At a valentine-party the valentines should, if possible, all be original, or at least contain appropriate quotations. The more absurd the rhyme, the more fun it will create, and when one is unable to make a rhyme a bit of prose can be made to serve. As funny as you please let the valentines be, but remember to omit anything that is in the least rude, or calculated to hurt another’s feelings. [Illustration: Fig. 382.—Cupid’s Bow with Arrow in Position.] With Saint Valentine’s Day ends our vacation-calendar and with it we also bring this book to a close, for a whole year of holidays, sports, and entertainments are now contained within its covers. If we may hope that our work has not been without profit, as well as entertainment, if we have been successful in opening any new avenues of enterprise and enjoyment for you, we are satisfied. If we have done more, and with any of our suggestions have prompted the thought of adding to the comfort and happiness of others, we have achieved a success, and the mission of the AMERICAN GIRL’S HANDY BOOK is accomplished. [Illustration] INDEX. A Album, an, 400 All-Hallow-Eve; see Halloween Appliqué designs, 391 April, first of, 3; April-fool’s Day party, 5; games, 6 et seq. B Back-stitching, 383 Ball, soft, 327 Balls, lawn-tennis, 69 Basket, May, 74; birch-bark, ib.; cardboard, ib.; crab-net, 97 Basting, 382 Bedstead, 444 Beech-nuts, 220 Biographical nonsense, 339 Bladder telephone, 227 Blind, taught modelling, 257 Blind-man’s singing-school, 155 Blind-man’s stocking, 321 Bombs, 115 Bonbon box, 49 Bookcase, 439 Book-covers, home-made, 401 Book-mark, 324 Book-shelves, marine, 94 Booths at a fair, 413; tables for, ib.; flowers for, 417; arrangement of, 420 Botany as applied to art, 139; conventionalizing plant forms, ib.; the peony-leaf, 140; a bunch of turnips, 142; decorative lines, 143; cross-section plant designs, 144; flower-sprays, 146; changing color and form, 147; burs, ib.; water-lily conventionalized, 148; fern-leaf, 85 Bouquets, to preserve fresh, 25 Brackets, 214 Bradford, Governor William, 302 Bran pie, 321 Brushes for oil-colors, 250; for china painting, 270 Bubble-blowing, 335 Buckeye Portière, 204 “Bunching eggs,” 37 Burgoos, 132 Butter-Scotch, 459 Butter-nuts, 220 Button, how to sew on a, 386 Button-holes, 383 Bureau transformed into a bookcase, 441 C Candlestick, marine, 103 Candy, home-made, 458 Canvas for painting, 251 Cards, Easter, 50 Cards, living Christmas, 342 Chair, 441; how to reseat, 442 Chestnuts, 218