deboard all the time, and all the oranges and apples and bananas
grow warm and stale, instead of being cold and crisp and refreshing. Put
a white centrepiece in the middle of the table, and we will pile these
in a flat dish on it instead of using the pot of ferns we sometimes
have. It is always nice to have something pretty in the middle of the
table."

Margaret was standing before the drawer in the sideboard hesitating
whether she should bring a table-cloth or not. Then she saw a large
hemstitched square in a corner, and remembered that her mother had said
she had just bought some new cloths for breakfast and luncheon, and that
made it still harder to decide. What should they have on the
breakfast-table? They usually had little squares of linen, one under
each plate and larger ones under the platter and tray, but perhaps she
was to learn some new way this morning. Her aunt came and looked over
her shoulder.

"For breakfast and luncheon we do not use a table-cloth," she said. "Few
people do nowadays. Some use the doilies we have been using, and others
use a small cloth with a fancy border, such as fringe, or a narrow
pattern; the dinner-cloth, you know, is large and heavy, not suitable
for a simple meal. But now we have some nice small cloths, which are
less trouble to put on than the doilies. See, this is a square which
lies on the table with a point hanging over each side, leaving the table
corners bare. The plates go on it, but still it looks informal and
pretty. Here is a pad just the right size to go under it. You must
always put a pad or something of the kind under everything you use on
the table; under the doilies, you know, we put squares of felt, and
under the big dinner-cloth a large piece of double Canton flannel; if we
did not, the varnish on the table-top would be spoiled in no time. Now
let us get the silver."

There were always six places laid at the table, so Margaret counted out
the knives, forks and spoons, and brought them over from the drawer. At
each place they put a knife on the right, the sharp edge of the blade
toward the plate, and outside that a dessert-spoon for cereal and a
teaspoon for coffee; on the left was a fork, and then a napkin. At the
top of the place, directly in front, they put a tumbler at the right and
a small plate for bread and butter at the left, with a little knife,
called a spreader, on it. They then got out small fruit-plates, and on
each they laid first, a small, clean