loral 2^-aikiiet oritl Victoria.! 
ome 
Biimiuan, 
HOME AND THE HOUSEHOLD. 
It is not simply four walls that make a home; it is 
the loved ones who dwell therein—the associations, 
the ties of love and friendliness that bind all hearts 
together. The poet says, 
“ The many make the household, 
But only one the home. 1 ' 
Who is this one? Who can it he but the wife and 
mother? It is within her power to make home the 
brightest, pleasantest spot in the wide world, and she 
should encourage the home feeling in her children and 
the young people of the family. Parents, by providing 
pleasant amusements, hooks, games and music, do 
much toward preventing them from leaving home to 
seek company and amusements elsewhere. How much 
better to spend money in so doing than in showy osten¬ 
tation, or in amassing a. fortune, it may he for them to 
waste and misuse. Not only with regard to amuse¬ 
ments, hut also comfort and refinement, is this “the 
best policy.” Teach them that home means something 
more than a place in which to eat, sleep and work. 
Let it he a rest and refuge, a place where love resides, 
where kindness and courtesy are shown to every mem¬ 
ber of the family, so that even the “help” will feel the 
atmosphere of good-breeding, and unconsciously be¬ 
come amiable and respectful. I well remember, though 
quite young, the influence exerted by a lady over a 
whole neighborhood by her kind interest, sweet lady-like 
hearing and politeness. She was the same to all, and 
every man, woman and child did her homage. There 
were no articles of luxury in her home, nothing hut 
the most common furnishing, save a piano, a few choice 
hooks and pictures; yet her society was always sought, 
and her room always seemed pleasant and attractive 
with its few simple decorations. It was Tier atmos¬ 
phere , her cultivated taste and desire to please which 
rendered her home a charming spot to others as well 
as her own family. She welcomed us to her “simple 
teas” with the grace and ease of a lord-mayoress pre¬ 
siding at a banquet. After seeing her, under whatever 
circumstances, you would feel, as our good doctor once 
said of her, “that you had been in the presence of a 
lady." Her family worshipped her, and every one 
loved and respected her, from “ we children,” who used 
to run in to talk over with her the hooks we were read¬ 
ing, to the grandmas and grandpas. (God bless her, 
wherever she may he, and when her “days on earth 
shall he no more,” grant her a beautiful “mansion” in 
the “Father’s house.”) How many might, like her, 
exert an influence for good upon others by kindly 
thoughtfulness, little attentions to the sick, the sending 
of delicacies or flowers (the latter is sometimes much 
better than medicine), by the careful regard for others’ 
tastes and feelings, both in the household and neigh¬ 
borhood. The young have also a keen appreciation of 
pretty tasteful surroundings, and beauty has a place of 
great importance among the many things which go to 
make a home pleasant and happy; and such things 
contribute much to the education of the entire house¬ 
hold. Some will say, “they like a beautiful home, 
and when circumstances favor it they mean to have it 
so, but till then they must wait;” still they will spend 
more money on some one article, which if well applied 
might have made the whole very pretty. We have 
seen rooms fitted up with very little expense that had 
such an air of taste and elegance, all owing to the 
skilful making and arranging of little and in them¬ 
selves simple articles. Even the furniture may be 
very tasteful and of home manufacture. Frames for a 
lounge, ottomans, etc., may be fashioned by the men 
of the family, cushioned and covered at home. Broken 
rocking-chairs, large and small, can be mended, cush¬ 
ioned and covered to match the other articles; then a 
cheap centre-table, draped with a cloth of the same 
color or in harmony with the rest, with, a home-made 
rag-carpet, neat white curtains, and your room looks 
furnished. One can educate the taste and ingenuity of 
the young people of the family by procuring their assist¬ 
ance in the formation of hanging-baskets, simple book¬ 
shelves, picture-frames, etc. We have seen cocoa-nuts 
sawed apart, on which were glued cones of various 
kinds, acorns, mosses, and trimmed with festoons of 
the smaller cones strung upon a thread and fastened 
in each of the three holes bored for the cord, and looped 
from each to the bottom, on which was fastened a large 
cone; the several loops lheeting together ending in a 
cluster of long loops in the centre like a tassel. It is 
well to select a large nut, if possible, as it will hold a 
larger pot. When planted with delicate vines of the 
Coliseum Ivy, Moneywort or Musk-plant the effect is 
very pretty. Larger ones can be made by using a 
wooden howl of the size desired, tacking on crooked 
and twisted roots after they are scraped and varnished, 
nailing on two slender canes or rattans twisted together 
for a handle. When filled with bright foliage plants, 
beautiful ferns and drooping vines, nothing could be 
prettier or add so much to the grace and elegance of 
your room. If using common native ferns, be careful 
to take up a good clump of earth with them, and not 
to break any of the leaves, as new ones will not start 
to grow before March, but those already formed will 
remain bright and green. Pretty brackets may be 
made of the desired form, and after being trimmed 
with cones and varnished are very useful for holding- 
little ornaments. I have seen them made plain for a 
corner, the back and shelf covered with cloth -or velvet 
to match the prevailing color of the room, the edge of 
the shelf trimmed with a heavy fringe. When trimmed 
with cones, a row of these, a large one in the centre, 
growing smaller toward the ends of the shelf, gives a 
pretty finish and has the effect of a fringe ofjittle drops. 
Boxes for the table are also very pretty trimmed with 
cones of different kinds, nuts of a rich brown, like fil¬ 
berts, halves of peachstones, English walnuts in halves 
and the different kinds of acorns. These can be 
arranged high in the centre of the lid (using the largest 
there) to look like a cluster of fruit and flowers. When 
taste is used in the trimming and arranging, these boxes 
are an ornament to any parlor or sitting-room. Shells 
may be used in the same way, first covering with a 
thiu layer of putty (a lid or side at a time) and press¬ 
ing the shells well into it. This is a nice way to pre¬ 
serve the shells, and they can be set to form regular 
figures—stars, flowers, etc. Watchstands are pretty 
trimmed with shells, only one needs a very simple 
frame. I had a very plain one—in the centre I placed 
a circle of beautiful green velvet for the watch to rest 
against, around this a row of these bright scarlet peas 
that are found in the sea, then surrounding them with 
a row of beautiful pearly white shells, and then some 
spotted ones, and so on, growing larger at the edge; j 
the lower part or stand was covered with shells a little 
larger, and underneath the bottom were placed three 
larger shells of equal size at equal intervals to do duty I 
as feet. Shell frames are pretty settings for wreaths j 
of sea-mosses, and nothing could be more appropriate | 
than “The Fisherman’s Daughter” set in these shells 
of ocean. Every one knows how to make rustic frames, 
and there are so many shapes and devices for the cor¬ 
ners, from the clusters of fruit and flowers mentioned 
for cone boxes to the simple cross-piece held in place 
by an ornamental nail. We have seen a bookshelf 
very useful and inexpensive made by using the largest 
sized spools (procured at the tailor’s). The shelves 
made or common pine the length and width desired, 
then wire cord was passed through holes at each cor¬ 
ner of the shelves, then through several spools, then 
through holes in the next shelf, and so on, meeting 
together and tying with cord and tassels at the point 
where it was suspended from the wall. This, after 
being stained some dark color and nicely varnished, 
was ornamental as well as very useful. The spools, 
strung together in this way, had the effect of carved or 
turned posts between the shelves. It should be the 
aim of every family to have a library, however small, 
and this can easily he accomplished—a few books at a 
time, constantly adding as the birthdays and holidays 
come round, for when at loss to know what to select 
for these holiday gifts a book is always in order, and 
from a few volumes we have seen arise quite a nice 
little library. How pleasant for the children to lay by 
their spending money for some good hook or magazine. 
How much better than to use it for sweetmeats, etc., in 
large quantities, as many are allowed to do, thus de¬ 
frauding themselves of a much higher enjoyment. 
A few years since, and beautiful pictures and splen¬ 
did busts and statuettes were thought the sole property 
of the rich; but now we have elegant chromos copied 
from the most noted artists, and beautiful groups cast 
in plaster with all the beauties of the original works 
of art, and we can rejoice the eye and gladden the 
heart with but little outlay or expense. These pictures 
and figures could be explained to children, thus im¬ 
pressing their minds with the beauties copied from 
nature and objects and scenes in history. 
The “Sage of Concord” says, “Few have wealth, 
but all must have a home;” and again, “that a house 
should bear witness in all its economy that human cul¬ 
ture is the end to which it is built and garnished.” 
There are means for culture open to all, and the minds 
of the youug are easily influenced and interested. 
Teach them early the love of nature—to study her 
works, to gather the wildwood blossoms for your table, 
to pluck the spring violets, to see in them and all 
things the hand of the loving Father. Let them have 
the care of a little flower-plot; this is a pleasant pas¬ 
time to old and young, and exerts a beneficial influence 
over all. One lady says “ she commenced by culti¬ 
vating her garden, but soon found it to he cultivating 
her. Every one should have something, some study, 
some accomplishment to which they devote their spare 
hours, and many are blessed with “talents” in various 
directions, thus affording much enjoyment for them¬ 
selves and others. Encourage the good, the true and 
the beautiful; make home the dearest spot of earth, so 
that it may be to us an emblem of that “other home” 
to which we journey—that home “not made with 
hands, eternal in the skies.” 
Weston, Mass. 
M. J. Giddings. 
BEAUTIFUL CLOUDS. 
The following graphic, natural and genuine poetic 
lines were written by a California school girl of 
fifteen: 
Beautiful clouds! I have watched ye long. 
Fickle and bright as a fairy throng! 
Flow ye have gathered golden beams; 
Flow yc are parting in silver streams; 
Now ye are ting'd with roseate blush. 
Deepening fast to a crimson flush! 
Now, like serial spirits at play, 
Te are lightly dancing another way; 
Melting In many a pearly flake, 
Like thecygnet’sdown on the azure lake! 
Now ye gather again and run 
To bask in the beams of the setting sun; 
And anon ye serve as a zephyrs car, 
Drifting before the evening star. 
O, where is the eye that doth not love 
The glorious phantoms that glide above! 
O, where is the heart that hath not bow’d 
To its God, in the shrine of ajfiassing cloud ? 
