An informal arrangement of prints may take the place of pictures which, in a town house, would need to be regularly framed and hung. A set of black-and-white sketches, a number of hunting scenes or some English posters, can be easily transported and tacked to the wall for the summer decoration. A number of coloured prints of Indian heads may be grouped under one mat and put up without further framing; or, a binding of dark paper and a glass may be given each separate print and all hung together on the wall. With so many inexpensive, pleasing pictures to draw from, the country home need not miss its share of pictorial effect.

Some further wall decorations, that are significant of out-of-door life and sports, may be provided by the articles used in that connection - oars, floats, lanterns, pennants, guns and fishing rods. If flowers are not available, some green branches and vines may be gathered from fields and woods. Wooden boxes covered with bark may be placed on the steps and filled with red geraniums, to give colour to the exterior of the house at a small expenditure of garden labour.

Rugs of grass matting are the least expensive covering that can be put on the floors during the summer. As these are made in widths that run from three to twelve feet, and the length may be whatever is desired, they have a wide scope of usefulness. The colour tones arc cool and unobtrusive, harmonising with any kind of woodwork or furniture.

The rag rugs made of cotton stripe woven by hand, if deep enough in colour, are a pleasant floor covering for the country living room. While the hand looms do not make wide enough rugs to lay entirely over a floor, the factory-made rugs on the same principle are wide as nine feet. Scotch rugs are the most practical ones for the living room owing to their good colours, permanent dyes and artistic designs. A further recommendation is the fact of their being woven for use on both sides.

The fireplace is naturally the chief point of attraction in the interior of the country home. A broad, rugged treatment of stonework or bricks is in better keeping here than smooth tiles and highly-finished wood. In one mountain home the hearth was dropped a few inches below the floor to make a low seat for the little ones in the family. In another house a tall settle was built on one side of the fireside as a stationary sitting place. A hob at right or left of the open fire is a cosy adjunct to an old-fashioned crane and swinging kettle.

Dining rooms in the country are often finished now in the white paint known as a colonial finish. The idea is being followed in tables and chairs in white enamel paint, and an old set of furniture that is in need of refinishing may receive the new treatment over the old shellac and stain. In a white dining room the cool interior will be further enhanced by a blue-and-white paper on the wall, plain blue linen curtains at the windows, and a rug of blue-and-green on the floor.

A piazza that opens from the dining room, especially if it is away from the front entrance to the house, may be easily adapted to informal meals, breakfasts, luncheons or teas, if it is provided with tables and chairs. Linen mats may take the place of a large cloth, and a simple set of earthenware may be substituted for the better quality of china that is used indoors. Suitable for this use are some re-productions of the willow china which are quaint in shape, and some American pottery made for baking and serving which is attractive in colour.

The bedrooms of the country house may receive a treatment full of simplicity and caseful charm. If a tinted wall is adopted the bed covering may be of a flowered pattern in cretonne, or art ticking or dimity; or, if a figured paper is applied to the walls. plain colours elsewhere will balance the effect. Bedside rugs woven in rag-style by hand, or the lengths sewed together to make a single large piece, may be the covering for the floor. If a carpet must be used, some of the mottled ingrains which give a tone without a pattern should be chosen.

Toilet sets will supplement other attractions in this room if selected in good shapes and artistic decorations. The range is limited, however, and unless a set whose cost takes it beyond the proportion expended on other things is chosen the washing arrangements may prove disappointing.

The home builder who can plan certain arrangements for summer comfort will not overlook the advantages of an upper piazza. At the front of the house, or in an exposed position, such a porch is practically useless; but when it is properly located with due precaution for privacy it will prove invaluable. An invalid who does not go downstairs will enjoy the fresh air and change of environment from the interior of the house; a child may take out-of-door naps under the protection of a roof and within easy reach of attention; the airing and cleaning of clothes is another use for which the second story piazza affords opportunity.

The country home during the summer months has for a number of people only a transitory interest, as it must be hired furnished, and may not be occupied by them a second year. However complete the house in its equipment, the home atmosphere is missing in so tem-porary an abiding plat One family who made a rented cottage its home during the hot weather originated a movable motto which was transported with other small belongings from the town abode. A slab of chestnut was lettered in old English script:

Home Is Where the Hearth Is and the words burned into the wood upon a background of dark-brown stain. Wherever the household put up its tent thereafter in vacation days, the movable motto became a feature of the fireside enjoyment.

From this little hint other schemes may be evolved for imparting some touch of the family tastes to the rented home, if only by the carrying of cushion covers, a spread for the sofa, some unframed pictures, flower holders, and table mats. These may be slipped into the trunks that hold the clothing, with very slight additional pressure on the contents; and the trouble and expense of sending out a few rugs, a special chair or desk, or curtains and table china from the city dwelling will be more than compensated by the pleasure their familiar presence gives to the household.