JAPANESE PEN-WIPER.

[Illustration: A JAPANESE PEN-WIPER.]

A nice little pen-wiper can be made by cutting three circles of black
cloth, snipping the edges or button-holing them with colored silk, and
standing in the middle one of the droll little Japanese birds just
mentioned. Of course it should be secured firmly at the feet. There
are long-legged birds and short-legged ones. A tiny stork is very
pretty.


BLEACHED GRASSES.

Some of you who have been pressing autumn leaves for winter use may
like to hear of a new way of bleaching grasses to mix with them. The
process is exceedingly simple. Take a few of the grasses in your hand
at a time, dip them into a pan of water, shake gently, dip into a pan
of sifted flour, and again shake gently. All the superfluous flour
will fall off, but enough will remain to make the grasses snowy-white.
When dry it is perfectly firm, and you would never guess what process
produced the effect. A bunch of these white grasses in a coral-red
basket is a vivid object.

Colored grasses, to our thinking, are not half so pretty as the same
grasses when left in their own soft natural browns and yellows. Still,
as some people like them, we will just mention that the same process
can be used for them as for the white grass, by mixing with small
portions of flour, a little dry paint powder, vermilion, green, etc.
A bunch of the deep red mixed with the bleached grass has a gay and