
cloth, napkins, mats, plates, knives, forks, spoons 
glasses, cups, saucers, sugar and milk, butter, salt, 
the castor, bread, water, the dishes from the stove, 
chairs.” Just under this paper I drew a little out¬ 
line picture of the table, with all the dishes on it m 
their proper places. The effect was magical She 
now looks upon table setting as pastime and does 
it as well as I could if I were expecting Miss Leslie 
herself to dine with us. . 
Raised as she has been, in an atmosphere of im¬ 
providence, it is not strange that I could not ge 
her to remember to put on her dishwater at ftie 
rio-lit time. But she looked so mortmed at being 
constantly reminded of it, that I changed my tae- 
Ss al told her she should have a penny every 
time she remembered it, and forfeit one every time 
shTforlt. For two days now there has been 
plenty of hot dishwater at the right time, at an ex¬ 
pense of three cents a day, but the value o 
habit alone, when onoe fixed, cannot be estimated 
It has always been a topic of conversation an 
.round of Implaint with my housekeeping ae- 
‘Jilt iurcisJvcs, besides 
'/“"“feJ of te^tb", svould certdlnly tr, to 
L .boot tbe o.*.. 
Sebelleyo «.dt similor 
lojoestioo. .nd 
Lswers, coplatolng '“'‘f ’“J, “i" 
,M„S sbo b., ““J^islntbldolckstaod 
stance, she can wash 
best way; what I catechism 
when she gets up in the moi nmg. 
she recites to me every night 
promisedherthatas^h^^ 
Its,lolni,lid bread-making. 
Q .7 __Testerdav we returned from a visit 
to^ur relatives, 
Edward bad prepared “ lo my home, 
a little different from vv at^^^^ J ^ iniagined. 
but the contrast was fa ^ ,voman than his 
There never was a m • thoroughly sensible as 
„.other, and few men -«;«J^;r,,,rioving, system- 
bis father. But g^ew up in such a 
atie man as my husband, he 
family, is past my P to tell us 
was talking, one a 
breakfiist was J = the table, and the ta- 
