1174 
THE RURAL NEW-YORKER 
A Trip to a New Countrv 
(Continued from page 3174 ) 
table, bedstead, several wooden-bottom 
chairs and a big rocking chair. They 
wanted 50 cents each for the bed and 
table, 25 cents each for the chairs, ex¬ 
cept the rocker, that was 50 cents also, 
bo we paid for them without seeing them 
and they promised to send them over next 
day when the stage came that would bring 
our other things. My husband went on 
the stage and got our freight from the 
depot and bought a new cookstove, a 
set of springs and mattress for our bed 
and a crib and high chair for the baby. 
When the stage arrived with our things 
the driver said be would come back as 
soon as he took care of his horses and 
help put the stove up. While waiting for 
him we put up the bedstead and then 
found it was at least six inches narrower 
than the springs and mattress, so we had 
to get four pieces of board and put them 
across the corners of the bed to rest the 
springs on. This raised the mattress so 
high that it nearly needed a stepladder 
to get into bed. By this time the stage- 
driver had returned and they put up the 
stove; soon we had a fire roaring mer¬ 
rily up the chimney and we began to feel 
the need of some supper, as we had not 
had any dinner, so we fried some bacon 
and bad bacon and crackers, and never 
before or since have I ever enjoyed a 
meal as I did that. 
Cheap Living. —There was no kind of 
baked stuff to be had at the store except 
crackers. The storekeeper carried dry 
goods as well as groceries in stock. Every¬ 
thing was trade. People came to the store 
bringing butter and eggs and traded them 
for their groceries. We bought butter 
for 11 cents per pound, eggs 11 cents per 
dozen and in February we got Northern 
Spys, beautiful, great, big ones for 10 
cents per bushel ; potatoes 15 to 20 cents 
per bushel for the very best. Later on 
in the Spring we got all the small and 
medium potatoes we wanted given us for 
taking them away. We cooked them and 
gave them to our pig and chickens. But 
to return to our house furnishing. The 
big, comfortable (?) rocker our friends 
'recommended so highly proved to have 
slats crosswise on the back and one of 
them had been broken out, so when we 
tried to sit in it our backs were nearly 
broken. 1 had some pretty cretonne, and 
tipping that old rocker over on its back 
I nailed a piece of new screen-door wire 
on the slats, drawing it as tight as possi¬ 
ble and nailing it good and solid. Then 
I put several layers of cotton batting 
over the wire and sewed it securely in 
place, using a darning needle and fine 
cord and putting the needle through the 
meshes of the wire screening. Then over 
that I tacked a cover of the cretonne, 
fastening it to the sine posts and across 
the top and bottom slats with brass-head¬ 
ed tacks. The back of the rocker was also 
covered with the cretonne and with a 
pretty ruffled cushion of the same for the 
seat it. was changed into a very comfort¬ 
able, ensy chair indeed. I had taken my 
books with me and now wanted some 
place to put them. There was not a 
shelf anywhere in the house except in 
the pantry, so I took the two packing 
boxes our bedding was in and made a 
place for them. I stood the longest box 
up on end and put a shelf crosswise 
through the middle, made a door of the 
cover and cut pieces of leather from an 
old shoe and tacked on for hinges, then 
put a hook on to fasten the door shut 
with. I took a smaller box and put across 
on top, open side out, put a shelf in that, 
and when it was nailed together good and 
solid I covered it all over with a heavy 
dark brown paper with glossy finish; 
when finished it looked like the picture 
shown. This made a nice place for my 
books, with the clock ticking away on the 
shelf and I felt well pleased with my at¬ 
tempt at carpentry. 
Cutting Cordwood. —Soon as we got 
settled my husband began to look for 
work and learned that no one paid out 
any money for help until Spring work 
commenced, so be got a chance to cut 
wood, four-foot cordwood, on shares, get¬ 
ting every third cord for pay. lie started 
for the woods before daylight, carrying 
bis dinner and going cross lots over three 
miles, often with snow nearly to his 
waist. At noon he thawed his dinner 
out over a bonfire, as it was always 
frozen hard as ice. lie cut over 150 cords 
of wood ; then he found a farmer who had 
a lot of corn to be husked. It had stood 
out in the field all Winter. As soon as 
the snow was off he went to husking corn, 
and by the time he could get work to 
do for which they paid money he had 
a lot of corn on hand, so we decided to 
get a pig and some chickens. He bought 
20 hens at 25 cents each and paid for 
them in wood; 10 cords of four-foot wood 
at 50 cents a cord. He found a pig three 
months old that he could get for three 
dollars by paying cash for it, so we had 
a pig and chickens and corn to last them 
nearly all Summer. 
Low Wages. —But when Spring work 
commenced he found that 50 cents a day 
was considered big wages, and the man 
that paid 75 per day during haying and 
harvest was considered very liberal in¬ 
deed, so we began to see the reason for 
such cheap rent. Clothing, shoes and all 
groceries that were shipped in were much 
higher in price than in the East, so in 
spite of cheap produce and cheap rent it 
soon became evident that the average for 
living was higher than it was in the East, 
and wages less than half ns much. After 
spending our second Winter there we had 
a chance to go on a farm back East, so 
selling our household goods and stoves to 
a newly married couple we returned to 
the East once more. 
A Trade in Rabbits. —The grocery 
store at Christmas time put in a small 
stock of toys and fancy dishes for the 
Christmas trade. I was making some 
Christmas gifts for baby, and among 
them was a white rabbit made of 
canton flannel; the ears were cut out, 
and the wrong side pasted on to 
pink paper; when dry and cut out 
they would stand up as straight as could 
be. The eyes and mouth were sewed in 
with pink yarn. It looked so cute I 
thought perhaps I could sell some to the 
storekeeper, they had so few toys in stock. 
Ho I made a half dozen and took them 
up to the store that afternoon and asked 
the storekeeper if he thought they would 
sell. He said he would try and if he 
could sell them he would allow me all he 
got for them if I took it in trade. That 
evening my husband went in the store 
and the man said, “Tell your wife those 
rabbits are all sold and I want a dozen 
early in the morning, as I have orders for 
several now.” Ho I made the dozen rab¬ 
bits before going to bed; next morning 
my husband took them up to the store. 
I made another dozen and went up with 
them in the afternoon and he only had 
two left, so he ordered some more and 
also gave me some dolls to dress. He fur¬ 
nished the cloth and lace for trimming 
and paid me 25 cents each in trade for 
dressing them. I made complete outfits 
for them, and ns dressed dolls were some¬ 
thing new they sold well, so out of my 
sewing and rabbits I got. baby a nice doll 
and some other toys, and got a set of 
china cups and saucers in the loveliest 
shade of blue I ever saw. Heveral years 
later I made a lot of the rabbits and put 
them in a fancy goods store in a large 
city to be sold on commission, and cleared 
several dollars on them, ns they proved 
to be something new. 
Although we liked it in the West it 
was very different to one brought up 
among the hills and valleys to look ns far 
as the eye could see, and nothing but level 
land till sky and earth met. It certainly 
did seem good to see the green hills and 
valleys once more. A. II. 
Furnishing a Small House 
What a Farm Bride Did With $200. 
Planning the Renovation. —The 
house was little, the plaster was cracked, 
ceilings were low and painted woodwork 
of dull brown added the finishing touch. 
Yet harmony of color and a vivid imagi¬ 
nation, a plucky bride and a husband 
who could use the hammer and saw made 
a very attractive home of that old house. 
Ho attractive, in fact, that the color 
scheme has been followed in the “new 
house” long since built. 
Htarting the Work. —Five rooms and 
a woodshed, and such a slim pocketbook 
behind all the changes that had to come. 
First the old paper was soaked with soap¬ 
suds and taken off; the cracks in the 
jdastering were fastened over with mus¬ 
lin ; the woodwork was given two coats 
of common white paint and one of en¬ 
amel. The floors were wide boards and 
wide cracks also; but even in that far- 
off day, now 15 years ago, that bride 
abhorred carpets. Ho the two tiny bed¬ 
rooms lmd the cracks laboriously filled 
with newspapers soaked to a pulp. Then 
two coats of tan porch paint were ap¬ 
plied and then two coats of good var¬ 
nish. That “filler” stayed in! 
Planning a Color Bciikme. — Thai 
the real work began. The little library 
had so many windows that an olive green 
wallpaper was chosen, plain, to add size 
to the appearance of the room. This 
was put on clear to the cream colored 
ceiling paper, with a green picture mould¬ 
ing to join them. A plain, fine piece 
of Japanese matting, in deep tan color, 
was used as a border on this floor, also 
on the living room. The rugs also were 
alike in color; for the library an odd¬ 
sized piece of dark green Brussels had 
West- 
Arrangement of Upper and Lower Rooms. 
September 25, 1915. 
been bought at a bargain and sewed 
into a rug to fit the odd-sized space. For 
the living room a good piece of green and 
tan ingrain was used for the rug. That 
room was papered in tan, put on like 
the library paper; the two rooms blend¬ 
ed perfectly, and could be used as one 
room. A curtain of green denim sep¬ 
arated the two; and the windows were 
curtained alike in cream colored scrim. 
The Kitchen Dining Room. —At first 
the bride was d uinted at the “kitchen 
dining room,” but finally solved the prob¬ 
lem by using a large screen to separate 
the two. The walls were papered in 
delft blue and white; the kitchen end 
had linoleum to match and the dining 
room end had a blue and white rag car¬ 
pet clear to the walls. The screen was 
a fourfold frame covered with delft blue 
denim. 
The Bedrooms. —Upstairs two sloping 
ceilinged, closet less rooms with a hall just 
wide enough for a medium sized man! 
The “spare room” was papered in a cream 
colored paper, with yellow roses; this 
was put on to cover the “slope,” and 
a ribbon binder < f buff joined it to the 
small, plain ceiling. Yellow and white 
rag rugs were used in this room. Their 
own room had pale blue paper, two shades 
in a satin stripe, and blue and white rag 
rugs; white cheesecloth curtains were 
used. 
Arranging the Furniture. —The plan 
given shows the amount and arrangement 
of furniture. The bookshelves, window 
seat, library table, china cupboard, closets 
and shirtwaist boxes were made by t li«* 
man of the house. Upholstering with 
denim and putting cushions where furni¬ 
ture was lacking, were the bride’s part. 
Under the work table were four shelves 
for cooking utensils. The china cup¬ 
board reached from floor to ceiling, and 
the lower part was a closed cupboard fir 
linen. The bookshelf in to i dining room 
held good cookbooks and household mag¬ 
azines for the odd minutes. The win¬ 
dow seats had hinged l.ds and were used 
to hold sewing and various articles. And 
the whole delectable result came within 
the $200 which all the relatives had said 
was not enough! For when you make 
so much furniture you can buy a good 
range, beds, rockers, couch and dishes, 
and wedding presents will “do the rest." 
E. L. G. 
“The Lonely Road.” 
Your articles by Rev. George Gilbert, 
“The Lonely Road," have interested me 
very much, as I know him slightly and 
know of the need of the work of that 
kind in our back country towns. My wife 
and I were calling on him recently when 
he was about to start on one of his trips 
and be invited me to go with him, which 
I did, a drive of 20 miles or so over poor 
country roads, a picnic supper of “broil¬ 
ers grasped by the leg,” a social attend¬ 
ed by some 40 people which lasted until 
about 12:30, and men, women and child¬ 
ren of all ages, the babies being put lo 
bed in the vestry on cots where we spent 
the night later on. A kind heartening 
word for all; up at 7 a. m., picnic break¬ 
fast and a drive home over a different 
route with a call at different houses as 
on the way out, with words of praise for 
a good garden, and we saw some fine 
ones (peas 10 feet high at one place), 
arriving home about 20 hours after leav¬ 
ing. 
It is a pleasure to me to see the coun¬ 
try in fine weather and season, but think 
of the steady, all-the-year grind, amid 
discouragements over the poverty and 
hard luck of many of his people, 'he 
overworked wives, and I think of that 
masterpiece of Balzac’s, “The Country 
Doctor.” Mr. Gilbert has and is labor¬ 
ing under many disadvantages, but I 
am satisfied is doing a wonderful work. 
The discouraging part of it is lie is only 
covering a small portion of the small 
Htate of Connecticut when the need is 
so great. I hope that the articles will be 
carefully studied by all interested in the 
back country, especially the country min¬ 
isters. p - 
Connecticut 
Kenyon : “Welsh rarebit always keeps 
me awake at night.” Kenton: “It don’t 
trouble me. It’s the cats that keep me 
awake." Kenyon : “I never cat cats.”— 
London Telegraph. 
