1889.] PUBLIC DOCUMENT — No. 4. 251 



morning after an ice-storm. Exquisite the frost work on 

 tree and bush and fence rail. The steel shoes of our sleigh 

 creaked, and roadside weeds flashed their gems at us as we 

 sped by. The sun climbed fast and high, in haste to undo 

 all this beauty. I said that I would not take ten dollars for 

 this picture. The same day a manufacturer said he would 

 not take a thousand for his ; but then he did not get his 

 money from the farm. 



The ideal home must be in the country. Steam heat and 

 modern improvements are desirable, but not essential. To 

 one once accustomed to them, country air, landscape diversi- 

 fied with hill and dale, meadow and singing stream, or silvery 

 lake, have become a necessity. The house may be small ; 

 vines that climb and clamber, and not paint, may cover the 

 weather-stained walls ; the water may come from a Imckc t at 

 the end of a sweep ; but here, with no factory bell to vex, 

 our home shall be planted and adorned with woman. 



When a woman enters a farm-house to be its mistress, she 

 ought, at least, to be qualified to take good care of the far- 

 mer and herself. For her own peace of mind she ought to 

 know much about housekeeping ; and, no matter how much 

 she knows when she begins, she must learn constantly. It 

 is the age of the cooking-school. Just now it is the fashion 

 to dabble in dough ; that makes it easy. 



In preparing food for the well which shall keep them so, 

 in ministering to the more delicate appetite of the sick, in 

 combining a wise frugality with an ingenuity which varies 

 the form and appearance of common kinds of food, there is 

 ample scope for skill, afiection, intelligence. The man is 

 made in part by his stomach. The kind of man depends in 

 no little measure on the quality of the food and its prepara- 

 tion. Morals and manners, as well as health and energy, 

 depend on the food supply in no small degree. 



The good wife will not, if she have daughters, do all the 

 work herself. She will be too wisely kind for that. Rather 

 will she lead and instruct them, allotting to each a special por- 

 tion of work, which shall be done in such a way and at such 

 times as never to be drudgery. Work not dragged through- 

 out the entire day, but pushed in the early hours and 

 regarded as a kind of healthy preparation for pleasure and 



