Beautifying Our Homes. 115 



Many men and women begin their married life with the 

 important requisite, with the very best ideas of home and 

 its surroundings, and also with such an immense amount 

 of patience that they are willing to delay beautifying the 

 home until they can make money. 



This is a fatal mistake and is more especially true of far- 

 mers than any other class of workers. 



It cannot be expected that the young farmer can at once 

 devote any large portion of time or money to the ornamen- 

 tation of his home, but he can plant a few trees as soon as 

 he plants his first crop of corn. He can set a few rods of 

 ground to small fruits, even if he sows less oats or wheat; 

 and the wife must give a portion of her time to her flowers, 

 even if the spring house cleaning is delayed for a month, or 

 the summer garment not made till a week later. These 

 are the things that ought to be done, but do not leave the 

 other undone. We know one young housekeeper who was 

 passionately fond of flowers and had always been accus- 

 tomed to them from her birth, but she thought her house- 

 keeping would not be a success — she kept no domestic — if 

 she gave any time or attention to flower culture. The first 

 summer of her marriage she planted no flower seeds, and 

 the first time in her life she lived in a flowerless home; but 

 one summer of such privation was sufficient. Ever after 

 some portion of her time was devoted to her flowers, and a 

 place in the garden set apart for their culture. There was 

 much work and many cares, but the flowers grew and in- 

 creased as the years went by till the wonder was, where or 

 when the time was found to care for them, bur it was found; 

 not till it verges upon the impossible do we reach the limit, 

 to what love and labor will do. 



There are some things in regard to the adornment of our 

 homes that we should alwavs remember — one is this: When 

 we plant our trees, and our vines, and our flowers, if we do 

 our part well, we can leave them for a time, with the rain, 

 the dew, and the sunshine, and they will grow. 



The workers in all industries, except those of agriculture 

 and horticulture, must be ever at their post; through day- 

 light and darkness the skilful hand must guide continually 



