THE HOME AXD THE HOUSEHOLD. 977 



children, because of her &quot;much serving.&quot; Such should remember that a heart-felt word of 

 welcome, and warm clasp of the hand, are far more to a guest, than the most exquisite carpets 

 or furniture, or spotless table-linen. There are bare cabin homes that will be cherished in the 

 memory with pleasure, because of the beautiful and loving presence there, and stately palaces 

 that will leave upon the mind the chill of an iceberg, shining and glittering, but cold, and 

 forbidding. Furniture and other home appointments were made for comfort and enjoyment, 

 and not especially for being set apart at right angles in a room, or to be kept for ornament 

 alone. Don t put all of the choice and beautiful things apart for strangers use alone, let the 

 &quot;best room&quot; be the one in which the family spend the most of their time; such a room 

 should be in the most pleasant and sunny part of the house, while nothing in the house 

 should be regarded as too good for its inmates to enjoy. 



Fretflllness. Goethe says, &quot;He is happiest, be he king or peasant, who finds his 

 happiness at home.&quot; Archdeacon Hare has well expressed the idea of home as follows: &quot;To 

 Adam, Paradise was home, to the good among his descendants, home is Paradise.&quot; One of 

 the highest privileges of mankind, and the central duty of life, is the creation of a refined 

 and happy home. Such may be justly regarded as the best product of Christian culture. 

 Home should be the most pleasant place in the whole world for every inmate of the house 

 hold, and the place in which each will most desire to spend evenings. But it too frequently 

 happens that the husband and sons spend most of their evenings outside of the home circle. 

 &quot;When such is the case, it would be well for the wife, the mother, and the sisters, to ask them 

 selves whether they are individually, either directly or indirectly, responsible for this. A 

 habit of fretfulness is one of the great faults seen in many homes. A nervous, irritable dis 

 position is indulged in, until the habit of fault-finding and fretfulness becomes confirmed, 

 and is frequently showing itself with the slightest provocation, or with no provocation at all. 

 One such inmate in any home will destroy much of the happiness of all the others. Life has 

 many cares and responsibilities, but we must meet them, and meet them bravely and cheer 

 fully. Don t add to their weight by repining and fretfulness. Be patient, kind, and 

 charitable to all. Many a true heart has been estranged by an impatient look or word, 

 thoughtlessly given, and after wandering, would have come back after the first transgression 

 like the dove to the ark, had it not been frightened beyond recall by the angry taunt, the 

 cruel charity of an unforgiving spirit. Cultivate patience and cheerfulness, not alone for 

 your own sake, but for the sake of those about you whose comfort and happiness you, as wife 

 and mother, have it so much within your power to control. 



Emerson, in referring to heredity law says: &quot;At the corner of the street you read the 

 possibility of each passenger, in the facial angle, in the complexion, in the depth of his eye. 

 His parentage determines it. Men are what their mothers made them.&quot; If this is true. of 

 heredity law, it is also true of influence, for the mother has it more within her power to 

 mould the plastic mind and character of the child, than any other person in the whole world; 

 and if she so wills it, the home influence may be salutary and ennobling; but if on the contrary 

 she is indifferent and careless in this respect, caring more for the practical gains of life, than 

 the happy and salutary influence of her home, she dwarfs and mars the character that might 

 have been hers to beautify and exalt. 



Good Cooking. Not only the comfort but the health of the household depends much 

 upon the manner in which the food is cooked. We believe more dyspeptics are made every 

 year by poor cooking than any other cause, to say nothing of domestic discords that might be 

 traced to this source. The manner in which an article of food is cooked, has far more to do with 

 its healthfulness, or its being palatable, than the quality of the food itself. It is the duty of 

 every housekeeper to acquaint herself with the best methods of cooking. Every girl should 

 learn the practical and most approved mode of doing things pertaining to housekeeping, that 

 whether she is obliged to do the work in her family or not, she will understand how it should 

 be done, and be able to instruct her servants, and also to know how much labor to expect of 

 them. A household whose table furnishings are entirely under the control of servants, with 

 no direction from a more intelligent source, is indeed to be pitied, and a woman who feels 

 above looking after the welfare of her own family in this respect, has a very narrow and false 

 idea of the true dignity of her position as the head of the family, as well as the duties 

 pertaining to it. One of the most common articles of food that is unskillfully made is bread. 

 Good wholesome bread, which is regarded as the staff of life, is more rarely seen than is 

 commonly imagined. Bread, as it is usually found, might quite as appropriately bo 

 denominated the &quot;staff &quot;of disease and death as &quot;of life.&quot; Good yeast bread is too scarce 

 an article of diet, and vile compounds with cream-tartar and saleratus or soda or baking 



