catch the unwary, huge Japanese vases beside the fireplace, a
leopard skin with a solid head in front of the table, and a sprinkling
of Persian rugs spilt over the floor; a cabinet of bric-a-brac in the
northeast corner, a 'whatnot' with a big jardiniere bearing a
three-foot palm on the top story in the northwest, a carved bracket
with a sheaf of Florida grasses in the southeast, and a tall wooden
clock that won't go in the southwest; a brass tea kettle hanging from a
wrought iron frame beside a fragile stand that carries a half dozen of
still more fragile 'hand-painted' teacups and saucers; lambrequins and
heavy curtains at all the windows and most of the doors, a big
combination gas and electric chandelier suspended from the center of
the ceiling, bedangled with jumping jacks, Christmas cards, straw
ornaments and other artistic 'curious'; one or two small tables
scattered 'promiscous like' about the room; a music stand and a banjo;
with photographs, chromos, oil paintings, water colors and etchings,
from one to three feet square, in gilt, enameled and wooden frames of
all styles and degrees of fitness on the walls of the room,--take a
room furnished in this way or a great deal more so, and compare it
with another of the same actual dimensions furnished in the
old-fashioned way and see which is the larger. The modern furnishing
may be 'cozy,' oppressively cozy when there are half a dozen people
trying to move gracefully around and between it without upsetting or
destroying anything, but what sort of hospitality can we offer our
guests if they must be always afraid of breaking something valuable if
they stir?"

"Why not have a bonfire and liquidate some of this superfluous stock?"

"It is not superfluous; all these things, if they are good add to the
enjoyment of living, if we have room for them and are able to take good
care of them without neglecting weightier matters. Our own rooms are
not large enough. However, if we cannot enlarge them we can build new
ones for special purposes. For one, we must have a children's workroom.
If Jack is going to be an artist, and you know he shows decided talent,
and Bessie an architect, there's no doubt of her having real genius in
that direction, they should have one room immediately, and two by and
by, for their own exclusive use. A room where they could keep all their
books, and tools and toys, and where they could work in their own
spontaneous, untrammeled way."

"You mean a n