Do you know the smell of lavender--that sweet, refreshing perfume that clings to some of grandmother's treasures of linen and embroidery? One catches a whiff of it in old gardens sometimes, and it is always welcome. You can buy the seed from a florist or seedsman--_Lavandula vera_ is what the true English lavender is called, and that is best. If it cannot be had, _Lavandula spica_ is next best. It takes time to raise either, but it will be such an addition to your out-of-door garden that you will not regret the time spent. About the first of March the lavender seed should be sown, in window boxes or flats. Make shallow drills with your finger, drop the seed in and cover lightly. Sprinkle them every day with your bulb sprinkler until they come up. When the little plants each have four leaves they may be transplanted. Before starting to transplant them they should be thoroughly wet. Set them five inches apart. In the winter protect the plants with litter--leaves, straw, etc.--six inches deep. The next year, in March, they should be set in rows three feet apart. When the plants are in full bloom the sprigs are cut, and then dried in a cool, darkened room or closet. Lay them on paper so as to save all the blossoms. The lavender flowers may be made into the daintiest of sachets by filling with them sheer linen bags or pale lavender silk ones. The sprigs that are left after the blossoms have fallen may be used like Chinese incense to sweeten a room, by lighting the blossom end of a single piece and letting it burn in a vase or incense holder. Gifts and How to Make Them CHAPTER VIII GIFTS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM It is wonderful what your head and hands can do when you begin to plan gifts for family and friends at Christmas, birthdays and the in-between times when "un-birthday presents"--as "Alice in Wonderland" called them--are so welcome. But I am sure you know the breathless feeling of having to make or buy a long list of Christmas presents with only two weeks or so in which to accomplish it. Why not keep a gift box or drawer, where you can pack away the pretty things you take such pleasure in making on dull days all the year round? There are ever so many things--games, toys, baskets and beadwork--which you will find in other chapters--that will help to fill this gift box, and I am going to tell you about some others. There are several things to think of in planning a gift. It should be something that will be within your means, something that is worth giving, however small--not "trash"; but what is most important of all is that it shall really please the one who receives it. If it can be a lasting pleasure so much the better.