“No, my dear, it is nothing very uncommon.  It is all in the way it is woven.  Instead of having two gay rainbow stripes about three inches wide running through the length of the carpet, I had it woven with the ground work white and brown chain to form checks.  Then about an inch apart were placed two threads of two shades of red woolen warp, alternating with two threads of two shades of green, across the whole width, running the length of the carpet.  It has been greatly admired, as it is rather different from that usually woven.  All the rag carpets I found in the house when we moved here, made by John’s mother, possessed very wide stripes of rainbow colors, composed of shaded reds, yellows, blues and greens.  You can imagine how very gorgeous they were, and so very heavy.  Many of the country weavers use linen chain or warp instead of cotton, and always use wool warp for the stripes.”

“Aunt Sarah, I want something so very much for the Colonial bedroom I should like to have when I have a home of my very own.”

“What is it, dear?  Anything, e’en to the half of my kingdom,” laughingly replied her Aunt.

“Why, I’d love to have several rag rugs like those in your bedroom, which you call ‘New Colonial’ rugs.”

“Certainly, my dear.  They are easily made from carpet rags.  I have already planned in my mind a pretty rag rug for you, to be made from your old, garnet merino shirtwaist, combined with your discarded cravenette stormcoat.

“And you’ll need some pretty quilts, also,” said her Aunt.

“I particularly admire the tree quilts,” said Mary.

“You may have any one you choose; the one called ‘Tree of Paradise,’ another called ‘Pineapple Design,’ which was originally a border to ‘Fleur de lis’ quilt or ‘Pine Tree,’ and still another called ’Tree of Life,’ and ‘The Lost Rose in the Wilderness.’”

“They are all so odd,” said Mary, “I scarcely know which one I think prettiest.”

“All are old-fashioned quilts, which I prize highly,” continued her Aunt.  “Several I pieced together when a small girl, I think old-time patchwork too pretty and useful an accomplishment to have gone out of fashion.

“You shall have a small stand cover like the one you admired so greatly, given me by Aunt Cornelia.  It is very simple, the materials required being a square of yard-wide unbleached muslin.  In the centre of this baste a large, blue-flowered handkerchief with cream-colored ground, to match the muslin.  Turn up a deep hem all around outside edge; cut out quarter circles of the handkerchief at each of four corners; baste neatly upon the muslin, leaving a space of muslin the same width as the hem around each quarter circle; briarstitch all turned-in edges with dark-blue embroidery silk, being washable, these do nicely as covers for small tables or stands on the veranda in Summertime.”

“Aunt Sarah,” ecstatically exclaimed Mary, “you are a wizard to plan so many useful things from a trunk of apparently useless rags.  What a treasure Uncle has in you.  I was fretting about having so little to make my home attractive, but I feel quite elated at the thought of having a carpet and rugs already planned, besides the numerous other things evolved from your fertile brain.”