197 



graham bread, cold roast or boiled meat, hashed pota- 

 toes, oat or wheat grits, and some kind of fruit, is good 

 enough for kings and emperors, and it almost cooks itself. 

 The same bill of fare, varied by an omelet, or milk-toast, 

 or baked potatoes, or an easily-made johnny cake, an- 

 swers equally well for supper, and what a vast amount of 

 flurry and fluster might be saved by its adoption. 



Do not neglect that world within your head ! that 

 brain-world wherein you used to dream fine dreams, and 

 build many an airy castle ! Do not give up hopes and 

 aspirations and special tastes. If you once loved to 

 "twang the guitar," or "sweep the dulcimer," or had a 

 talent for drawing, or writing for the newspapers, or pos- 

 sessed a gentle taste for botanizing, and collecting shells 

 and minerals and butterflies, continue to cultivate the 

 faculty. A gratified longing for such things is just as 

 necessary for the mind's welfare as gratified hunger for 

 beef and vegetables is necessaiy for the physical well- 

 being. Interest your children in these things, and 

 among them you will be sure to find more than one eager 

 and sympathetic co-worker. 



Above all, do not turn your back upon good reading. 

 Subscribe to nothing weak and trashy. A good practical 

 newspaper, such as treats of the household, the garden, 

 and the farm, and some first-class journal filled with 

 stories, poems, sketches, and science articles, by talented 

 and scholarly authors, are worth tons of "pictorials" 

 and cheap romances. 



Have something "going forward," if it is nothing 

 more than the cultivation of new kinds of strawberries 

 and chickens, a winter reading club of three or four 

 neighbors, or a pleasant little annual excursion, or 

 "camp-out," on some lake-side or mountain-top with 

 your children. Beware of the " all work and no play " 

 that breaks down health and spirits, and starves the 

 mind." And do not depend entirely upon your husband 



