406 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



Now tell US, sisters, would you wear a silk dress in the 

 kitchen to save a calico one ? Yet that is exactly what you 

 are doing, and worse, when you are so frugal of food and 

 money and so spendthrift of strength and life. The first 

 two may be replaced, the latter never. 



It is all right to cut down expenses, when money is run- 

 ning out too fast ; but your strength is worth money, and 

 more than money ; yet you keep on wasting it as though 

 you owned all the life, health and strength of the world. 



Cut down your work, thin it out ; search, and you will 

 find any amount of it that had better be pulled up and 

 castaway. Sit down and ask yourself, "How much of 

 my toil is done for my neighbors? How many stitches do 

 I take to be looked at and admired by others ? How many 

 ruffles do I put on my little girl's dresses that other people 

 may see them ? When one ruffle is neat and pretty, do I 

 think the other two make her more comfortable? If I 

 have a lot of fruit, I do not want to waste it ; but is it not 

 better to do that than to waste my strength ? Is it not 

 worth more than fruit. If I can myself w^ith the berries, 

 stiffen myself with the jellies, evaporate myself with the 

 dried fruit ; is all that true economy ? Is not my work, 

 my guidance, my advice, worth more to my family than 

 all the ruflftes and fruit put together ; and can I give them 

 my services if I trample on my health, stew my strength 

 to shreds, and get myself into a broil generally?" Think 

 it over : these are homely similes, but significant ones. 



Keep clean for the sake of health and self-respect ; but 

 if there is only a little dust here and there, and it is going 

 to be ''the straw that breaks the camel's back" to get rid 

 of that dust, shut your eyes and let it lie. 



Do what is necessary for comfort, but if you will lop off" 

 all the unnecessaries, the concessions to Mrs. Grundy, there 

 will be no trouble to thin out your work. 



