Possibly, many of those who have read about this “Darning and Patching” have turned away, saying, “Thank fortune! I shall never need to employ myself about such work; I should feel that I was spending my time foolishly.” Would the time spent in perfecting yourself in this accomplishment be more wasted, think you, than that which you give daily to crocheting and embroidering a host of things unlike aught in heaven above, the earth beneath, or the waters under the earth? And yet, the time spent in fancy work has taught you little that you could turn to practical use, should reverses befall you,--and who is secured against reverses? Fortune is fickle, and policies taken out in her insurance companies are not reliable. We would not speak slightingly of many kinds of really elegant fancy articles and ornaments which women’s skill has wrought. If you have the time to spare, then, “these ought ye to have done, but not to leave the other undone.” Should disaster come, and any of us be compelled to “rise up early, and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness,”--to plan and turn and contrive, using all the skill we possess to “gar auld claes look amaist as weel’s the new,”--how thankful we should be that in our younger and more prosperous days we had been taught this art, and by it were now able to carry with us into our altered circumstances a power to bring light out of darkness. If one knows how to renovate and remodel, there is far more genuine pleasure in using the knowledge to construct new out of old, than can possibly be gained while shopping on the most extravagant scale. To walk into a store with a full purse, and buy, without stint, whatever the eye covets; to send the material to the dress-maker, and have it made and brought home without any effort on our part, is a tame enjoyment compared with contriving the dress from a scanty pattern, or from odd bits and ends. We weary of that which costs us no toil or thought; the charm soon vanishes, and we seek for something new.