186 TROTTYS WEDDING TOUR.

at intervals with a brown appearance, which Alta and I had
grown up in the belief was spiders, but which mother said
was either a bat or a man on the gallows; father, on the
contrary, stoutly maintained that it was gridirons.

At this cheerful tapestry Alta and I gazed with a sudden
vivacity not unmixed with despair.

“She never would paper it herself,’ said Alta, ‘“ never.
But I wish we ’d ever papered anything but the tool-house.”

We girls do a great many things at our house. It is partly
because there is n’t much money ; but it’s more because there
are n’t any boys. That partly makes up, in my mind, for
Bib’s being so near the baby, and always choosing vacations
to have mumps and measles in. If there had been a big
brother in the family, I don’t suppose we should any more
have thought we could paper a room than most of the girls
we know.

It has always been a notion of ours — more Alta’s, I think,
than mine—to do some such little thing round home when
anybody is off on a visit, for a surprise when he comes back.
Once we painted the front entry for father in that way, —
pearl tint and oak-staining; it’s really pretty. Another
time we bought and put down a strip of bocking, where Bib
had worn the front stair-carpet through. Then there were
the curtains we hung at the parlor-windows, out of two old
muslin dresses and a little chintz; they ’ve lasted till now.

Alta is assistant pupil, and I give music-lessons to the
little Putty girls on Saturdays; so we always have a little
money of our own, when any such thing is going on.