30 
MATTERS OF TASTE. 
Cables’ ^Department. 
Matters of Taste. —By Mrs. Kirkland , author of 
“ A New Home” fyc. 
Farmer Dickson has a large farm and a larger 
family—things that go well enough together. He 
has lived long enough on one spot to have got every¬ 
thing comfortable about him—a good double house, 
with each row of trees, fence, path, and road around 
it, “ as straight as a gun-barrel,” as he says. ( Every 
one to his taste, but we would rather have a little 
more variety in these matters. We think a winding 
or waving line is often a great improvement.) 
Farmer Dickson has five daughters; good, indus¬ 
trious girls, able to make butter and cheese, to spin 
two days’ work in one, and to weave flannels, blan¬ 
ket-shawls, and coverlets (in double-work), equal to 
any weaver. Polly, the eldest, has done so much of 
this kind, that she has never had time to get married. 
She has stores of bedding laid by; thirty-four pairs 
of cotton stockings of her own knitting; (one pair 
for every year of her age), and a Tuscan bonnet of 
her own braiding, which nearly cost her her eye¬ 
sight. Is not Polly a fine girl ? (Every one to his taste, 
but we have observed that Polly is quite out of her 
element whenever she is in company. She cannot 
sit still, even for half an hour, for the sake of read¬ 
ing or conversation. Her whole soul is absorbed in 
business, and when there happens to be sickness in 
the house she leaves all nursing to others, and frets 
because “ the work” does not get on. So we shall 
not recommend Polly Dickson for a wife.) 
Sarah is younger, and has not had time to turn 
her hands into claws with quite so many years of 
labor. But even she never gets leisure to look at a 
book. She gives more attention to dress than her 
elder sister, and so pleases more generally at first 
sight; but on further acquaintance, when it is dis¬ 
covered that she has not a word to say, but answers 
in most cases with a silent giggle, she is generally 
neglected for more sprightly girls. One young man, 
a surveyor, who put up for a week or two at her 
father’s, was so much pleased with her appearance— 
for she is really a comely girl—that he had serious 
thoughts of paying his addresses to her; but happen¬ 
ing to pass a whole day in her company, away from 
home, where she had not her usual occupations, he 
discovered the extreme emptiness of her mind, and 
being an intelligent young man, he turned his thoughts 
in another direction, and Sarah Dickson, seeing him 
depart with as much indifference as she had seen him 
arrive, went on making butter and cheese, as if that 
had been the business of life ( Every one to his 
taste, but we think butter and cheese may cost too 
much.) 
Farmer Dickson’s third daughter differed from her 
sisters in many respects. She was considered the 
beauty of the family, and she used to spend all her 
leisure in preparing various adornments for her per¬ 
son, and particularly in curling her hair with a hot 
pipe-stem, which produced rinsrlets very charming in 
her eyes. On one occasion she was invited to join a 
sleighing party which was to conclude, as is gene¬ 
rally the case, with a ball in the evening. Resorting 
to her favorite expedient, in her zeal to outshine her¬ 
self as well as everybody else, she heated the pipe¬ 
stem too much, burnt off a conspicuous lock close to 
the head, and letting fall the instrument in her con¬ 
sternation, disfigured her neck with several blisters, 
so that she was obliged to stay at home. The story 
got about, and caused so much joking among the 
young people of the neighborhood, that the poor girl 
became quite sulky, and would not go out at all. 
She consoled herself by gathering a quantity of silk- 
weed, of which she is now sewing for herself a cape 
or pelerine, which is to be very elegant. ( Every one 
to his taste, but to our eye, a silk-weed cape looks 
somewhat as if it had been made of the skins of 
green goslings.) 
If we seem, in these remarks, to cast some reflec¬ 
tion upon our friends the Dicksons, it must be noted 
that all this extra industry is entirely superfluous, as 
far as pecuniary circumstances are concerned. Many 
years of unwearied toil, together with an increase in 
the value of land, have made Mr. Dickson richer 
than most of his neighbors, and secured an ample 
provision for his family. So that what we find fault 
with, is the miserable plan of toiling on, year after 
year, laying up stores of articles which are to be use¬ 
less for a length of time, requiring much care to pre¬ 
vent their being spoiled by moths or mould, while the 
precious mind is left uncultivated, and the high and 
ennobling pursuit of self-improvement entirely ne¬ 
glected. In poverty, constant toil is a dreadful ne¬ 
cessity ; and what is the consequence ? Too often, 
a complete crushing of minds which under happier 
circumstances might have brought forth fruit an hun 
dred fold. 
“ Where penury is felt, the thought is chain’d, 
And sweet colloquial pleasures are but few.” 
But where there is abundance, it is both sin and 
shame to narrow down our cares and efforts to the 
“ things which perish in the using.” It is certainly 
both the duty and the privilege of those who have 
enough and to spare of this world’s goods, to devote 
some part of every day to reading. For old people, 
whose habits are obstinately fixed, it is usually diffi¬ 
cult to begin a plan of this kind; but for the young, 
nothing more is necessary than, first, a sense of its 
propriety, and, secondly, one effort of resolution at 
the commencement. Literature has, in its very na¬ 
ture, something so attractive, that, once begun, it 
wins its own way. The young woman who has 
once found pleasure in a book, will be anxious so to 
economise her time that a portion of every day may 
be safely devoted to reading; and we will answer for 
it that those who spend their leisure—the proper lei¬ 
sure which every one ought to have who is not 
obliged to labor beyond health and comfort—in this 
way, will be the most agreeable girls in their neigh¬ 
borhood. 
But our space allows us only to glance at this sub' 
ject in the present number. At some future day we 
shall resume it, with further reference to the Dickson 
family. 
Care of Flowers. —The cold by this time is so 
intense, that it behooves the ladies who have any re¬ 
gard to the healthful preservation of their parlor 
flowers, to pay particular attention to them. During 
frosty weather plants cannot absorb as much mois¬ 
ture as in the warmer seasons : be careful, therefore, 
not to over-water them. Sprinkle a little fine char- 
