edges with dark-blue embroidery silk, being washable, these
do nicely as covers for small tables or stands on the veranda in
Summertime."

"Aunt Sarah," ecstatically exclaimed Mary, "you are a wizard to plan
so many useful things from a trunk of apparently useless rags. What a
treasure Uncle has in you. I was fretting about having so little to
make my home attractive, but I feel quite elated at the thought of
having a carpet and rugs already planned, besides the numerous other
things evolved from your fertile brain."

Aunt Sarah loved a joke. She held up an old broadcloth cape. "Here is
a fine patch for Ralph Jackson's breeches, should he ever become
sedentary and need one."

Mary reddened and looked almost offended and was at a loss for a
reply.

[Illustration:

A-18 Fleur DeLys Quilt
A-19 Oak Leaf Quilt
A-20 One Block of Fleur DeLys Quilt
A-21 Winding Way Quilt
A-22 Tulip Quilt
A-23 Flower Pot Quilt]

Greatly amused, Aunt Sarah quoted ex-President Roosevelt: "'Tis time
for the man with the patch to come forward and the man with the dollar
to step back,'" and added, "Never mind, Mary, your Ralph is such an
industrious, hustling young man that he will never need a patch to
step forward, I prophesy that with such a helpmeet and 'Haus Frau' as
you, Mary, he'll always be most prosperous and happy. Kiss me, dear."

Mary did so, and her radiant smile at such praise from her honored
relative was beautiful to behold.

[Illustration: OLD RAG CARPET]

CHAPTER IX.

POETRY AND PIE.

"Aunt Sarah," questioned Mary one day, "do you mind if I copy some of
your recipes?"

"Certainly not, my dear," replied her Aunt.

"And I'd like to copy some of the poems, also, I never saw any one
else have so much poetry in a book of cooking recipes."

"Perhaps not," replied her Aunt, "but you know, Mary, I believe in
combining pleasure with my work, and our lives are made up of poetry
and prose, and some lives are so very prosy. Many times when too tired
to look up a favorite volume of poems, it has rested me to turn the
pages of my recipe book and find some helpful thought, and a good
housewife will always keep her book of recipes where it may be readily
found for reference. I think, Mary, the poem 'Pennsylvania,' by Lydia
M.D. O'Neil, a fine one, and I never tire of reading it over and over
again. I have always felt grateful to my old schoolmaster. Professor
T----, for teaching me, when a school girl, to love the wri