Something more suggestive of the sparkling, limpid purity of the crystal spring would be in better taste—such as:
“See the face of Laughing Water.”—Longfellow.
“She sprinkled bright water from the stream.”—Shelley.
“From a thousand petty rills
That tumble down the snowy hills.”—Milton.
There can be no lack of good mottoes to those who look for them.
A roomy, deep drawered bureau is best for a woman’s use, a dressing table or bureau with small and large drawers for a man. There should be looking glasses suited to the needs of each, but for a lady it is convenient to have a glass so placed as to reflect her full figure, so that she may judge of the “hang” of a skirt or the looping of dress drapery.
A candle-stand by the bed, with candlestick and matches, a table or desk for writing purposes, chairs low enough for sewing or lounging in, and a big, old-fashioned stuffed chair for the solace of the sick, these are all bedroom comforts.
I have said nothing of servants’ rooms, though much might be written on the thoughtless neglect which generally makes such rooms unpresentable. I can recall to memory but one house containing a model room for servants’ use. That bed-chamber was as exquisitely nice in its appointments as the room of the mistress herself, though its furnishing was, of course, much less costly.
Boys’ rooms, also, especially in country homes, are apt to be cheerless, neglected spots, wholly unattractive to their occupants. Boys ought not to be burdened in their rooms with the care of those little prettinesses in which their sisters delight; still they should be educated to enjoy what is truly refined and beautiful. Their bedrooms should be tasteful and comfortable, and they should be taught to keep them in order, to hang clothes tidily in the press, to lay away neckties carefully in the drawer, and to take pride and pleasure in making their rooms attractive to themselves and their young friends. They should be encouraged to feel at home in their rooms, and if no attic or shed room can be given up for their boyish gatherings, for whittling, tinkering, kitemaking, and other important youthful manufactures, to say nothing of choice collections of sticks and stones, then banish the carpet, retaining only a warm rug before the bed, and let them make whatever clutter their legitimate pursuits involve, so long as they are rigidly required to right all disorder when the work is done. Free permission to carry on such innocent occupations within his own domain, with a kindly winking of the maternal eye at an occasional pillow fight, would tell more as a means of grace on the boy who now slips out of the house to find doubtful recreation elsewhere, than a whole barrelful of Sunday sermons. The boy who has once learned to take pleasure and pride in the appointments of his own room will want some time for enjoying them, other than the hours spent in bed, and as he of choice lives more within the walls of home, and enters more and more into the spirit of home he will be so much the more likely in his turn to be one day the master and joint possessor of a homelike house.