Beautifying Our Homes, 119 



the father always plants a dozen trees for each child in the 

 year of its birth; the child is the owner of these trees, and if 

 they bear abundantly when the fruit is sold the money is 

 given to Mary or Bertie or whoever owns the tree, and thus 

 a little fund is secured for some pleasant investment in 

 books or gifts. 



The children are joint proprietors with the parents; they 

 have an interest in the orchard; they have the trees, the 

 flowers and fruits, the fields and the forest, and nothing 

 could induce them to change their home for one in the city. 

 The mother ministers to the daily wants of the family with 

 her own hands, the name for her cares is legion, yet the 

 flowers blossom in her garden in summer, the ivy creeps 

 over her white curtain and the roses bloom in her window in 

 winter, and the best magazines can always be found upon 

 her table. This is the home where the husband and wife 

 begin their married life. More than a quarter of a Century 

 has passed since the first trees were planted, neither cold or 

 blight or insect enemy can discourage this true horticul- 

 turist. Year after year he plants the trees and sets the 

 newer fruits, and now his home is widely known as one of 

 comfort and abundance. 



This is no fancy sketch. Thousands of homes all over our 

 land could be crowned with fruits and flowers if love and 

 care were given to the work. 



The question of time is one of much consideration in this 

 matter of home making, but we have, each one of us, all 

 the time that God has given to mortal man, and our mental 

 and moral status is determined by what we do with it. If 

 we spend the precious hours in idleness or useless work we 

 have taken our choice in the use of our time and must ac- 

 cept the result. Hundreds of homes tell us, most unmistak- 

 ably, what their owners have done with their time. 



Our homes are the nurseries of our children, their charac- 

 ters are formed there, and when they go from us to their 

 life work the world receives the product of our homes. We 

 have a national pride in our growing industries, our machin- 

 ery and our manufactures. Let us remember that the best 

 production of any country is its people. To the workers in the 



