LECTURES AND ESSAYS READ AT IXSTTTUTES. 399 



made the rag-bag of all ill humors, caprices, and wretched moods. For 

 strangers, a chair may be shoved over the rent in the carpet, a tidy flung on 

 the ragged edge of the cushion, a book dropped on the ink-stained table- 

 spread, and the frouzy head brushed ; sullenness may be wreathed with 

 smiles, and shriveled old autumn may bloom instantly into rosy May ; — but 

 home is not for strangers. Many homes are full of love and sunshine for 

 visitors, and all gloom and ugliness for the ones for whom they exist. A little 

 decoration of rooms, and a little personal decoration on the part of mothers, 

 wives, and daughters, will do much to make home agreeable and attractive. 

 A pleasant word or two, on their part, when the tired, overworked men come 

 home, often eats away the raw edge of trouble and awakens a corresponding 

 desire to be pleasant and respectful, which characteristics are always accom- 

 panied by affection. If cheerfulness and amiability are not cultivated, rudeness, 

 roughness, and impatience will be followed by insolence; sweet temper will 

 give way to anger and discord ; the home circle is no longer attractive and is 

 shunned. 



"Neatness and tidiness is what makes the farm so attractive and cheery, so 

 that children take on good habits as they grow up, so that they won't want to 

 run into the cities and towns to work in shops as soon as they can find a job 

 that seems at least cleaner. Young folks think a good deal of good looks. If 

 you want your daughters to get good husbands, keep your home looking as if 

 they inherited neatness from their fathers and mothers; and don't expect your 

 boy will get a first-class wife to want to live on a slovenly farm." 



Boys leave the farm to their own disadvantage and that of their country. 

 While it is not desirable to make farmers against their will of boys who 

 obviously have fitness for something else, it is important that they know the 

 advantages of farming compared with other pursuits, and that they shall not 

 be driven from the farm by unattractive homes and harsh treatment. Seed. 

 time and harvest never fail ; banks and other commercial companies sometimes 

 do. A discontented son of a Dutch farmer had voluntarily abandoned his 

 paternal roof. His fond mother invoked the aid of a magistrate to recover 

 her hopeful scion. "I don't understand vy Shon run avay; certainly he got 

 everytings he vaut mit uns to home. Me unt his fader done all ve could for 

 him." "Well, now," says Blackstone, "has he any marks by which we could 

 identify him?" "Veil, t should dink, you see, dat all de marks vot I made 

 on him mit a bed schlat vile his fader was holdin him across de kitchen taple 

 wasn't all fated out yet, not quvite." 



How many homes are spoiled by worry I The habit of taking things at their 

 worst is likely to stick to a person like a coat of tar, and is just about as com- 

 fortable and beautiful. Some persons live in a state of perpetual fret. The 

 weather is always objectionable ; the temperature is never satisfactory. They 

 have too much to do, and are driven to death ; or too little and have no 

 resources. If they are sick, they know that they never shall get well ; if they 

 are well, they expect soon to be sick. Something is sure to disturb their sleep ; 

 their food is never quite to their taste; they have corns which everyone treads 

 on, or a toothache which no one recognizes. Their daily work is either 

 drudgery, which they hate, or so dif&cult and complex that they cannot execute 

 it. To hear the prolonged recital of their petty woes one would think them 

 the most persecuted of mortals, and when people shrink from the disagreeable 

 character, their lack of sympathy adds another drop to the cup of trouble. 

 Yet these people have no more real cause for repining than the rest of the 

 world. 



