Missouri Country Life Conference. Ill 



know it, I know it, friends. I cannot tell you what I would 

 because my father is sitting here today, but for thirty years I 

 have seen it. Every day he has done it, pulled her chair back 

 from the table at noon time and said, "Mamma, you ought to 

 take a nap," and she has always said, "I am not sleepy." And 

 he has always said, "I know, but mamma, you ought to take a 

 nap." My mother today at sixty looks forty-five, with scarcely 

 a gray hair in her head; she has lived on the farm from the 

 moment she drew her first breath, and when they talk of leav- 

 ing it tears come to both their eyes and they say, "We cannot do 

 it." Every tree planted there is dear to them. Even our 

 Christmas trees were planted there and have grown to large 

 trees. Every day mamma's chair has been pulled back, she 

 has just a little of the woman's contrariness in her — at least, 

 they accuse us of having it — she has always said, "I am not 

 sleepy, I am going to work down the bread or going to do some- 

 thing else." Every day I have seen him help her — she doesn't 

 need any help, but she enjoys it. Sometimes we appreciate the 

 things we do not need to have more than the things we have to 

 have. She has gone to take her nap every day, and at sixty she 

 is still young. You ought to gladly give your wife that noon 

 nap. Tell her to get her bonnet and go with you to see that new 

 calf or something else; let her see that there is a hemisphere, a 

 whole universe outside of her kitchen wall. Do that much for 

 the country woman. Give her her organization and your kind 

 smile and the farm women will be happier than those of any 

 other part of the universe. 



With one little illustration I will close. I want to say to 

 the fathers, do the best you can for your wife and for farm women 

 in general. I want to say to you, pay your wife with a smile, 

 with a kind word. How long since you have really told her she 

 has got a good dinner? How long since you leaned back and 

 said: "Wife, that sure was some dinner." Don't you know 

 that you could not give her a check on a bank that would bring 

 her as much happiness? How long since you have really said 

 something good? But oh, look out! How long since you have 

 told her it was bad? So easy to find fault and so hard to praise! 

 So often we grumble and growl, so seldom we say the kind 

 thing. Go home and try it. Try a little bit of that kind of 

 treatment and see how it works. Go to the ditch with your wife 

 if you have to, but try to keep both of you out. Don't be like 

 the old man who had just a little too much of "Blue Ribbon" 



