72 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



horses out of the baru to go to work he discovers a hinge off the 

 door; he hunts up another, puts it on and thus saves the other hinge 

 from being broken; the orchard must be pruned, the garden made, 

 the hedges trimmed, a neat fence or hedge around the yard so wife 

 can have flowers, and with the growing crops what a lovely home 

 we will have when we get it fixed up; we must have a chicken 

 house with a good yard to it, and a shed for the calves; they must 

 be fed so wife can have the proceeds from the butter and eggs to call 

 her own. I must make a strawberry bed and have small fruit of all 

 kinds; it is so delicious when we have been hard at work to sit down 

 to the table With nice ripe fruit and know it is home-grown. Go to 

 this home, where each does an equal part in the adorning, and as 

 you approach the house everything is in order; no broken gates; 

 the hedges are all trimmed; barn, granary and all outbuildings as 

 well as the house nicely painted; nothing discordant; the balance- 

 wheel is perfect. I once heard an essay on this subject from a gen- 

 tleman, and he made it beautiful; 1 thought, surely his is a model 

 home, and 1 made an effort to see it; 1 thought, surely I have made 

 a mistake when I reached the place, but it was his home; his fences 

 were dilapidated; calves feeding in the yard, and they were quite at 

 home evidently, they were so tame; and the house looked as you can 

 imagine it. The home of which he wrote was some one's else, bor- 

 rowed for the occasion — another picture. Does it not occur to the 

 farmer, however much work his wife may have to do, the moment 

 she steps out the door if everything is in order, it rests her; if the 

 contrary, she goes back with a slower step, and her mind is filled 

 with the picture for the time, but she is forcibly recalled to her own 

 peculiar domain by the fumes of a kettle boiled dry and part of her 

 dinner spoiled; now, when he, the husband, comes to dinner, he will 

 never imagine for a moment, he is the cause of the disaster; but 

 will think it carelessness, and you see there are two opinions on the 

 subject. 



Another day she (as we farmers express it) has her hands full ; 

 she discovers the yard full of pigs ; she leaves her work to drive 

 them out, and possibly stops to fix the fence ; when she returns out 

 of heart as well as breath, and sits down for a moment, she sees her 

 bread running over or her fire gone out and the bread in the oven — 

 in either event it will be spoiled. If her husband knows she has 

 been thrashing pigs he is a wise man not to make any remarks about 

 the bread not being as good as it was yesterday. This is no exagger- 

 ated picture, but occurs many days in many a wife's life. I think 

 all will acknowledge the wife bears an equal burden with the farmer. 

 He certainly does not expect to come in and find everything in dis- 

 order about the house ; then why should it be out of doors. Twice 

 a year the house is thoroughly cleaned ; why not the granary, tool 

 house and every other available place be likewise. I know of what 

 I speak, and that it can be done and the pleasure and comfort afforded 



