HOUSEWIFE S DEPARTMENT. 



581 



or passion, to excite or to repress it, to gratify 

 or diiappoint it ; and whatever, eit/ier directly 

 or indii eclly, goes to the exciiemenl andfurma- 

 tion oj dispositions, sentimsnis, principles, and 

 habits, is to be viewed as a part (>/ education. 

 In this view ot the subject, it is uot a question 

 whethci- children or men shall or shall not be 

 educated. Education is constantly going on 

 with every individual, old and young, trom the 

 first to the last hour of life, because every indi- 

 vidual is, in every hour and every moment, acted 

 npon by the circumstances amid which he is 

 placed: and because the inHuence of these cir- 

 cumstances upon him will be in accordance 

 with the tastes and desires he is forming or has 

 formed, ilie principles he is adopting or has 

 adopted, and his strength or weakness in the 

 application of principles to conduct. Thechild 

 at home is educated far more by the examples 

 which he sees than by the lessons which he 

 learns ; and his mind is educating with far freer 

 and stronger tendencies in his plays and in the 

 streets, than in school and under the eye of his 

 master.* 



Catherine was one of the most cheerful and 

 faithful of servants. The pleasure with which 

 she was accu.^^tomed to ri'nder any assistance to 

 her fellow-servants was ever a matter of remark ; 

 and through this disposition, joined with a habit 

 of accurate observation, she laid u[) a large stock 

 of knowledge, which has since been invaluable 

 to herself and others. 



We have now to view Catherine in quite a 

 new sphere of life. She was married to a per- 

 son desei-ving of her affection, but not until she 

 had received a promise that she should be per- 

 mitted to take her mother home to live with her, 

 for she was now old and infirm. A small house 

 was taken and furnished, and the marriage 

 promised evei-y prospect of happiness. This 

 might be called a bright gleam in Catherine's 

 existence. When she had become the mother 

 of two children, her husband died, and, to add 

 to her troubles, her mother became blind and 

 insane. 



Catherine's case may now be considered to 

 have been deplorable — a widow, the mother of 

 two children, one a newborn infant, no means 

 of subsistence, and with a superannuated and 

 blind parent depending npon her. Some women 

 in such circumstances, would have sat down 

 and wept, pined in sorrow, or gone to the work- 

 house. Catherine had a soul above all this. — 

 Bhe acutely felt the blow, but she also knew 

 that it was a dispensation of Providence which 

 ought to be borne. When the first emotions of 

 distress were passed, she courageously yoked to 

 the task of supporting her dependent family. — 

 Catherine despised to eat the bread of idle- 

 ness. 



Worth never wants friends. Catherine's case 

 excited pity among her neighbors, and her good 

 character secured her a respectable wet nursing. 

 8he refused to leave home for this purpose, and 

 the baby was committed to her charge. By 

 this means, and a trifie of wages owing to her 

 husband, she contrived to live over a year. Now 

 she behooved to face the world. The difiiculty 

 of obtaining work was at this lime very great. 

 There was much suflbring among the opera- 

 tives throughout the country, and among all who 

 depended upon their daily labor for subsistence. 



' These are Important truths very clearly express- 

 ed, and cunnot be too deeply iflipressed on the minds 

 of all parents. [,Ed- Farm. Lib. 



(1061) 



The only employment of which Catherine could 

 procure an offer was work at a nail factory, for 

 which she was not well fitted. However, she 

 gladly availed herself of it, because the work 

 was paid according to the numberof nails made, 

 and she could absent herself to give a brief at- 

 tendance on her mother and children. The em- 

 ployment was hard, and poorly paid. She gen- 

 erally wrought at large nails, of which she was 

 able to make about eight hundred daily ; but of 

 the same kind some men can make double that 

 number. Her earnings were, on an average, 

 fil'teenpence per day ; yet, though small, they 

 were still [)recious to her, because they w ere her 

 own earnings. No one knew belter than her- 

 self how to receive a favor, or how to confer 

 one ; but she would not willingly accept the 

 means of support from another, when she could 

 obtain them by her own industry. She has 

 been known to work in this factory till her 

 fingers were blistered, and she could do no more; 

 she would then remain at home, and poultice 

 them till they were sufficiently recovered to en- 

 able her to resume her work. She and her 

 mother at that time often suffered from liunger. 

 Her necessities were known to a kind friend, 

 whose own means were small, but who yet con- 

 trived occasionally <to furnish her with a good 

 meal. Through this friend she sometimes ob- 

 tained a supply of flowers or bouquets, by the 

 sale of which she provided for her wants when 

 she had no other means of obtaining subsis- 

 tence. 



In expedients like these she passed some 

 years, during which the insanity of her mother 

 was at times so outrageous as greatly to endan- 

 ger any who had the" charge of her; Yet this 

 ^charge she could not relinquish. She would 

 not hear of the removal of her parent to a place 

 of confinement. No labors and no sufferings 

 could weaken her filial reverence and affection. 

 At length, however, it became necessary for 

 her mother's own safety that she should be in 

 the charge of those more competent to the task 

 of re-straining her, and she was removed to the 

 work-house. But the heart of the devoted 

 daughter was still with her ; and from week to 

 week Catherine strained every nerve, and 

 straitened herself in every way, that she 

 might regularly carry to her mother all the com- 

 forts she could procure. Nor were her trials 

 those only of the early death of her husband, and 

 the long insanity of her mother. Her eldest soa 

 was a severe sufferer from his birth till the age 

 of twenty, when he died. It is hardly to be con- 

 ceived how much she did and endured for this 

 boy. For weeks together, after a hard day's 

 work, she was up through the whole night, 

 kneeling by him, that he might have his arms 

 around her neck for support, because he was 

 unable to lie down. Her patience and love 

 seemed to be inexhaustible, and the strengtli 

 which she exerted through her afilictions almost 

 miraculous. 



The lad was a dutiful and affectionate child. 

 He had a heart like his mother, strong both to 

 love and to endure. For a time Catherine seem- 

 ed hardly able to sustain his loss. She could 

 not sleep, and with difficulty could take even 

 the smallest portion of food. Her inability to 

 .sleep awakened the desire to pass her nights 

 with the sick ; but she found this recalled the 

 memory of her son loo strongly, and she did not 

 persist in it. Desirous lo fill the vacuity in hei 

 liou.se, she now, to use her own expression, '• in 

 quired for some family who wanted a person U 

 take care of some tedious children." Her sur 



