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A SCARLET ROOM. 
“Blessed he scarlet flannel,” said Laura Gay, “and 
blessed he the man who invented it.” 
She had certainly done wonderful things with it, 
and viewed her work with pardonable pride. Such a 
lovely scarlet room as she had gotten up for poor 
Cousin Annie, who was well-nigh crazed with a de¬ 
cade of “ plain living and high thinking,” never being 
able, as she said, to have her surroundings represent 
her in the least, until this deft-handed maiden ap¬ 
peared upon the scene, and, waving her magical wand 
of red flanel, made 
the low, rude-furnished room 
Burst flower-like into rosy bloom.'” 
Mrs. Mathers had scarcely been delighted, at first, 
with the advent of her city visitor, three small chil¬ 
dren, and doing her own work, left little time for ex¬ 
tras, and she had no idea that Laura would prove so 
helpful and gifted. No airs, either, but just took right 
hold and worked as though she had always been used 
to it. So charmingly frank, too; her most admired 
dresses, she confessed, had been made out of old ones, 
her bonnets were fashioned by her own hands, until 
her cousin declared, half enviously, that she believed 
there was nothing those hands could not do. 
But that scarlet room was her crowning triumph. 
“ What is the use of your telling me,” said Mrs. 
Matthews, one day, “ of the wonderful things that 
can be done in the city with a little money and a great 
deal of genius ? I am not in the city, I haven’t the 
‘little money,’ and I certainly am not gifted with 
genius. It is like saying that things can be bought for 
a mere song, but if you can’t siug the song, what 
then?” 
She was rocking in an irritated frame of mind in a 
most ungainly rocking-chair, one of those hideous 
sprawlers that are always entangling themselves with 
people’s feet; she was fresh, too, from the kitchen fire 
and “ baking day,” and altogether a sense of injury 
was strong upon her. 
“ I have never had anything I wanted in the way 
of furniture,” she continued, “ and I never expect to. 
I like pretty things, as well as any one, and know 
them, too, when I see them ; but just look at this 
parlor! It makes me mad every time I come into it. 
I’ve got about twenty dollars saved from the chicken 
money—I have the saie of the eggs, you know—but 
what would that buy, even if they kept anything at 
the stores here that one wanted?” 
Laura glanced around the bare, unattractive room, 
and said very quietly : 
“ Curtains would he a great improvement.” 
“ Undoubtedly they would,” was the reply, “ but 
where am I to get them ? ” 
“Will you let me spend your twenty dollars for 
you, ” was the smiling question, “ if I will engage to 
refurnish the parlor so that you would scarcely know 
it ? ” 
“ Spend it and welcome ; I am sure that you will 
get at least a hundred dollars’ worth of goods with 
it. Only, you will find nothing in B-, my 
dear.” 
“ They keep red flannel at the stores, I suppose?” 
asked Laura, demurely. 
“ I suppose they do,” replied her cousin. 
“ And unbleached muslin ? ” 
“ And unbleached muslin, to the best of my belief. 
But what, in the name of common sense, has that to 
do with civilizing the parlor ? ” 
“ A great deal, ma’am, as you will speedily see; 
but first, as you are not a mad bull, I take it for 
granted that you have no objection to scarlet? ” 
“None in the least: indeed, I think it a beautiful 
color, and it wears admirably.” 
“ Precisely my own sentiments; we will go out this 
afternoon and do our shopping.” 
But first, Laura, who was a very exact little body, 
did a great deal of measuring ; she measured windows, 
sofa, rocking-chair, mantel-piece ; eyed a great, awk¬ 
ward table very severely ; and, finally, appeared to be 
satisfied. 
The salesman at the dry-goods and grocery store 
evidently considered Miss Gay a lunatic on the subject 
of unbleached muslin, and had bis own views in regard 
to her passion for red flannel; but the young lady 
pursued the even tenor of her way, and returned tri¬ 
umphant. 
What she did with her purchases was this : Cur¬ 
tains were made of the unbleached muslin, which 
hangs in the softest and most graceful of folds, and 
trimmed about half way down with cross bands of 
red flannel, one-half a quarter wide, and on either 
side of it, at a little distance, another just half that 
width ; there was the same trimming at the bottom ; 
and the cornices were plaited flannel. They were 
looped back, quite low, with bands and rosettes of the 
same. 
The sofa was covered with oriental-looking stripes 
of unbleached muslin and flannel alternately ; and a 
delightfully comfortable pillow 7 to match at each end, 
w 7 ith a scarlet worsted tassel on every corner. The 
rocking-chair was treated in the same way, after be¬ 
ing sawed low 7 and a few yards of rockers sawed off, 
and a moss cushion fitted to the uncomfortable back 
and seat. This, and the front of the sofa, w r ere orna¬ 
mented with scarlet worsted fringe ; for Laura never 
believed in doing things by halves. The fringe was 
knotted with a crochet needle on a piece of scarlet 
braid, and then tacked on the furniture. 
The table-cover, a round one, was fitted closely to 
the table, of unbleached muslin ; then a lambrequin, 
or hanging border, of the same, attached, and trimmed 
with graduated rows of flannel, the whole finished 
w 7 ith scarlet worsted fringe. 
The mantel-shelf was a high, narrow abomination 
of wood, painted whitethis was covered with scarlet 
flannel, and finished with a prettily-shaped, pointed 
lambrequin trimmed with the fringe. On the shelf 
Laura placed two plain white vases of graceful shape, 
a present from herself, and filled them with drooping 
sprays of Tradescantia. The effect of the scarlet, green, 
and white, to a color-loving eye, was simply charming. 
Two chairs had their seats covered in stripes to 
match sofa and rocker; but to Mrs Mathers’ intense 
astonishment, tw 7 o or three cane-bottomed chairs w 7 ere 
banished and their places supplied w 7 ith some dis¬ 
reputable-looking wooden ones from the kitchen. But 
these wooden ones were first painted vermilion, and 
emerged from the process things of beauty. Some 
common little pine picture frames were treated in the 
same way; and as they enclosed passably good en¬ 
gravings of pleasant subjects, they proved very orna¬ 
mental. 
Brackets were not forgotten ; small wooden shelves 
of circular shape were covered with the inevitable 
flannel and finished with the inevitable fringe; plaster 
busts, not particularly strong as works of art, were 
nearly concealed by vines growing in bottles behind 
them, and produced a very pretty effect. 
“ You must certainly have a couple of footstools,” 
said Miss Gay, when she had arrived at this point; 
“ but woe be unto the presumptuous he or she that 
shall place desecrating feet upon them ! ” 
The footstools were made of round salt or sugar 
boxes for a foundation, covered with unbleached mus¬ 
lin that was ornamented with scarlet braid, an applique 
figure cut out of flannel for the centre, and fringe 
around the edge. They were really beautiful, the 
tops having first been nicely raised with moss and 
covered with old calico. 
Laura’s busy fingers worked swiftly to accomplish 
all this : for she disdained help from her cousin, who 
certainly had enough to do without adding any fancy 
touches to her pile of duties. But Mrs. Mathers 
looked and wondered as the parlor steadily grew in 
beauty; and frankly acknowledged that she would not 
have known it. 
“Now for a wall-pocket,” said the indefatigable 
workwoman; and after adding some pasteboard to her 
stores, and producing a lovely chromo-lithograph of 
Little Red Ridinghood from her own portfolio, she be¬ 
gan operations in this way : 
A piece of pasteboard, fourteen inches in length by 
about eleven in breadth, was cut in the shape of a 
shield, covered on one side with gray paper of a very 
delicate shade, and on the other with scarlet flannel. 
It is better, however, to have two pieces of paste¬ 
board, as they can be covered more neatly and the 
back is firmer. Sew on the edge of the gray paper 
piece, with tiny stitches on the right side, a binding of 
scarlet worsted braid; baste the scarlet flannel on the 
other piece, making the edges very neat; but the two 
are not to be joined until the entire front, of the pocket 
is completed. Sew neatly on the flannel piece a loop 
of braid to hang the pocket up by. 
Cut out two more pieces of pasteboard, with straight 
edges, measuring seven by nine inches; cover one 
piece with scarlet flannel, the other with gray paper 
bound with braid like the back piece; on the gray 
paper side carefully paste the picture, which should 
be of a size to leave a margin of gray all around ; 
edge the picture with a narrow strip of gilt bordering 
of the kind used with scrap-book pictures; put the 
same bordering on the inner edge of the braid binding. 
Then unite these two smaller pieces by a neat over¬ 
hand or slip stitch done with scarlet silk. Next cut 
two gores of scarlet flannel to attach the pocket to the 
back ; sew neatly, placing the pocket on the gray 
paper side of the back in the middle of the shield. 
Now join the flannel side of the back to all this in 
the same way as the pocket sides were joined ; cro¬ 
chet a deep fringe of scarlet worsted fringe on the 
lower and pointed end of the shield, and the article 
is finished. This is Miss Gay’s receipt for a wall- 
pocket, and it is as beautiful a one as can be manufac¬ 
tured with the needle. 
The days went on, and the parlor was finished. 
It was nnique, and the whole family were in a state of 
admiring ecstacy over it. 
“ Now,” said Mrs. Mathers, decisively, “ how much 
have you spent, Laura, over and above the twenty 
dollars ? This is worth paying for, and I shall soon 
have some more egg money.” 
“ You wish me to give you an account, then, of 
‘moneys expended?’” replied her cousin. Here it 
is: unbleached muslin, two dollars; scarlet flannel, 
five dollars; worsted braid, paint, silk, and sundries, 
two dollars; total, nine dollars; sum remaining in 
the exchequer, eleven dollars, which I herewith de¬ 
liver to the rightful owner. 
“ And do you mean to say,” gasped her hostess, 
“ that my parlor has actually been refurnished in this 
exquisite manner for nine dollars f ” 
“ Yes,” replied Miss Gay, modestly, “ wonderful are 
the capabilities of scarlet flannel.” 
But, she might have added, scarlet flannel, like 
paint, has to be mixed “ with brains, sir,” to produce 
the desired effect. Ella Rodman Church. 
