The piece must be cut three or four inches larger than the hole, and frayed out on all four sides. Trim the hole with your scissors neatly all round quite square with the thread. Then lay your piece over the hole—of course on the back or "wrong side"—and tack it there with cotton. Now take a darning needle, and thread each thread in turn, and darn each one into the stuff. If the ends of stuff are very short, it is best to run your needle in and out where you are going to darn, and then, before pulling it through, thread it with the wool. This patching is excellent for table-linen.
We once had an aunt who was a thorough old Scout, and was rather proud of her mending. She always said that she didn't mind what colored cotton you gave her to sew with, because her stitches hardly ever showed, they were so small, and also she put them inside the stuff. If she was putting on a patch to blue stuff, she could do it with red cotton, and you would never have noticed it on the right side; her stitches were all under the edge. Or else she sewed it at the back, on the wrong side, so that it looked perfectly neat.
If you are not able to match the wool for a darn, it is a good plan to use the ravelings of the stuff itself. Sometimes, away in the country, you can't go to a shop and you have nothing like the piece you want to mend. A Scout would turn it inside out and undo a little of the hem, and ravel out the edge. Suppose you were to cut a hole in the front of your blue serge skirt; if you darn it with the ravelings of the turnings of the seam or the hem, that will be exactly the same color and the same thickness as your dress. No wool you could buy would match as well. Or if you want to mend a jersey or knitted gloves, you never could buy such a good match—the same sized wool and the tints.
Damask table-cloths should be darned to match the pattern, following the flowers of the design, and large holes may be mended like the "Scouts' Patch" just described. To sew on buttons properly, leave them loose enough for the iron to push. On washing articles have your threads long enough to make a little stalk to the button, which is wound round before finishing. Your needle should be sloped out to all sides, so as to take up fresh stuff farther out than the holes in the button.
Scouts may make many useful presents in their spare time, such as cretonne covered blotters or frames, mittens, warm felt slippers (for which woolly soles can be bought), pen-wipers, pin-cushions, and needle-books. They could also make articles for their hospitals, such as night-clothing, soft caps, handkerchiefs, pillow-cases, and dusters.
HOME COOKING
There is a legend in Turkey that when a rich man is engaged to marry a lady he can break it off if she is not able to cook him a dish of dates in a different way every day for a whole month. A friend of ours did somewhat the same in trying a new cook; he always tested them with nothing but cutlets for a fortnight. The real test of a good cook is to see how little food she wastes. She uses up all the scraps, and old bits of bread are baked for making puddings and for frying crumbs; she sees that nothing goes bad, and she also buys cleverly. Those who do not understand cookery waste money.
Perfect cleanliness and neatness should be insisted on, or your food will be bad and unwholesome.