CONSIDERATION I-'nK K AC H OTHER. 51 



Cheerfulness is very necessary in the family. If a poison is really ill, 



we shall find it out soon enough. If he desires sympathy he will come for 



it, but if he is really ailing, and desirous of concealing it, we should respect 



liis secret, not strive to worm it from him. Many people are made ill by 



ig told that they are ill. An invalid once said that the sunshine had 



all been taken out of his morning walk by the lugubrious looks of a friend. 



who shook his head, and said, " My dear fellow, I must confess that you 



looking very badly." But there is a class whom Moliere has painted iu 



the " Malade Imaginaire," who desire nothing more than to be coi. 



ill, who an- always looking for sympathy and flattery. 



The amenities of home should surround the real invalid with flowers, 

 sunshine, agreeable company, if it can be borne, and variety. It is often 

 that the sick-room of some confirmed sufferer is the most cheerful room in 

 tin' house. If there is a pretty new thing in the possession of any nu-m- 

 1..-1- of the family, it finds its way to patient Helen's couch. If there is a 

 new book, it goes to her to have its leaves cut ; and if any one has a song 

 >r story, how quickly it ascends to that person ! "I never knew how happy 

 a home I possessed until I broke my leg," said a young man, to whom a 



]\ leg was a fearful interruption to business and pleasure. 

 11. -member always to give a sick person what variety you can com- 

 mand. 



Some sufferers from fever require to have the pictures changed on the 

 wall. Some invalids, who are prisoners for years in a room, are better for 

 a new wall-paper or a new carpet. Nothing can be so grateful as a coun- 

 ;>rospect of wood and water, hill and dale, the sky at morning and at 

 ling. The city is a hard place for the chronic invalid who can iee noth- 

 ing I. MI til- opposite row of houses. However, the scene may be varied hv 

 the presence of birds and flowers; and a well-bred, favourite do;;, parti- 

 cularly a bi<_c one, is a great help. 



amenities of the sick-room and the proper man; of it are 



suhj'-ets which have, however, been so well treated by Kloivnce Ni^htin- 

 wbo have made them a study, that they seem hardly a 

 part of our little tre.v 



The mistress of a house -hould never reprove her servants at tab 



.bled family. It de-t n >\ s many a meal at home, and di : 

 ten to tlieirclub, if their mother insists upon usin-; her idiv 



in : a refractory servant, No doubt she is often tempted : no 



doubt it is verj QO doubt it require- an anyvlic patience to 



ild refrain ; the -hould be an;_Hic. Let the man drop 



be "mi bhoagfa < 'hina fall :" Let the 



