90 
tries' SFloral BiaEinet «in3 3Pietoiml BHEowie feompcuiion. 
ONE WOMAN’S WORK. 
I laid down the paper with along-drawn sigh and 
a feeling akin to despair. It was April and house- 
cleaning time, and I sat alone in my forlorn-looking- 
sitting-room, earnestly pondering over the ways and 
means by which I could render my home more cheer¬ 
ful and attractive. I wanted it beautiful, like those 
I had been reading about ; but how or where was I 
to begin ? The Cabinet had given me bright 
glimpses of rooms done in scarlet and gray, blue and 
silver, or green and gold, with pretty, tasteful furni¬ 
ture, beautiful pictures and ornaments, and bay-win¬ 
dows filled with flowering plants, and trailing vines 
running riot over lovely tinted walls, and sea-sliells, 
and rockeries, and ferneries, and—oh! dear, nothing 
at all that seemed to just fit my case j my purse was 
so very limited, and there seemed so little to do with. 
I felt that every one of those fortunate daughters of 
Eve who had succeeded in constructing for herself a 
sort of earthly paradise had more “ raw material ” 
than I to work with. “ Many of these ‘ beautiful 
home ’ builders,” I said to myself, “ had pretty, roomy 
‘ French cottages,’ or at least something better than 
this wretched Liliputian den, to begin with,” and I 
cast a rueful glance around my two diminutive un¬ 
finished rooms, and at the dingy blue ceiling over¬ 
head ; “ and then, too, they had big, old-fashioned 
mirrors stowed away in the garret, and old blue wool- 
delaine dresses” (what a treasure one would be to me 
just now!), “ and bundles of old swiss and laces” 
(there is my old white swiss dress, it’s out of fashion ; 
that’s one item), “ and presents of bad fifty-dollar debts, 
and—and a ‘John’ or a ‘big brother’ or somebody 
to do the sawing and hammering, and—” I stopped 
short; there was just where my trouble began : not the 
lade of a “ John ”—I had one—but it was the lack of 
help and encouragement that troubled me. My 
“ John ” didn’t care for beautiful things as I did, or I 
thought he didn’t, and he “ growled ” (that’s what “Nel¬ 
lie ’’ calls it) sometimes when he caught me hammering 
away at some nondescript affair that I had concluded 
to build, and afterwards “ made up ” for the mo¬ 
ment’s ill-lmmor by good-naturedly helping me 
among my flower-beds, and, in his careless man-fash- 
ion, pulling up choice plants along with the weeds, 
or clipping off the tops of my Moss-rose bushes with 
an unlucky sweep of the scythe. These were only a 
few of the difficulties with which I had to contend ; ill- 
health was another serious drawback. However, I 
gathered consolation from the beautiful pages of the 
Cabinet, and appreciated more than ever that arti¬ 
cle of “ Nellie’s ” in an old number, which seems to 
have been written expressly for the benefit of just 
such unfortunates as I, and, with considerable satis¬ 
faction, I recalled that last clause: “ Let him growl; 
you, too, have a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit 
of happiness; enjoy it.” Well, I had already decided 
to “ let him growl,” and do what I could towards 
beautifying my home. I took an inventoiy of the 
contents of my purse—just fifteen cents and some 
scraps of paper—not very encouraging. I thought a 
moment. “ John ” worked hard ; I knew he would 
have no money to spare for extra expenses. I must 
earn it myself somehow, and, to cut the matter short, 
I procured some work, and for the next few weeks, 
when not busy with household duties, I was busy as 
a bee at the sewing-machine. I had soon earned 
enough to defray necessary expenses, and was ready 
for the work of renovation. But where to begin “l 
The house, as I have already intimated, was exceed¬ 
ingly small, a tiny white cottage, exposed on all 
sides to the glaring noonday sun, being built on a 
high plateau overlooking one of the loveliest valleys 
in Western New York. The scenery was pictur¬ 
esquely beautiful, and this was much to me. Standing 
back from the road some twenty-five or thirty feet, 
there was room for some lawn decorations in front. 
The rooms on the ground-floor were two in number: 
one ten and one-half by sixteen, sitting-room, din¬ 
ing-room, and winter-kitchen all in one: the other 
a nine by thirteen and one-half bedroom, unlathed 
and unplastered, ceiled overhead and painted blue, 
save in the smaller room, which was roughly plaster¬ 
ed overhead. Both rooms had one long, narrow south 
window, reaching nearly to the floor, and facing the 
road; the front door between, opening into the larger 
room, in which was also an east window, sliding 
doors between the two rooms, a soiled, worn paper on 
the walls, a low, unfinished chamber above, a small 
summer-kitchen behind; a china-closet built in the 
wall supplied the place of a pantry. This was my 
home. The furniture was cheap and scant—six 
wooden-bottomed chairs, round backs, painted yellow 
and daubed with streaks of burnt umber, an old de¬ 
faced wooden rocker, table ditto, and everything else 
to match. My first work was in the garret. I will 
not tire you by telling of the long, weary days of toil. 
There were dizzy sick-headaehes, and aching back 
and limbs, that came of reaching and lifting, and 
papering and painting, and numberless blows on the 
poor bruised fingers from that abominable hammer, 
that always came down where I didn’t want it to; 
but it was finished at last. My “ garret ” was con¬ 
verted into two very pretty sleeping-rooms. Parti¬ 
tions placed along next the eaves formed store- 
closets that I found exceedingly convenient, and 
made the side walls of the sleeping-rooms higher. 
Into these partitions were fitted two small wardrobe 
closets, one in each room. These were papered 
smoothly inside with strong flour-sack paper. Both 
rooms had been lathed a long time—we could not 
afford to get them plastered—so I put on white-back¬ 
ed wall-paper overhead, wrong side out. I put 
the paste on the laths instead of the paper, and also 
on the edges of the strips of paper, smoothing it 
down tightly to the lath, but being careful not to 
stretch the paper much. It looks like plaster, has 
been on now nearly a year, and has not cracked. 
The side walls I covered with a delicate tinted paper, 
letting it hang loose from the lath, except along the 
edges of the strips ; being put on very smoothly, it 
looked nice. The floors were covered with a light- 
colored rag carpet, the casings painted white, and I 
was ready for the furnishing. My best bedstead w'as 
a cheap affair with head and foot boards of serpen¬ 
tine turning, stained black-walnut, and varnished— 
not worth modelling over, so I used it as it was for 
one room, and hunted up an old wash-stand, minus 
top and drawer, that I repaired and dressed over to 
match the bedstead. For the other room I purchas¬ 
ed a new unfinished one of hard wood having a hand¬ 
some grain; grained the mouldings and trimmings in 
black-walnut color and varnished it; this was very 
handsome, having a moderately high Gothic head¬ 
board, with panels and mouldings, and trimmings in 
fret-sawing (these I make myself), and cost me four 
dollars and a half. An old dry-goods box of suitable 
size and proportions served as a toilet-table. I 
sawed the top so as to form a curve in front, just in 
the middle, leaving the corners square, placed shelves 
inside, and papered it. I draped the outside with a 
curtain made of plain bright pink calico, having a 
wide fluted flounce of white swiss muslin over the 
pink at the bottom. This was headed with a nar¬ 
row ruffle fluted, standing upright, and a narrow 
band of white, corded on each side with pink, between. 
Over this curtain I placed a loose drapery of white 
muslin looped up with bows of pink. The top I 
wadded and covered with pink, tacked smoothly over 
the edges, and over this placed a cover of white 
muslin, having a wide fluted ruffle at the edge, headed 
the same as the bottom flounce. The other toilet- 
table was like this, only all white with a touch of 
bright Turkey red. For the windows a lambrequin of 
the bright pink calico, edged with a fluted ruffle of 
white muslin, for one room, and another of bright 
Turkey-red calico for the other. These are lined 
with white. Over them a loose drapery of white 
muslin looped up with pressed ferns and small au¬ 
tumn leaves. I brighten the tints of my autumn 
leaves with oil-paints; it gives a gloss, and they will 
keep without curling. At the top of the window I 
placed a fluted ruffle of the muslin standing upright, 
and just below a vine running across made of tiny 
autumn leaves, fern fronds, and spraysof green French 
Moss. A wash-stand was constructed similar to the 
toilet-tables, only with a straight top, and draped 
in pink and white muslin. A mat of white-marbled 
oil-cloth, just the size of the top of this wash-stand, 
was pinked on the edge, and ornamented with a 
light running vine of Moss-rose buds and sprays 
of green, a cluster in each corner. The other wash- 
stand I covered on the top with white-marbled oil¬ 
cloth, drawn smoothly over the edges and tacked 
underneath. I should like to speak of the other 
adornments of these two pretty rooms, but have not 
space except to mention the two bedside rugs, made 
by crotcheting fine carpet rags in shaded stripes, and 
finishing at the edge with pinked flannel. My first 
work in the lower rooms was to grain all the wood¬ 
work in chestnut and black-walnut to match the 
china closet, copying from the real woods. I felt a 
little proud of this piece of work, for it looked very 
nice. I covered the blue ceiling first with a strong 
flour-sack paper, and then jvall-paper wrong side out 
over that. The plastered ceiling I scraped smooth 
and kalsomined a snowy white. The side walls of 
both rooms were covered with a lovely gray-tinted 
paper, put on in panels with a darker shade, and in 
the larger room fine lines of scarlet with a scarlet 
border next the ceiling, and again above the base¬ 
boards ; in the smaller room a delicate vine of shad¬ 
ed gray, blue, and gold color run through the centre 
of the columns, lines and border of a bright turquoise 
