the senses with a pretence at coolness, nothing is more satisfactory
or gay than scarlet geraniums; but if they are used, care must be
taken that they harmonise with the colour of the awnings and the
chintz on the porch.

Speaking of rail-boxes reminds us that in making over a small summer
house and converting a cheap affair into one of some pretensions,
remember that one of the most telling points is the character of your
porch railing. So at once remove the cheap one with its small, upright
slats and the insignificant and frail top rail, and have a solid porch
railing (or porch fence) built with broad, top rail. Then place all
around porch, resting on iron brackets, rail-flower boxes, the tops of
these level with the top of the rail, and paint the boxes the colour
of the house trimmings. Filled with running vines and gay flowers,
nothing could be more charming.

Window-boxes make any house lovely and are a large part of that charm
which appeals to us, whether the house be a mansion in Mayfair or a
Bavarian farm house. Americans are learning this.

The window and rail-boxes of a house look best when all are planted
with the same variety of flowers.

Having given a certain air of distinction to your porch-railing, add
another touch to the appearance of your small, remodelled house by
having the shutters hung from the top of the windows, instead of from
the sides. A charming variety of awning or sun-shades, to keep the sun
and glare out of rooms, is the old English idea of a straw-thatching,
woven in and out until it makes a broad, long mat which is suspended
from the top of windows, on the outside of the house, being held out
and permanently in place, at the customary angle of awnings. We first
saw this picturesque kind of rustic awnings used on little cottages of
a large estate in Vermont, cottages once owned and lived in by
labourers, but bought and put in comfortable condition to be used as
overflow rooms for guests, in connection with the large family mansion
(once the picturesque village inn).

The art of making these straw awnings is not generally understood in
America. In the case to which we refer, one of the gardeners employed
on the estate, chanced to be an old Englishman who had woven the straw
window awnings for farm houses in his own country.

The straw awnings, with window-boxes planted with bright geraniums and
vines, make an inland cottage delightfully picturesque and are
practical, although by