My House Boat “The Conch Shell” 
choose to have a more open space than the 
saloon. This big room is painted white, 
with an old steamer lantern hanging in the 
center of the ceiling. A big Japanese cotton 
rug covers the center of the floor, and rubber 
mats are at the doors. The couch is a three- 
quarter iron bed covered with a pair of big 
crimson portieres that conceals the entire 
frame of the bed and drop to the floor. 
This generous couch, loaded down with pil- 
at the windows, the gibbering parrot and the 
canaries, give this room a most inviting 
effect. 
I must not forget my Franklin stove, 
which is such a comfort on damp days or 
late in the fall, when with its heat the rooms 
can be made very comfortable, in the little 
hall a staircase leads to the roof garden, the 
delight of my whole arrangement. Here we 
have flower boxes forming a solid parapet of 
lows, gives a most luxurious, furnished effect 
to this long wall space. 
There are bookcases at either side of the 
door in the bow, with generous room for a 
good library. A large mahogany table in 
the center for the monthly magazines and 
incidentals, with a half dozen rush-bottom 
chairs, a serving table with handy dishes and 
the table linen, the India cottons on the wall 
of brilliant hue, the little Venetian ornaments 
green and brilliant colors enclosing the entire 
roof. Too much cannot be said of this de¬ 
lightful effect of color which the salt atmos¬ 
phere seems to make more brilliant, and the 
moist air more luxuriant than you will find 
in some of our inland gardens. T he gay 
color of the geraniums and nasturtiums blaz¬ 
ing in the sunshine, with the pale green sea 
for a background, gives a charming effect, 
more easily imagined than described. 
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