be to give to her performance as near an
approximation to oil painting as possible.

RAISED WORK.--This should be done with German wool, as it more nearly
resembles velvet. For working flowers, you must have two meshes,
one-seventh of an inch in width, and the pattern must be worked in
gobelin stitch. Be careful not to take one mesh out, until you have
completed the next row. You work across the flowers; and in order to
save an unnecessary waste of time, as well as to facilitate your work,
it will be best to thread as many needles as you require shades, taking
care not to get the various shades mixed together. This is more needful,
as you cannot, as in cross stitch, finish one shade before commencing
another. When the pattern is worked, cut straight across each row, with
a pair of scissors suitable to the purpose, and shear the flower into
its proper form.

For working animals or birds, you must have three meshes; the first, one
quarter; and the third, one seventh of an inch: the second must be a
medium between these two. You will require the largest for the breast,
and the upper parts of the wings. Cross stitch may be employed in
working the beak, or feet, and is indeed preferable. You may work
leaves, either in cross stitch or in gobelin stitch, as taste or fancy
may direct. You may work either from a drawing on canvas, or from Berlin
pattern; but the latter is decidedly to be preferred.

WORKING BERLIN PATTERNS.--For these patterns, it will be necessary to
work in canvas, of eighteen or ten threads to the inch, according as you
may desire the work to be a larger, or of the same size as the pattern:
and, it must be borne in mind, that all the patterns are drawn for tent
stitch, so that if you work in cross stitch, and wish to have it the
same size as the pattern, you must count twenty stitches on the canvas,
for ten on the paper. The choice of colors, for these patterns, is a
matter of essential importance as the transition from shade to shade, if
sudden and abrupt, will entirely destroy the beauty of the design. A
natural succession of tints, softly blending into each other, can, alone
produce the desired effect. In working flowers, five or six shades will
be required: in a rose, or other large flower, six shades are almost
indispensible; of these, the darkest should form the perfect centre,
then the next (not prominently, though perceptibly) differing from it,
and the next four to the lightest tint; the whole, to