_Needle-work_, _Fancy-work_--_Preparations for Writing_--_Flowers_--_House Plants_--_Birds_--_Gold Fish_, _&c._
The first and best use of the needle is common or plain sewing. Every woman and girl should understand this art, the beginning of all arts, and the most indispensable to civilization.
It is unnecessary to dilate on the importance of common needlework, and to this female accomplishment, so universally necessary, we shall principally confine our directions.
626. _Requisites for Sewing._--A neat work-box well supplied with all the implements required, including knife, scissors (of at least three sizes), needles and pins in sufficient variety, bodkins, thimbles, thread and cotton, bobbins, marking silks, black lead pencils, &c., should be provided, and be furnished with a lock and key, to prevent the contents being thrown into confusion by children or unauthorized intruders.
The lady, being thus provided, and having her materials, implements, &c., placed in order upon her work-table, to the edge of which it is an advantage to have a pincushion affixed by means of a screw--may commence her work, and proceed with it with pleasure to herself, and without annoyance to any visitor who may favor her with a call. We would recommend, wherever practicable, that the work-table should be made of cedar, and that the windows of the working parlor should open into a garden well supplied with odoriferous flowers and plants, the perfume of which will materially cheer the spirits of those especially, whose circumstances compel them to devote the greatest portion of their time to sedentary occupations. If these advantages cannot be obtained, at least the room should be well-ventilated, and furnished with a few cheerful plants, and a well-filled scent-jar. The beneficent Creator intended all his children, in whatever station of life they might be placed, to share in the common bounties of his providence; and when she, who works not for pleasure, but to obtain the means of subsistence, is compelled to seclude herself, for days or weeks together, from the cheering influence of exercise in the open air, it becomes both her duty, and that of those for whom she labors, to secure as much of these advantages, or of the best substitutes for them, as the circumstances of the case will admit.