FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 225 



as to give to each, where it is possible, that which they like to do best. 

 Let the occupants of each bedroom put their beds to air; teach your boys 

 how to do this properly, a small task for each, but great help to the per- 

 son who makes the beds. 



When possible, iron on Tuesday — clothes iron much easier where they 

 can be taken direct from the line to the ironing board. If necessary to 

 sprinkle, do it well ; clothes well sprinkled and carefully folded are half 

 ironed. Here is a good place to work cancellation — strike out kitchen 

 towels, tea towels, coarse under garments, overalls, coarse sheets and all 

 rags; cancel again all fine shirts, collars and cuffs, and take them- to the 

 laundry. 



To make cleaning potatoes easier, clean a bushel at a time. Put a 

 bushel in a tub with just water enough to cover them, scrub them with a 

 scrubbing brush, put them in a clean bushel basket and rinse them thor- 

 oughly by pumping or pouring over them a couple of pails of water. A 

 good time to do this is after you have finished washing. 



Set your house in order every night before going to bed. It takes but 

 a few minutes to set back chairs, shake up cushions, arrange the papers, 

 magazines and books in their proper places, straighten the lounges, and 

 hang up whatever has been left about. 



Brothers, are you doing your best to make the housework easier for 

 that dear, brave wife of yours? Are you careful to put your own garments 

 where you know they belong? Are you showing your faithful wife 

 that you appreciate her unremitting service for yourself and your family, 

 giving her helpful, tender words of endearment and encouragement? 

 Women live upon this and starve without it. 



Sisters, are you aiding these husbands by kind words of cheer, tender, 

 sympathetic counsel, or are you discouraging, fault finding and fretful? 



If anyone deserves a well spread table, it is the farmer's family; linen 

 white and nicely laundered ; dishes as pretty- as we can afford, daintily 

 arranged and well supplied with plenty of well cooked body and brain 

 sustaining food. A white cloth with little children? Yes. You can 

 teach them, if you begin in time and begin right, to keep their hands out 

 of the food, and not to climb all over the table. Place a piece of white 

 oil cloth at their places, also where the man sits whose sleeves are neces- 

 sarily soiled. If you have a piece or two of silver, and silver knives and 

 forks, take them out of their wrappings and use them. The refining influ- 

 ences of a daintily spread table upon the members of your family cannot 

 be estimated. 



To make all easier, do not worry or fret. Some one asks, "How c^n it 

 be helped when you are tired and things go wrong?" When you feel 

 every nerve beginning to quiver, and this feeling asserting itself, hold 

 right on to yourself, shut your lips, lift a fervent prayer to the dear 

 Father who knows all about the quivering nerves, the tired body, and 

 tried spirit; ask Him for help and it will be given. 



It takes a great deal of grace and brave hearts to meet all the demands 

 that are made upon us. Some one has said it takes ten generations to 

 make one man. What kind of a truth are you giving to generations yet 

 anborn? Let us be faithful to self, work and God. May every year 

 crown you with joy and gladness; may your resurrection morn be radiant 

 with the reward that has been promised by Him who said, "Unto every 

 man according as his work has been." 

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