directions.

All that is wanted is a little taste and dexterity, for of course you
must try to avoid making your frames look stiff. Begin at the top of the
frame, and make it higher and more imposing than the sides; put first a
fir-cone, and then a couple of beech-nuts, and then an oak-ball, or a
piece of lichen, and so on.

Cones which are too large and heavy for these small frames are very
useful to pull to pieces, to stop gaps with, for no bare places should
be left; and the black alder-cones are capital little fellows to stick
in here and there, for you will nearly always pick them up two or three
together on a tiny sort of black branch, which will fit in nicely
between the other cones. With anything round like oak-apples, it is a
good plan to slice off a piece and to glue the flat side to the
cardboard.

When we had finished sticking on the cones, we left the frames to get
dry and firm, and the following day we finished them; and this is the
way it should be done.

Put the frame on an old cushion, or something soft, cone side downwards.
If you decide to have a glass over your picture, you must get a piece
beforehand at a glazier's, about the same size as the picture. Rub if
bright with a leather, put a small dab of glue in each corner, and place
it in the frame.

But before you do this, you should slip a narrow strip of ribbon through
a small ring--like those which umbrellas are fastened with--and glue the
ends on to the millboard, in the centre.

This is, of course, to hang your picture up by.

Now put your picture face downwards on to the glass, and be careful to
see that you have it straight. Then glue a small strip of paper across
each corner to keep it in position.

The last thing to be done is to gum a piece of paper all over the back;
and this makes a neat finish to your frame. You must leave it for a few
hours to get thoroughly well stuck, and then it is quite ready to be
hung up.

SHEILA.

HIS FIRST SKETCH.

Beneath a cottage window,
Upon a summer day,
Two little ones are whiling
The sunny hours away.

A portrait of his sister
The boy draws on the wall;
The little maid remonstrates,
She likes it not at all.

At first she sits there pouting--
A tear is in her eye;
But peals of merry laughter
Burst from her by-and-by.

What cares the budding artist?
He plies his brush with zest;
He is in downright earnest,
Though she is but in