its colour so that you only have to use force enough to work the colour out on to your surface. You don't try to load the furniture with colour, but get on so much as easily passes from the brush to the wood. In filling your brush only dip the end into the paint, and then knock it against the side of pot or tin so as to distribute it through the hair and then it will not drop about when you use it. So many amateurs try to get a lot of colour on at once, and so get it on too thickly in places. Remember that you can only get a good surface by applying some three or four coats. Your first coat, as the under colour is dark, will look very dirty and thin, but this first coat is only a grounding one. The second coat, which must be applied when the first is quite dry, say in two days, will look much better, while the fourth coat ought to look nice and white. A painter to get a good surface keeps his paint the way of the grain of the wood. Thus the panel of the door would be vertical in grain, the drawer front horizontal. Take the panel for instance. You will get your colour on using your brush up and down. When it is covered "stroke" the paint evenly from left to right, and then "stroke" it again up and down. This will distribute the colour evenly, and if you do this carefully you will obtain a good surface. Allow plenty of time between each coat, as to paint over a surface not quite hard will cause your paint to crack. If you find after your first coat that there are any cracks or holes in the old paint take a little of the stiff white lead, and with a little driers added to it use it as putty and stop up any places, levelling it over smoothly with a knife. By the time your last coat is on such defects ought not to show. If you decide not to decorate your furniture, as I have shown in illustration, then instead of using paint for the last coat buy a tin of white, ivory or cream enamel and use to finish. The enamel is not so easy to get on as paint owing to its sticky nature. You must apply it freely, but don't load it on, for the more evenly you apply it the better will it look. One coat will suffice if you have three good coats of paint underneath. When your brushes are not in use put them into a gallipot or other vessel half filled with water. (_To be continued._) [Illustration: FIG. 2.--_Top of chiffonier decorated with stencilling. The two plants used are the dandelion and cyclamen._] A NEW PRIZE COMPETITION THE GIRL'S OWN QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. BEING OUR OWN SCHOOL OF INTERESTING INFORMATION. [Illustration] _Let every girl who wishes for the next three months to have something pleasant to think about, and something sensible with which to occupy her leisure, read the following_-- * * * * * WE NOW START A NEW COMPETITION of remarkable interest, and likely, we believe, to be of great profit to all who take part in it. THE SUBJECT OF IT is to be