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and I went to work with all my might to make those 
dollars tell. Of course with my housework and sew¬ 
ing to do, besides taking care of baby, I was pretty 
busy, and bad to slip in other work edgewise, a bit 
at a time as I could, and we always kept the best 
part of our evenings for reading and music. But with 
a good deal of help from John I managed to make 
several barrel-chairs, and packing-box lounges, and 
toilet-tables, and ottomans. Then I got some old 
things at an auction for nothing almost, a tete-a-tete 
and great easy rocking-chair, which had lost every 
vestige of varnish and haircloth. I restained and 
varnished the frames, and stuffed and covered them 
with pretty bright stuff that I bought as remnants. 
I got a table too at the same time, that looked real¬ 
ly nice revarnished, with a cover that I made of an 
old blanket, colored dark gray, with border of sc .rlet 
spattered in a fern-leaf pattern. John put up a 
mantel, and whatnot shelves, and brackets, and I 
made lambrequin covers for them all, and lamp- 
chimney vases, and tidies of scarlet and white yarn 
(worsted costs so much), and picture-frames of all 
kinds, for the most of our money went for pictures. 
I have several music-scholars here, and shall be able 
to get some things in Mrs. Peters’s way ; but my sit¬ 
ting-room is pretty and cheery now, though there 
has not been more than enough to get a good carpet 
spent on it. I have never made any ornaments just 
because they were pretty, if they were not going to 
be of use too. I need pretty things to make my home 
pleasant, and everything that adds to its beauty and 
cheerfulness I think is useful, and worth the making 
though it does take considerable time. I try to 
make things that will fit into the room, and have a 
nice effect on everything else. If I had rich, hand¬ 
some furniture, I think I should like a great many 
elegant little fancy things too ; and some of them I 
should like to make myself, just for the pleasure of 
it, as I would like to paint a pretty picture if T could, 
though I were able to buy one a thousand times 
better.” 
Here Mrs. Potts announced supper, and Mrs. 
Pinkerton promised to show us girls everything she 
had if we would come and see her. 
As Lyddy and I were walking home Jack Park 
joined us, and Lyddy at once put the question to 
him : “ Jack, we’re discussing fancy-work ; to do or 
not to do ; give us your opinion, pro or con.” 
“Je-upiter! Beg pardon. Lyddy, but, con. for 
ever, for conscience’ sake.” 
“ Jack ! I don’t believe von know anything about 
it.” 
4i Don’t I ? Haven’t I three precious old aunts— 
bless ’em, they deserve a better nevvy—and if if 
wasn’t for their everlasting fancy-work I’d stay with 
’em, as they want me to ; but a fellow gets tired of 
being called up two or three or a dozen times every 
evening to hold a skein; and of having a bit of 
worsted, that he must match, tied around his little 
finger every time he goes down street. Then the 
plague of the things when they’re done ! There are 
all sorts of birds an 1 beasts and flowers everywhere, 
and if a fellow touches ’em its scream here and 
scream there. If I put my feet on a stool, Aunt Em 
brings a towel and spreads over it; Aunt Jane jumps 
up and turns back the tidy as quick as I sit down,, 
and if I lie on the sofa Aunt Di jerks out the nice 
soft pillow, and brings an old bunchy, scratchy one. 
There are dozens of chairs and things all pinned up 
in white cloth for my benefit. I steer clear of them 
though. Damaging to a fellow’s temper—very— 
pins are.” 
“ Jack, be still! Don’t you say another word. 
I’ll tell you this, though. There shall never be any 
such work in any house that I have anything to do 
with. But wouldn’t you like handsome tidies and 
pillows that you could put your head on, and a 
room full of pretty things that make it bright and 
pleasant and sweet-homey; and that don’t bother 
you a bit ?” 
“ Why, to be sure. That is like Mrs. Pinkerton’s 
house.” 
“ What do you know about Mrs. Pinkerton’s 
house ?” 
“ I was there yesterday. John is putting up our 
shop. Prettiest house I ever saw ; sweet-homey all 
through ; made one feel like a pitiful old bach, more 
than ever. Didn’t he look comfortable though. 
They’re poor enough too. He isn’t able to work all 
the time. But I didn’t suppose that you called such 
things as lier’s fancy-work, though I’m sure I don’t 
know what kind of things they are ; only there isn’t 
any carpet, and there are quantities of pictures; but 
the house is prime, and I say, Lyddy, if you like it 
too, why can’t my ‘ good time coming ’ be like 
Pinkerton’s ?” 
“ Jack ! do behave yourself.” 
“ Yes, by and by. I want Evie to hear, and help 
me perhaps. You see, I asked Mrs. Pinkerton if 
three hundred would make a home anything like 
that, and she said ‘ Yes, and a good deal nicer, ex¬ 
cept the piano and flowers ’ ; and there’s the little 
brown house, the old ladies are all ready to give it 
to me any day, you know.” 
“ I’ll think about it.” 
“ Well, think here then.” 
And 1 left them on the porch, and went into the 
house alone, as it was so evident that Jack needed 
no help from me. They were married at Thanks¬ 
giving, and the little brown house is the sweetest 
! home in the village. Mrs. Pinkerton helped us plan 
and make for it; indeed we all worked under her 
direction, and Jack told me yesterday that he had 
not dared rub his eyes yet, for fear that he should 
wake himself up ; and Lyddy’s only grief is that 
they ever could have thought it necessary to wait 
until they had five hundred dollars, at least, to begin 
housekeeping with. “0 Evie! if it hadn’t been for 
Mrs. Pinkerton’s ‘ fancy-work.’ ” Eva May. 
SMALL FRUITS FOR FAMILY USE. 
A BRUSH FOR WASHING DISHES. 
A housewife in Coleman's Rural gives her mode 
of washing dishes with a broom-corn brush : “ This 
brush is of easy construction. Take from four to a 
dozen stalks. I usually keep three or more sizes, 
as they constantly extend their sphere of usefulness. 
Tie firmly with wire and twine, and sew the brush 
after the fashion of a broom, leaving but a few inches 
of brush. Leave the smallest brush round, as they 
drop into cups and cans more readily. The largest 
I use for scrubbing benches, washing out tubs, etc.” 
No farmer should be without small fruits for fam¬ 
ily use, though many of them are satisfied to live 
along on regular coarse farm diet rather than expend 
a few dollars for plants and the time to attend to a 
small plantation of small fruits. A half-acre devot¬ 
ed to small fruit would abundantly supply a large 
family, and if well cared for would furnish a surplus 
for market enough to pay for the cultivation, while 
the many cans and jars of them which could be put 
up for winter use would give an assurance that there 
would be something more palatable than mere bread 
and meat to subsist on during the cold weather. 
Four or five rows of strawberry plants with about a 
hundred plants in each row would furnish a fine lot 
of fruit for table use ; the Jersey scarlet, the Ken¬ 
tucky (a late variety), or the Charles Downingbeing 
better ones than the Wilson’s Albany seedling, which 
is a better market berry. A couple of hundred 
plants ofraspberries such as the Brandywine, and the 
same number of blackberries, the Wilson being a 
most excellent sort, soon produce enough to fully 
supply any family; then a row or two of Gooseberries 
and two or three of currants could be put in, while 
the plantation could be regularty dotted over with 
dwarf or standard pear-trees to fill up the place. 
The Bartlett (as a standard) and the Duchesse (as a 
dwarf) are the most popular as well as the surest 
croppers. They bear regularly and heavily, and are 
large and of good flavor. 
IMPROVED CURRANT CAKE. 
“ Household Departments” are very good ad¬ 
juncts to a newspaper in their way when edited by 
a woman, but the male journalist who dabbles with 
the inspired mysteries of cooking runs a frightful 
risk The editor of the Weekly Petaluma Peavine, 
started a column of that kind recently, and a few 
days afterward a fierce-looking female came into the 
office, carefully concealing some object behind her 
apron. “ Are you the man that published that new 
and improved way to make currant cake ?” lie said 
he was. “ You said to mix washing-soda with the 
flour, and stir in a little corn-meal and a little sweet- 
oil to give it consistency ?” “ I—I—believe so.” 
“ And to add 15 eggs and some molasses, and two 
ounces of gum-arabic, and set it in a cool place to 
bake?” “I think that was it.” “Well, take that 
then !” And the indignant housewife floored him 
with a weapon that felt like a sand-club, but which 
he felt in his heart must have been a half-baked 
hunk of cake constructed on the Peavine pattern.— 
San Francisco News-Letter. 
CLEANSING. 
Don’t let scratches on paint worry you any long¬ 
er. Cut a sour orange or lemon in half; apply the 
cut half to the marks, rubbing for a moment quite 
hard ; then wash them off with a clean rag, dipped 
first in water to moisten it, and then in whiting. 
Rub well with this rag, dry thoroughly, and nine 
times out of ten the ugly marks will vanish. Of 
course, sometimes they are burned in so deeply that 
they cannot be eradicated. 
