332 



Wool Mattresses. 



Vol. XII. 



philosophy upon the comparative merits of 

 different theorists and historians. 



I had often met her as a mere passing ac- 

 quaintance, yet I had never before realized 

 her superiority. I was curious to know tlie 

 secret of her strength, the charm by which 

 more than youthful vivacity had been re- 

 tained, while she was so eminently a domes- 

 tic woman, looking well to the ways of her 

 household, and never eating the bread of 

 idleness. My curiosity was soon gratified, 

 for on taking up a volume of history that lay 

 on her little work table, she remarked it, and 

 said that they had just commenced the vol- 

 ume in the course of their evening reading. 



" You know," she added, " that men are 

 seldom employed during the long winter 

 evenings, while our fingers are necessarily 

 busy. Knowing that it renders life so much 

 sweeter to feel that we are constantly im- 

 proving, than to be retrograding, my husband 

 and I have adopted a system of reading which 

 we pursue regularly, unless interrupted by 

 indisposition or the presence of friends. VVe 

 have usually on hand two volumes, one of 

 history or natural science, the other poetry, 

 or the production of some of our most chaste 

 literary writers. While pursuing our ordi- 

 nary labours, we read the former; but if I 

 have to spend an evening in mending, or 

 anything of the kind, it is always enlivened 

 by poetry or humour; and if Mr. Smith has 

 to spend a rainy day mending old shoes, 

 which he sometimes does for the sake of 

 economy, I lay by my sewing and read the 

 most interesting poetry or other literature 

 that our library affords. So you see we 

 have an antidote for every disagreeable por- 

 tion of labour that renders it rather a covet- 



■ ed occasion, than a matter to dread." 



How much of the most exalted, as well as 

 'the most shrewd philosophy of life had they 



■ embodied in that simple arrangement. No 

 portion of domestic labour that was not en- 

 livened and elevated by the sweetest or loft- 

 iest associations. They were still in the 

 morning of life, and thus begun, it could 

 not be other than happy. My eyes followed 

 her as she glided about, and now setting 

 aside the shining dishes, and then hanging 

 over the dinner pot and preparing the sub- 

 stantial farmer's dinner, with no apology, no 

 embarrassment, and with all the rest, never 

 a mistake; and a new radiance seemed to 

 invest the character of woman. She had 

 not departed a hair's breadth from her pro- 

 per sphere, yet it was far wider than many 

 choose to fill. She was the companion, not 

 the spoiled child or the petted darling of an 

 idolatrous husband, cherished to-day, to be 

 the blighted, faded blossom to-morrow. 



But I must narrate, not moralize. Noon 



came, and with it the husband and labour- 

 ers, to partake of the plain boiled meats and 

 vegetables, followed by a boiled Indian pud- 

 ding and pumpkin pie. No tea, nor coifee, 

 and better than all, no apology for setting 

 before guests the same fare that they would 

 have served up had no one but their own 

 family been present. 



We passed an agreeable hour with Mr. 

 Smith, a pleasant companionable man, plain 

 without coarseness, and polite without affect- 

 ation. He had no pretensions to a classical 

 education, was no mere "Gentleman Farm- 

 er," a term that is very much abused, by the 

 way, but a man of good mind, cultivated by 

 a good common school education, and still 

 further improved by the system of home cul- 

 ture so happily adapted to the wants of the 

 human intellect. 



There was no gloom, nor any expression 

 of mere content on his countenance, but a 

 glow of real happiness as though head and 

 heart had found a happy home, as well as 

 the mere animal part of his being. 



The hour of recreation passed, Mr. Smith 

 repaired to the field with his labourers, while 

 Mrs. Smith, who had improved the time by 

 removing and cleaning the dishes, now waited 

 upon us to her neat little parlor, where we 

 spent the afternoon in that pleasant inter- 

 change of thought that constitutes the " wine 

 of life." Half an hour before tea time, Mrs. 

 Smith excused herself for a few minutes, 

 and then, with the ease of a true lady, she 

 again glided into the parlor, entertained us 

 with her vivacity and humor, and again 

 leaving us to ourselves, we became consci- 

 ous for the first time that this little interrup- 

 tion was all that their simple mode of living 

 demanded for the preparation of tea. Cold 

 light buiscuits, some plain cake, and one or 

 two varieties of sauce, with tea, constituted 

 our meal, but its simplicity was more than 

 atoned for by the cheerfulness and vivacity 

 of our entertainers, A short half hour after 

 tea we said our adieus, and with hearts made 

 more hopeful by this elevating example, we 

 took our leave, promising ourselves never to 

 forget one happy day at the farmer's. — Ohio 

 Cullivalor. 



H. Ancrum on Wool Mattresses. 



The object of this paper is to prove that 

 wool mattresses make the healthiest, the 

 warmest, the most luxurious, the cheapest, 

 and the most economical bed that can be 

 made, and that it is superior to any other 

 material for a bed for men, women and chil- 

 dren, for all ages and sexes, and that man 

 recovers much sooner from fatigue on such 

 a bed than on any other. The human spe- 



