Although any good picture may be hung with propriety in almost any of the first-floor rooms, heads of authors and pictures having historic and literary significance seem especially suggestive of the library; musicians and musical subjects of the music room, or wherever one’s musical instruments may be; dignified subjects, such as cathedrals, with the game and animal pictures which used to hang in the dining room, of the hall; while we now picture our dining room with pretty landscapes or anything else cheery and attractive.  Family portraits, if we must have them, hang better in one’s own room, but really their room is better than their company, as a rule.

HANGING OF PICTURES

As to hanging pictures, the main thing is to have them on a level with the eye, and each subject in a good light—­dark for light parts of the room, light for dark.  Small pictures are most effective in groups, hung somewhat irregularly and compactly.  All pictures lie close to the wall, suspended by either gilt or silvered wire, whichever tones best with the wall decoration.  The use of two separate wires, each attached to its own hook, is preferable to the one wire, whose triangular effect is inharmonious with the horizontal and vertical lines of the room.  Small pictures are best hung with their wires invisible, thus avoiding a network on the walls.

CHAPTER XIII

THE NICE MACHINERY OF HOUSEKEEPING

  “Solomon Grundy,
  Born on Monday,
  Christened on Tuesday,
  Married on Wednesday,
  Took ill on Thursday,
  Worse on Friday,
  Died on Saturday,
  Buried on Sunday. 
  That’s the end of
  Solomon Grundy.”

This little tale serves to show how it simplifies life to have a time for everything and everything in its time.  System was probably a habit in the Grundy family, and was so bred in Solomon’s bones that it never occurred to him that he could reverse the order observed by the Grundys for generations back and be married on Thursday, for instance.  And yet there is room for conjecture as to how much difference it might have made in his life if he had elected to contract an alliance on that day instead of a fatal illness.  System is a fine servant but a poor master.  Simply because custom has decreed that Monday shall be wash day, Tuesday ironing day, and so on, it does not necessarily follow that this programme must be strictly adhered to in every family, or that the schedule of the week’s work, once made out, cannot be changed to meet the unexpected exigencies which are apt to arise.  To be sure, Monday as wash day has many points in its favor; but if it must be postponed until Tuesday, or the clothes have not dried well and the ironing has to go over into Wednesday, there is no reason why the whole domestic harmony should become “like sweet bells jangled, out of tune and harsh.”  Although order is heaven’s first law, it occasionally happens that it is better to break the law than to be broken by it.  And so, when the young housekeeper’s nicely arranged plans for each day in the week are suddenly turned topsy-turvy, let her take heart of grace, remembering that there are whole days that “ain’t teched yet,” and begin again.