, will find these bands easy enough to make. Their use is to
fasten a napkin round a child's neck at dinner, and take the place of
that disobliging "pin," which is never at hand when wanted. You must
cut a strip of Java canvas, two inches wide by a foot long; overcast
the edges, and work on it some easy little vine in worsted, or a
Grecian pattern, or, if you like, a short motto, such as "More haste,
worse speed." Line the strip with silk, turn in the edges, overhand
them, and finish the ends with two of those gilt clasps which are used
to loop up ladies' dresses.

A RUSTIC VASE.

[Illustration]

It is very easy to get the material out of which this vase is made.
You need only go to your wood-pile, or, if you have none, to the
wood-pile of a neighbor. Choose a round stick four inches in diameter
and eight or ten inches long, with a smooth bark. If you find the
stick, and it is too long, you can easily saw off an end. Now comes
the difficult part of the work: The inside of the stick must be
scooped out to within four inches of the bottom. The easiest way of
accomplishing this will be to send it to a turning-mill if there
is one at hand; if not, patience and a jack-knife will in the end
prevail. Next, with a little oil-color, paint a pretty design on
the bark, if you can,--trailing-arbutus, partridge berry, sprays of
linnea,--any wood thing which can be supposed to cluster naturally
round a stump. Set the stump in a flower-pot saucer, filled with
earth, and planted with mosses and tiny ferns; fit a footless wine
or champagne glass, or a plain cup, into the hollow end, and, with a
bunch of grasses and wild flowers, or autumn leaves, you have a really
exquisite vase, prettier than any formal article bought in a shop, and
costing little more than time and patience, with a touch of that rare
thing--taste! which, after all, is not so very rare as some people
imagine. Any friend will prize such a vase of your own making.

A TABLE-COVER.

A really charming cover for a small table can be made in this way: Cut
a square--or oblong, as the case may be--of that loosely woven linen
which is used for glass-towels, making it about four inches larger all
round than the table it is meant to fit. Pale yellow or brown is the
best color to select. Ravel the edges into a fringe two inches deep;
then, beginning two inches within the edge, draw the linen threads all
round in a band an inch and three-quarters wide. Lace the plain space