comfortable as the library one, to which the mother should have the
first right. The paper should be cheerful in its tone and with a
definite design. This will become endeared by association with home to
the children, and the mother should be slow to replace it. The window
draperies may be home-made, such as of rough-finished silk or
embroidered canvas, and the floor covered with a thick rag-carpet,
preferably of a nondescript or "hit-and-miss" design. If the housekeeper
thinks that this is "hominess" carried to excess, she may cover the
floor with an ingrain carpet, or better, plain filling of a medium
shade, on which a few rag rugs are laid, light in color. Very artistic
carpets and rugs are made out of old carpets and sold at reasonable
figures, and there still remain in some small towns throughout the
country weavers who weave into carpets the carpet-rags sewn together
by housewives for the price of their labor alone.

There is a reason additional to its economy why this practice should not
die out. The tearing up into strips of old garments, and the tacking of
their ends together with needle and thread is work eminently suited for
children, and one in which they take great pride, as it gives them a
share in the creation of a useful and beautiful household article.

The dining-room should be decorated in accordance with the quantity of
daylight it receives. It should be, if possible, a light room, with
preferably the morning sun. In this case, it is properly furnished and
decorated in dark tones, on the order of the library; if the room is
dark, the furniture, wood-finish, and wall-paper should be warm and
light in feeling. The housekeeper has a wide variety of sets of dining
table and chairs to choose from. Whatever she selects should be
distinguished by the quality of dignity. Here is the one room in the
house where formality is thoroughly in place; it is at table where bad