3. Paint the cylinder and the balloon in wide, brightly colored stripes.
4. Take a net bag oranges come in and cut off the label. Drape it over the balloon and gather it so that it tapers to the bottom. Sew down each fold of net with the cotton thread. Turn it inside out and snip off the net folds. Turn it the right way out and place over the balloon fixing it to the bottom of the cylinder at several points.
5. Attach string to the cylinder by boring holes in it with a pencil. Take a small basket (the very light kind that comes with little soaps), and attach four strings to it—one at each corner.
6. Push the stem of the balloon through the center of the basket and cut the stem at the very bottom into four. Open out the end, folding them beneath the basket. Tape in place.
7. Shred yellow, orange, and red tissue paper and gather into a tongue of flame attaching it to a wire taped to the inside of the cylinder.
8. Wrap up tiny people and sit them in the basket.
9. Light the flames above their heads.
10. Make four little burlap sacks of rice and attach them to the insides of the basket with plenty of string. If you want the balloon to fly, put the sacks on the ground.
You can forget the sacks altogether, but I would leave one attached, otherwise the balloon will soar up to the ceiling and bump around for days and crash when you’re not there to catch it, and lots of small people will die; it may fall on a town or a school or a marketplace and then even more will die. Or if you are not in a room but in the open air, it really will sail away and the little people will never be heard of again.
Of course, they will have the time of their lives because the view will be marvelous; it’s coming down that is the difficult thing. So always leave something attached. If you want to go higher, just let out more string.
Acknowledgments
Thank you to Clare for discovering the book, and for her care and advice.
Thank you to Clara—a fellow lover of little things—and to Sarah, for such sensitive and transformational editorial advice.
Thank you to Anthony, Val, and Mike for taking time to read the first draft and for such helpful feedback.
Thank you to Mark, Sos, Richard, and Karen for believing I could do something long before I did.
Most importantly, thank you to my mother, an extraordinary human being, for never giving up.
About the Author
GRACE MCCLEEN is an author and singer-songwriter who lives in London.
Copyright
Henry Holt and Company, LLC
175 Fifth Avenue
New York, New York 10010
Henry Holt® and 
® are registered trademarks of Henry Holt and Company, LLC.
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
Copyright © 2012 by Grace McCleen
All rights reserved.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
McCleen, Grace.
The land of decoration : a novel / Grace McCleen.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-8050-9494-7
1. Girls—Fiction. 2. Fathers and daughters—Fiction. 3. Good and evil—Fiction. 4. Miracles—Fiction. 5. Religious fiction. 6. Psychological fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.C357745L36 2012
813'.6–dc23
2011038132
eISBN 978-0-8050-9527-2
