I am
condemned to an absolute bareness, and beauty in my case is not to be
thought of."
Are you sure, my friend? If you live in the country, or can get into
the country, and have your eyes opened and your wits about you, your
house need not be condemned to an absolute bareness. Not so long as
the woods are full of beautiful ferns and mosses, while every swamp
shakes and nods with tremulous grasses, need you feel yourself an
utterly disinherited child of nature, and deprived of its artistic use.
For example: Take an old tin pan condemned to the retired list by
reason of holes in the bottom, get twenty-five cents' worth of green
paint for this and other purposes, and paint it. The holes in the
bottom are a recommendation for its new service. If there are no holes,
you must drill two or three, as drainage is essential. Now put a layer
one inch deep of broken charcoal and potsherds over the bottom, and
then soil, in the following proportions:
Two fourths wood-soil, such as you find in forests, under trees.
One fourth clean sand.
One fourth meadow-soil, taken from under fresh turf. Mix with this
some charcoal dust.
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