56 



NEW ENGLAND FAE^tER. 



Jan. 



fabics' department. 



From the Round Table. 

 LITTLE CHILDREN. 



Gocl bless little children I 



Day by day, 

 With pure and simple wiles, 

 And winning words and smiles, 

 They creep into the heart, 

 And who would wish to say them nay ? 



They look up in our faces, 

 And their eyes ' 



Are tender and are fair. 

 As if still lingered there 

 The Savior's kindly smile I 

 80 very meek they look, and wise. 



We live again our play-time 



In their i>lay ; 

 Tlieir soft Ijunds le.-vd us back 

 Along a weary track — 

 The i)athway of our years — 

 Unto tiie time when life was May. 



O 1 when my days have ended, 



I would rest 

 Where little children keep 

 Their slumber long and deep; 

 My grave be near the little mounds 

 I know that God hath blest I 



DOMESTIC ECONOMY; 



HOW TO IMAKE HOME PLEASANT. 



BY ANNE G. 



[Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 

 1866, by R. P. Eaton & Co.. in the Clerk's Office of the 

 District Court for the District of Massachusetts.] 



CHAPTER VI. 



MAKING AXD MENDING JIEN'S CLOTHING. 



Mrs. Dall, in her admirable work upon the edu- 

 cation and elevation of woman, says, verj' sensi- 

 bly, that all men ought to learn to sew, "and so 

 might the cares of many women be lightened;" 

 and quotes the pleasant words of Sidney Smith to 

 the same effect : "I wish I could sew," he wTites to 

 Lady Holland, "I believe one reason why women 

 are so much more cheerful than men is because 

 they can work, and so vary their employments." 

 Every housekeeper knows how delightful such as- 

 si>tance from the male portion of the family would 

 be when 



"With eyelids heavy and red. 

 With lingers weary and worn," 



sbc goes on, day after day, and week after week, 

 in the old routine — 



for 



"Stitch, stitch, Btitrh, 

 Switch, stitch, stitch," 



"Gusset, and scam, and band. 

 Band, and gusset, and seaii," 



till there seems no end to her toil, and no bottom 

 to her work-basket. 



The invention of sewing machines has indeed 

 lessened the labors of some. But all cannot iilfurd 

 the more expensive kinds ; and the cheap onea 

 are, really, worse than none, — with their aggrava- 

 tions of bending and breaking needles and looped 

 thread and uncertainties of stitch ; so that the 

 greater part of family sewing is still done by the 

 old-fashioned machine of strong right arm and 

 dexterous fingers, that never need repair, and 

 whose work is always satisfactory. 



We know that men might sew if Ihey would; 

 for "men-tailors" have the name of stitching bet- 

 ter than women, — and what one man can do, so 

 can another. Sailors, too, often acc<)m])i)sli mar- 

 vellous feats in the way of embroidery and cavi)ct- 

 work, besides keeping their "sca-toggcry" in good 

 order, during thtir long voyages. And I remem- 

 ber a brown-haired boy, who sat beside nie in my 

 earliest school days, and measured his seams of 

 patch-work with mine ; and I often wonder if the 

 world's approval, in these later years, of his 

 scholarly translations and highly finished poems, 

 have been as sweet to him as the admiration of his 

 round-eyed school-mates and the praises of his 

 proud and happy mother when they saw the quilt 

 completed, and his own little bed was adorned 

 with its j'ellow and crimson glory. Farther on, a 

 sailor-boy; who, in his too short stayings at home, 

 made merriment for man j' a winter evening, iiniong 

 a bevy of frolicsome girls, and whose dimpling 

 stitches were as evenly set as any made by the 

 best seamstress of the group. 



Certainly, mothers ought to teach their little 

 ones how to sew as soon as Nellie can handle a 

 needle, or Tommy wants a bag for his marbles. 

 I have in mind one rosy elf, whose Idue eyes have 

 not yet lieheld the brightness of four summers 

 who often busies herself in the fabrication of a 

 bonnet, or a bib, or an apron, for her "dailing 

 dolly;" and whose hems and gathers are really 

 creditable to her tiny ladyship. I venture to say 

 it will not be long before she docs her share of the 

 family sewing. 



Although men ought, and sometimes do, sew, as 

 long as won)en are expected to sew for them they 

 may as well set about it with a good grave. And, 

 after all, there is a proud satisfaction in seeing how 

 these "lords of creation" place themselves at the 

 mercy of our needle and thiralde and scissors ; — 

 weapons which, in the hands of a weak woman, 

 have turned the fortunes of more than one of the 

 world's heroes. Knowing, thus, wherein her 

 gieatest strengih lies, of course the good Ixmse- 

 keeper "will work willingly with her hands .... 

 will not be afraid of the snow for her household. 

 . . . . Her husband is known in the gates, when he 

 sitteth among the elders of the land .... and her 

 own works praise her in the gates." 



But, then, she sometimes needs a little instruc- 

 tion in the selection of materials and in the ])repa- 

 tion of garments; matters in whidi gool judg- 

 ment, and good taste, and no small amount of ex- 



