THE LIFE WORTH LIVING IN THE COUNTRY. 3O3 



the city, one is always conscious ten minutes after she has wash- 

 ed her hands that another application of water would improve 

 them. When she returns from her down town trip she knows, 

 even if a streak of soot does not emphasize the fact, that her face 

 is darkened by dust, her dress is grime covered, her hair takes a 

 daily accretion of dust. The country luxury of a dainty cleanli- 

 ness of person in the city is impossible — equally impossible is the 

 country cleanliness of the home for which every country woman 

 strives not in vain. 



A recent letter from Chicago said : "You in your clean sur- 

 roundings cannot appreciate the work of keeping things clean in 

 this canopy of air and dust ; every picture, vase and similar arti- 

 cle has to be washed and rubbed, all books taken down and rub- 

 bed ;" and such cleaning must be constantly kept up and every 

 article in the house cleaned almost daily. One can take comfort 

 in all those parts of the city where a limited purse permits resi- 

 dence, only by becoming inured to the lack of cleanliness. Of the 

 seventy or eighty servants kept in some luxurious city homes, 

 two-thirds, it is safe to say, are occupied in securing that spot- 

 less cleanliness and order which is the chief charm of such homes, 

 but which are secured by a conscientious country woman for 

 her home by the loving toil of her own hands. 



Keats sang: 



"Love in a hut with water and a crust 



Is — 'Lord, forgive us' — cinders, ashes, dust." 



But such accompaniments of love are not necessary evils in 

 the country. 



Two-thirds of the hired service in a magnificent city home 

 is devoted to securing the country luxury of cleanliness ; half of 

 the remaining service is doubtless devoted to preparing perfect- 

 ly and serving with fastidious daintiness the daily food ; and this 

 food is no more nutritious or appetizing nor, in the end, more 

 relished, than may be prepared by due study of dietetics and of 

 cooking by the farmer's wife and may be served by her as dain- 

 tily if not with so expensive silver, china and napery. A few 

 hundred dollars a year with the devoted thought of the farmer's 

 wife will give the luxury of a simple and exquisitely kept home 

 such as many thousand a year will not give in a city. The farm- 

 er's wife may, too, usually possess her own kitchen in peace and 

 quietude and may avoid the friction which under the best cir- 

 cumstances comes from the presence of hired domestics in the 

 house. 



