122 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



A MORE GENIAL DOMESTIC LIFE. 



With the need thus distinctly recognized, let the work of 

 amelioration begin in the home. A thoroughly genial do- 

 mestic life will do much to remedy the lack of wider social 

 opportunities. Do not work your boys and girls so hard as 

 to break their spirits. Strain a point to give them and 

 3'ourselves greater opportunities for reading. Interest your- 

 selves in their studies and in their schools. Insist, indeed, 

 that the comparative leisure of the winter months shall be 

 made tributary to intellectual improvement. Consider a 

 first-class newspaper an absolute necessity for the family, 

 and let an occasional book come in with its quickening in- 

 fluence. Make the home pleasant in its externals. Clear 

 the rubbish from the yard, and put the front-gate on its 

 hinges. Make an improvement society of the family to 

 render the farmhouse attractive in all its surroundings. 

 Some of the farmers in my town, I notice, have been of late 

 devoting considerable attention to the construction of side- 

 walks past their premises, and I doubt whether work was 

 ever more profitably expended. Do not grudge the grown- 

 up girls a tasteful parlor : they have special need of one, 

 you know, at times. Nor is the matter of personal appear- 

 ance and dress beneath your consideration. At your work, 

 of course, you will dress in accordance with its require- 

 ments ; but away from home, and among men, why should 

 not the farmer, as much as other men, aspire to look like a 

 gentleman ? The reflex influence of dress upon the wearer 

 is a matter of more importance than perhaps you have been 

 accustomed to think. There was a modicum of truth in the 

 remark of the young lady, that she never enjoyed religion so 

 much as when she was conscious of having on a pretty bon- 

 net. It is not the gentler sex alone who are susceptible to 

 this influence from externals. Is it not possible that that 

 ancestral hat of yours has performed all the service that in 

 common humanity can be demanded of it? Let it go into 

 honorable retirement in tlie garret, or use it to scare the 

 crows, as it certainly will when they see it. Procure a mod- 

 ern well-fitting suit of clothes, and, after a jiroper patronage 

 of the barber, surprise your wife with the siglit of what a 

 good-looking fellow you are. Give her siniihir opportunity 



