If you have an old work-box, or desk, or table-top, or screen, which has grown shabby, and which you would like to renew, we can tell you how to do so.  First, you must take those generous friends, the woods, into your counsel.  Gather and press every bright, perfect leaf and spray which comes in your way this autumn, and every graceful bit of vine, and a quantity of small brown and gold-colored ferns, and those white feathery ones which have blanched in the deep shadows.  These ready, paint your box, or whatever it is, with solid black, let it dry, rub it smooth with fine sand-paper, and repeat the process three times.  Then glue the leaves and ferns on, irregularly scattered, or in regular bouquets and wreaths, as suits your fancy.  Apply a coat of isinglass, dissolved in water, to the whole surface, and when that is dry, three coats of copal varnish, allowing each to dry before the next is put on.  The effect is very handsome.  And, even without painting the objects black, this same style of leaf and fern-work can be applied to earthen vases, wooden boxes, trays and saucers, for card-receivers.  For these, you may get some good hints from the illustrations on subsequent pages.  The same illustrations will apply to the “novelties in fern-work” given further on.

A WINDOW TRANSPARENCY.

Another pretty use for autumn leaves is a transparency for a window.  Arrange a group of the leaves upon a pane of glass, lay another pane of same size over these, and glue the edges together, first with a strip of stout muslin, and then with narrow red ribbon, leaving a loop at each upper corner to hang it up by.  The deep leaf colors seen against the light are delightful.

SIDE-LIGHT TRANSPARENCIES.

Any of you who happen to live in a house which has, like many old houses, a narrow side-light on either side of its front-door, and a row of panes across the top, can make a pretty effect by preparing a series of these transparencies to fit the door-glasses, and fastening them on by driving a stout tack into the sashes so as to support the four corners of each pane.  The transparencies could be prepared secretly and put into place overnight, or on Christmas morning, before any one is up, so as to give mother a pleasant surprise as she comes downstairs.

A FRAME OF AUTUMN LEAVES.

Procure an oblong bit of tin, eight inches by ten, or ten inches by twelve, and have a large oval cut out in the middle.  Paint the tin with two coats of black, glue a small group of leaves in each corner, with a wire spray or tendril to connect them, varnish with two coats of copal, and put a small picture behind the oval.

A FRAME OF MAIDEN-HAIR.