214 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



by her side; and judging from what we have read of that mother 

 and son we think the advice was followed. 



If we would have our children love their homes and desire to 

 stay in them until age and the necessity of making a way in the 

 world draws their reluctant steps from the sacred fireside, we must 

 make ourselves and our homes attractive for their sakes. Y/e 

 must keep our hearts young enough to sympathize with their pur- 

 suit*, understand their sorrows and enjoy their recreations, and 

 our heads wise enough to preserve their respect. It is not wealth 

 alone that makes the most attractive homes. Many sons go out 

 nightly from homes of elegance and beauty into scenes of de- 

 bauchery and death ; but some of us look back, perhaps, to a low 

 farm-house in the heart of New England, at th? foot of the Penn- 

 sylvania mountains, or on an Ohio hillside, and our hearts grow 

 tender and our eyes grow moist as the old, sweet influence holds us 

 still. There were no rich carpers on the floors perhaps ; no costly 

 pictures on the wall, but the mother of the household had an in- 

 nate sen?e of harmony and the fitness of things, and her magic 

 touch seemed to transform hard, common things into comfort and 

 beauty ; and the low walls were glorified by something that wealth 

 cannot give. One eirnest, refined soul can do more to make a 

 home than all that wealth can command without it. 



Physical habit and moral character are so closely allied that 

 they cannot be considered separately, and both are largely in the 

 hands of the mother. Children shou'd be taught early to respect 

 their bodies ; they should be taught physiological law and the 

 habits of right living, and that " he who sins willfully against his 

 body, as truly sins against God as he who breaks one of the ten 

 commandments," and yet many otherwise good parents are mar- 

 velously ignorant of the physical habits of their children, after 

 they are old enough to take care of themselves. Are not some 

 mothers greatly responsible for the debauched and unholy lives 

 their children lead, as a result of wrong habits early formed ? 

 There should be such an intimacy between every mother and her 

 child that she should know what his physical habits are until 

 such time a^, fortified by principle, he can be depended upon to 

 act purely and honorably in all the details of living. 



