by Lina Beard
To test fortune in this way, fill a large pan or bowl with clean dry sand; provide as many plantain-plants as there are players, and to the roots of all but one tie, with a narrow ribbon, a bonbon which contains within its wrapper a verse indicating that the wrong plant has been chosen. To the one reserved from the rest attach a small piece of coal, or charcoal, wrapped in a bonbon paper which also encloses a verse describing the magic powers of the coal. Place all of the plants in the sand, making them look as though growing there. All this should be prepared before the party assembles, that no one may know to which plant the coal is fastened.
When the appointed time arrives, explain to the company that to the root of one of the plants in the bowl is fastened a coal which, according to old superstition, will secure to the finder perfect health for life. Then let each person in turn pull from the sand one of the plants. The one who finds the coal should be heartily congratulated, as she is supposed to have gained the good will of fortune and to be exempt from all the ills that flesh is heir to. The plantain is not difficult to secure, as it grows in almost every grassplot, much to the annoyance of those who take pride in their lawns. Should the name be unfamiliar to some of our readers, the accompanying illustration will help them recognize the weed.
Magic Plantain.
A pretty charm for the watch-chain can be made of the coal which is to bring the finder such good luck,* by having it cut to a proper size and shape, and a gold or silver band put around it. This will make it a souvenir, carrying out the old idea that the magic coal should be worn upon the person to bring the coveted good fortune.
Rhymes to be enclosed in the paper with the magic coal:
Where my roots are intertwined
Lo, the magic coal you find.
Buried deep beneath the sand,
Waiting for your favored hand,
I have held it free from harm;
Take, and wear the mystic charm.
From the lightning’s deadly stroke,
From the fire it may invoke,
From all illness, pain, and strife,
May it guard thee safe through life.
Rhymes to be enclosed in bonbons tied to the roots of plantains which do not bring good luck:
Though ye seek, ye seek in vain
Fortune’s favor thus to gain,
For I bring to you no coal
To write your name on Fortune’s roll.
Pity ’tis you thought it best
To pick out me from all the rest,
For no root of mine comes near
The coal that brings good fortune here.
Chance capricious, captures choice;
Fickle Fortune favors few;
When deaf to love, or reason’s voice,
What makes you think she’ll favor you?
I am no messenger of fate,
You find this out, alas! too late;
I bring no magic coal with me,
From pains and ills to set you free.
Any bright girl can scribble off little jingles of this sort that will do very well for the plantain test, or appropriate quotations may be selected for the purpose.
Fortune’s Wheel.
Just where Fortune will fail each member of the company present is discovered in the following game:
The entire party forms into a circle, standing about two feet apart; then a wheel or hoop is started around the inside of the ring, and kept going by each one giving it a gentle push with the hand, sending it to the person next in the circle. As the wheel goes around the players sing these lines, pronouncing a word as each player touches the wheel, as if counting out.
Fortune’s wheel we speed along
The while we sing our mystic song.
Bring happiness, fame, power, and wealth,
True love, long life, good friends, and health,
Success in music, poetry, art,
And with it all a merry heart.
When the wheel drops at the feet of anyone as a gift of Fortune is being sung, or if they fail to strike it as it passes, or, striking, they send it into the centre of the ring instead of to their next neighbor, it denotes that Fortune will withhold that special gift from them, and they must leave the circle, for good luck has deserted them.
The game continues until only one player remains, and this person, who has succeeded in keeping the wheel moving, is Fortune’s favorite, and will possess all the gifts the mythical Goddess can bestow.
Starfish Portière.
* Cicada, commonly known among children as the locust.
* Cannel coal is the best to use, for it is hard, will take a high polish like jet, and can be carved with a pen-knife.
CHAPTER VIII.
SEA-SIDE COTTAGE DECORATION.
SIMPLY to enter a house is enough to start some people to planning how it can, might, or should be decorated. The love of beauty seems to be inherent in the feminine character, and it is the nature of most girls to make their surroundings as beautiful as circumstances will permit. Those who have taste and ability for decoration can see no barren or homely room without being seized with the desire to banish its uncomeliness, and substitute grace and beauty in its stead.
The ordinary cottage at the sea-shore is a boon to such natures, for it is peculiarly well adapted to amateur decoration. Its ceiled walls offer plain, even, flat tinted surfaces for any kind of ornamentation, and the absence of plaster makes it possible to drive nails wherever it is desirable to have them.
During a summer spent in one of these cottages on the coast of Maine, its many possibilities in the way of decoration were revealed, and personal experience has demonstrated that even the plainest of these temporary abiding-places is capable of being greatly beautified in a short time, and with materials usually close at hand, being obtainable from the fishermen and from the sea itself.
The windows first claim our attention in any house and our little cottage is no exception to the rule. With, or without, the regulation shades, windows should always be draped; the formality of their straight lines and angles can be subdued in no other way.
Fig. 39
Diagram of Ring.
Light, airy curtains are suitable for summer, and the prettiest, most graceful window-drapery imaginable can be made of ordinary fish-net. An oar for a pole; rings made of rope (Fig. 39); the looping formed of a rope tied in a sailor’s knot; and a wooden hoop, such as is used to attach the sail to the mast on a sail-boat (Fig. 40) are all that are necessary for the completion of this nautical curtain. Small rings screwed into the oar, with corresponding hooks in the window-frame just above the window, will hold the oar securely in place. The looping should hang from a hook fastened in the wall near the window. The illustration given here will aid the imagination in picturing the effect of a window treated in this simple manner. Another pretty curtain may be made of unbleached cotton, with bands of blue at top and bottom covered with the ever-decorative fish-net.
Fig. 40
Looping for Curtains.
Gray linen curtains, with strips of the net set in as insertion at top and bottom, will also be found extremely pretty and serviceable; or they may be composed of strips of linen and net, of equal width, running the length of the curtain. Made up in either way the effect is excellent.
Sea-side Cottage Window.
From window-drapery we will turn to that suitable for the door-ways. Portières, in a room where the prevailing tints are gray and light wood-color, should not present too violent a contrast to those subdued tones. A curtain of wood-brown, neither too dark nor too light, will give the needed strength and decision, without destroying the harmonious coloring.
Fig. 41
Diagram of Tying Knot.
Fig. 42
Fastening End of Rope.
One can be quickly and easily made of brown canton flannel and decorated with dried starfish, as shown in the illustration of the starfish portière. The starfish are soft enough to admit of being sewed to the curtain, and they should be placed wit
h the underside out, as that is much prettier than the back, showing as it does two shades of color. A heavy rope with a knot at each end, stretched taut across the door-way and held in place with two hooks, will answer for a pole, and the drapery can be hung from it with iron rings. If the rope is very heavy the ends will have to be parted into strands before the knots can be tied. Figs. 41 and 42 show the manner of tying the knot and fastening the end of a moderately heavy rope.
Fig. 43
Diagram of Book-shelves.
Book-shelves made of half of a flat-bottomed row-boat is not only an appropriate piece of furniture for a cottage by the sea, but also a very useful one. The fact of its shape allowing it to occupy a corner makes it a welcome addition to the furnishing, since there are so few things adapted to fill that angle. Fig. 43 shows half of boat with cleats nailed on to hold the shelves, which must be made to fit the boat. The shelves, when resting on the cleats, are secure enough, and need not be fastened in any other way. If the book-shelves, when finished, are painted black, unvarnished, they will have the appearance of being ebonized.
Row-boat Book-shelves.
The evidence of a womanly presence in the shape of a dainty work-basket always gives a home-like look to a room, and when this useful trifle happens to be prettily designed it contributes not a little to the decorations. The standing work-basket represented here is manufactured of a crab-net, with the handle removed, fastened to a tripod stand.
Fig. 44
Fig. 45
Fig. 46
Fig. 47
Diagram of Crab-net Work-basket.
The tripod may be made of bamboo, or any kind of straight sticks about the length of a walking-cane. Upon one of the sticks two notches must be cut; one exactly in the centre, and the other at one side just below (see Fig. 44). The second stick needs but one notch, which should match the upper one on the first stick (Fig. 45). The third stick has no notches.
To fasten them together, Fig. 45 must be laid across Fig. 44 as in Fig. 46, and the two fastened together with screws. The third stick must then be placed across the others, fitting in the two upper notches; this must be secured with two screws, one passing through each of the other sticks (Fig. 47).
Crab-net Work-basket.
The stand when finished should be painted black, and the crab-net, which has previously been gilded, fastened in place by tying it on to each stick with a cord and tassel made of rope and gilded. Notches cut in the sticks, about three inches from the top, will afford a resting-place for the cord and keep it from slipping.
The hat-rack, which our drawing represents, makes an excellent and convenient hall-decoration. The materials used in its construction are a small mirror, which can be procured at any country store; four boards, whose length and breadth depend upon the size of the mirror; two oars, with one-third of each handle sawed off; one dozen large-sized nails, or small spikes, and a piece of rope about twelve feet long. The frame is made by nailing the boards together as shown in illustration, placing the end-boards on top. The opening left in the centre should be one inch smaller than the mirror. When eight of the spikes have been driven into the frame at regular distances the mirror must be fastened on the back with strips of leather or sail-cloth, as shown in diagram (Fig. 48). The diagram also shows how the oars are held in place and the rope attached. The knot in which the rope is tied is called a true-lover’s knot, and can readily be fashioned by studying the diagram. Small nails driven through the rope where it crosses the back of the oar will keep the loops from slipping out of place. The remaining four spikes are to suspend the hat-rack from, and must be driven into the wall so that two will hold the top loop, and the others the extreme upper corners of the side loops.
Fig. 48.
Diagram of Hat-rack.
Hat-rack.
The frame and oars may be painted black and the spikes and ropes gilded, or the whole will look well painted yellow or brown.
A handsome screen can be made in the following manner: Procure a nice, firm clothes-horse, saw off the legs close to the bottom cross-piece, then cover the whole neatly, on both sides, with dark green cambric. Next tack smoothly on one side of each fold light brown wrapping-paper, which comes quite wide, and may be bought by the yard. For the border use dark-green canton flannel cut in strips eight inches wide. Tack this around each fold of the screen with gimp-tacks, and paste the inside edges smoothly over the paper.
The decorations of the screen shown in the illustration are composed entirely of products of the sea.
Two panels are shown. One is decorated with sea-weed, dried starfish, and shells. Sea-weed and shells also are used on the other, but a group of horseshoe crabs take the place of the starfish.
Sea-weed of various kinds suitable for this use can be found along the coast, and they may be gathered and dried in this way. Loosen the sea-weed from whatever it is attached to, and while still in the water slip a piece of stiff paper beneath it and lift it out. Quite a number can be carried on the same paper, but they should be taken home as soon as possible and placed in a tub of fresh water. The tub will give the larger kinds room to spread out, when a smaller vessel would cramp and rumple them. On sheets of paper, of the kind used for the screen, carefully lift each sea-weed out of the water, and with a small camel-hair brush straighten the parts that are too much folded, and separate those that lie too closely together. Should a plant be very much crumpled when taken out, quickly replace it in the water and try again.
Marine Screen.
When they have all been satisfactorily spread on the paper and have become partially dry, they must be pressed by laying the paper which holds the sea-weed on a piece of blotting-paper or folded newspaper, and over it a piece of linen or fine cotton cloth; then over that another piece of blotting-, or news-paper; then again the paper with sea-weed, and so on; when all are finished the entire heap should be placed between two boards with a moderately heavy weight on top. When the seaweed is quite dry—which it will be in three or four days—it will be found that some varieties will cling closely to the paper on which they have been spread, while others can readily be removed. Do not try to separate the first-mentioned kind from the paper, but with sharp scissors neatly trim off the edges around the weed; the paper underneath being the same as that of the screen on which it is to be pasted, it will not show. The other sea-weed can be taken from the paper and fastened to the screen with mucilage.
Horseshoe Crab Bag.
Before commencing the decoration some idea of the design, or the effect to be produced, should be decided upon; then with deft fingers the articles used can be glued in place. When the glue is dry the whole must be given a coat of white varnish. This will help to hold things in place, and will also keep the seaweed from chipping off.
Vase.
An odd little bag for holding fancy work is made of two large horseshoe crab shells, with a satin bag fastened between them and tied at the top with a bow of ribbon. The main part of the bag can be of cambric the color of the satin, cut to fit the shells, the puff showing at the sides being of the satin.
A pretty little vase can be made of the shells of three sea-urchins, of graduating sizes, placed one upon another, the smallest on top. The small hole in the bottom of the largest one should be filled up with damp plaster-of-Paris-which will harden very quickly. The other two shells must have the small holes enlarged to the size of the one at the top; they can then be joined together with the plaster, and the vase be used for flowers or vines. A sea-urchin and good-sized starfish make the prettiest kind of a candlestick, and the addition of a brass-headed tack on every point but one of the starfish gives it a nice finish and furnishes feet for it to stand on; the point left without a foot forms the handle by which it may be carried. The tacks should be stuck into the fish first, and then the sea-urchin fastened on with plaster-of-Paris. Not more than ten minutes are consumed in making a candlestick of this kind, and it will be found to be quite as useful as it is pretty and unique.
Candles
tick.
The walls of the cottage can be decorated in many ways with the beautiful ornaments the sea furnishes. Over one of the doors in the cottage alluded to at the beginning of this chapter there was an ornamentation that looked exactly like wood-carving, but was only a group of starfish arranged and tacked on the wall in a decorative form. The fish being nearly the exact color of the background, the deception was almost perfect.
If the walls of a room are divided off into panels, and each panel decorated in the manner described for the screen, the effect will be most exquisite.
On entering such a room one might almost imagine oneself to be a mermaid, and this a lovely chamber beneath the sea.
So much can be done by one’s own hands it depends greatly, if not entirely, upon the taste or time one is willing to devote to it what this sea-side habitation shall be; whether the little cottage shall be in harmony with its surroundings, seemingly a part of the place, or whether it shall be only a cheap frame-structure, looking as though it belonged in a country town and had been carried to the coast in a capricious gale of wind, with decorations, if it has any, inappropriate and unsuited to the sea-shore.
How to Dry Starfish.
Collect the most perfect specimens of all sizes, wash them in fresh water, and then spread on a board in a dry place (not in the sun) and leave them undisturbed for a few days, or until thoroughly dried.
How to Polish Shells.