This special form of lunacy I did not indulge in--farming was enough for me--but the painter who was enlivening my dining-room with a coating of vivid red and green, kindly told me all about it, how much I missed, and how the couple looked who took the first prize.

The lady wore tin plates, tin cans, tin spoons, etc., sewed on to skirt and waist in fantastic patterns, making music as she walked, and on her head a battered old coffee pot, with artificial flowers which had outlived their usefulness sticking out of the spout; and her winning partner was arrayed in rag patchwork of the most demented variety.
"Youdorter gone" said he; "'twas a great show.

But I bet youder beaten the hull lot on 'em if you'd set your mind on't!" My walls were now covered with old-fashioned papers, five and ten cents a roll, and cheap matting improved the floors.

But how to furnish eleven rooms?
This brings me to--.