For the “company room,” to be used on “grand opportunities”—as an Icelandic friend designated the special occasions on which the writer was to wear her gift of a hand-embroidered silver bullion belt—was the tufted counterpane, of most intricate and elaborate design. This was the outcome of some magic knowledge possessed by only the weavers of that bygone day. It had the design or pattern thrown up by little loops of the thread, quite short, that gave it the name of “tufted,” and a cameo effect—a flat background, with a raised design. The pattern most liked was “The Star.” This was an eight-pointed star in the center, smaller ones surrounding it, with an elaborate border of the “Greek Key,” finished with the always accompanying fringe. The “Stuffed Spread” was another favorite covering, and the most prized of all except the silk quilt. The “Stuffed Spread” was made of a fine, closely woven white cambric and “back-stitched” (in stitches as even and close as those of the sewing machine of to-day), in lines of the width of a large knitting-needle apart, thus tracing the patterns of grapes and leaves, birds, baskets of flowers, bowls of fruit and geometric designs. [Illustration: AN OLD TESTER-BED] These little cases were stuffed with bits of cotton, by using a goose quill with which to push the cotton in, until the spread came forth a thing of beauty in its risen cords, and to be cherished by many generations for its exquisite needlework, ingenuity and patience, as exemplified by “Great-grandmother” or “Father’s Aunt Sallie.” Then there were the knitted and crocheted counterpanes, which have been revived in our day: the “Oak-leaf,” the “Shell,” “Heart” and “Star;” the crocheted ones to be used over a colored “comfort” of such color as the taste dictated. The “Applied-work” was another prized covering. The background of this was white cambric or domestic, with lovely roses and leaves, or morning glories in their natural colors, cut from “painted cambric” or “chintz calico,” and applied to the spread in a central design and border. The spaces of white were most beautifully quilted in intricate patterns of every description. We have seen one such spread, made by a Kentucky woman, quilted in the center with the arms of the United States. The patch-work quilts were made of or “pieced” in the favorite patterns of “The Rose and Bud,” “The Swamp Lily,” “The Sunflower,” “The Tree of Paradise,” “The Kentucky Feather,” “The Rising Sun,” “Log Cabin” and other designs displaying equal ingenuity in their origin and in their execution. These were in as natural colors as could be gotten in the “oil calicos,” which consisted of reds, yellows, blues and greens and the “fast pinks.” Some really beautiful and artistic effects were achieved by those who had artistic taste.