“Good idea!” laughed the Girl. “As a house decorator you surpass yourself as a Medicine Man.”
“Fix these as you did those upstairs,” ordered the Harvester. “We don't want any fol-de-rols. Put the bottom even with the sill and shear them off at the top.”
“No, I am going to arrange these,” said the decorator, “you go on with your part.”
“All right!” agreed the Harvester. “First, I'll lay the big rug.”
He cleared the floor, spread a large rug with a rich brown centre and a wide blue border. Smaller ones of similar design and colour were placed before each of the doors leading from the room.
“Now for the hearth,” said the Harvester, “I got this tan goat skin. Doesn't that look fairly well?”
It certainly did; and the Girl and the decorator hastened to say so. The Harvester replaced the table and chairs, and then sat on the couch at the Girl's feet.
“I call this almost finished,” he remarked. “All we need now is a bouquet and something on the walls, and that is serious business. What goes on them usually remains for a long time, and so it should be selected with care. Ruth, have you a picture of your mother?”
“None since she was my mother. I have some lovely girl photographs.”
“Good!” cried the Harvester. “Exactly the thing! I have a picture of my mother when she was a pretty girl. We will select the best of yours and have them enlarged in those beautiful brown prints they make in these days, and we'll frame one for each side of the mantel. After that you can decorate the other walls as you see things you want. Fifteen minutes gone; we are ready to take up the line of march to the dining-room. Oh I forgot my pillows! Here are a half dozen tan, brown, and blue for this room. Ruth, you arrange them.”