54 FARM HOMES, IN-DOORS AND OUT-DOORS. 



It is essential that the Old People should have their own 

 rooms, where their quiet and retirement can be held 

 sacred. If there are but two rooms in the house, the 

 grandfather and grandmother are entitled to one of 

 them. The confusion of a "blue Monday," or the noisy 

 overflow of animal spirits in children, may be very invig- 

 orating to younger nerves, but it is not always agreeable 

 to the aged, who need a haven of peace and repose suited 

 to the Indian Summertime of their lives. In this quiet 

 corner let them gather about them the old and familiar 

 treasures with which they began the world together but 

 be careful to add enough of "modern improvements" to 

 insure their comfort and convenience. The old clock, 

 the towering chest, the battered china, the dim oil- 

 portraits, and even the "weeping- willow" lithographs 

 pathetic with the memory of the early lost will seem 

 like old and faithful friends to them ; but let the old- 

 fashioned draught under the door be shut out with a 

 patent weather-strip, and the dim candles of the past be 

 replaced by a cheerful lamp. A monthly rose and a 

 chrysanthemum in one of the sunny windows will be 

 another pleasant charge for grandmother, and a good 

 book or a fresh newspaper should often find its way to 

 the mantel beside grandfather's "spectacles." 



It is well worth while to deny one's self many things 

 rather than this room should be bleak and cheerless to 

 these fading lives. All too soon will the fire go out on 

 the hearth, and the old arm-chairs stand empty. It will be 

 well for us then if no ghosts of reproach, no sad phantoms 

 of lost opportunity, lean out of the chill and the silence to 

 remind us of our deep sins of neglect and indifference ! 

 After all, the "good will" goes farther than the groat 

 d.M <N. The scant furniture, the plain dinner, and the 

 last year's almanac for reading, will all be very pleasant 

 and grateful to the Old People, if faithful love and cheer- 

 ful devotion sweeten the atmosphere ; and in a thousand 



