Fresco Entertainments

A tree luncheon is a festivity which I has an Arcadian flavor to it, and whO dupends chiefly for lis suceess upon the village earpenter. The cook is a secondary power. The first requisite is a large. shapely tree, with branches spreading gracefully at quite a distance from the ground. Midway between the ground and that part of the trunk, where the branches begin to spread, a large platform should be built out, supported at the corners opposite the trees by strong beams. It should be surrounded by a rustic fence having a little wic.ket gate. From the ground to this gate stairs should lead and the stair-rail should be of the same rustic variety as the fence. This platform Is capable of many transformations. A hammock swung in it makes it the eoolest of lounging places. The children and their toys convert it into an admirable summer nursery. Books and a small writing table make it an outdoor reading room. But it is as a spot for a lunch party that it is most attractive. Four small tables, arranged so as to allow free passage of the servant among them and each seating four, all decorated with outdoor flowers or ferns, make the prettiest possible group. When four times four girls are added, together with dainty viands and a white-capped maid, the effect is complete. The woman who lives on a farm where berríes are plentlful, can give the most unique berry teas or luncheons. She must provide her guests with protecting aprons, heavy flngerless calfskin gloves, sun bonnets and tin pails. With this complete berrylng costume they make a tour of the berry patch, each one being assigned a row which he or she pieks bare of all lts rlpe berrles. Then on the piazza the fruit is picked over amid much merriment and flnally Is served in the big farm-house parlor, with its accompaniments of wafers or sandwiches and iced tea. The woman whose summer estáte boasts of a big barn, or who can hire one from one of her native neighbors, need never be at a loss for a picturesque means of entertainment. Where is the dancing girl whose heart will not bound at the mention of a barn ball? Even the nondancing youth is languidly excited by lt. Of course, the barn must be eleared out for the purpose. If rushlights and tallow "dips" are the illuminants so much the better. The floor must be in perfect dancing condition. Great sheaves of wheat or bunches of corn stalks tied together should decórate the corners. The rafters must be hung with last year's ears of corn, strings of red peppers and other rustic decoratlons. If the native fiddlers can be secured to furnish the dance music the triumph of this bucolic ball Is assured.