332 
[September, 
AMF.KTCAX AG-RTCTJI/rURTST. 
figs. After making a rich S 3 ’rup and cooking them 
till they were done, whiclj takes fifteen or twenty 
minutes, I siaread them on jjlates to dry. Thus 
prepared they are alinO't equal to dried figs. My 
cans are of gla,ss, with India rut)bcr stoppers, and 
require no cement of an}' kind to make them air- 
tiglit. After using cans of various kinds, mother 
at last settled upon tlicse as the best, tind I use no 
other. As tomato preserve is so very sweet, I de¬ 
cided to fill i)ut a small jar, and can nearly ail I put 
up. My recipe is half a pound of sugar to a pint 
of water. This makes the tomato sufficiently 
B’.veet, and its flavor is not so much disguised by 
the syrup as when more sugar is used. I have made 
a large jar of green tomato pickle, which Edward 
likes so much, and which is not a very common 
disl), and a'ler the early frosts, I shall make anoth¬ 
er of the green tomatoes left upon the vines. No 
pickle is more easily made, and none better than 
this. To a peck of tomatoes, sliced about a quar¬ 
ter of an ineh thick, add sufficient vinegar to cover 
them, and of whole spices, one ounce each of itep- 
per, cloves, allspice, cinnamon, and white mustard 
seed, and two medium sized onions chopped fine. 
Bring them all to the boiling point for a minute, 
and then pour into ajar and set in a cool jilace. In 
two weeks they will be ready for use. The finest 
looking of my ripe tomatoes I preserve and dry ; 
the others make excellent catsup. 
Sept. 18i!7i.—For a week we have been reveling in 
ripe grapes, and I have used all my skill in endeav¬ 
oring to preserve them in jellies, with sugar and by 
other modes, so as to prolong our enjoyment of 
them into the winter months. Edward has picked 
some of the finest clusters, and I prepared several 
dozen strings of uniform length, with which we 
tied them to long poles and hung them in the wood- 
house loft, taking special care to remove all that 
were imperfect, and not to bruise any or break them 
from the cluster. Here we will let them remain 
until freezing weather, when they can be transferred 
to the cellar without disturbing them on the poles. 
I feel quite confident that we shall have some de¬ 
licious clusters to lay upon our table at New Year’s, 
and pei-haps as late as February. We experiment¬ 
ed also upon the French mode of preserving grapes, 
with what success remains to be seen next winter.' 
It seems as though it must succeed, and it is very 
simple. Edward made a thick whitewash of the 
consistency of cream, straining it, and taking pains 
to crush all the little pieces of lime. We then dip¬ 
ped a number of the very finest clusters into this 
Avhitewash, taking them out very slowly. The dip¬ 
ping was repeated two or three times, until a firm 
white crust, looking like a rough egg shell, was 
formed all over each grape, and the stem to which 
they are attached. We hung these clusters with 
the others in the wood-house loft. 
Sept. ^Qth .—Three or four days since Edward’s 
sister, Jane, came to visit us. She looked pale and 
worn, and I found upon conversation with her that 
she had been sitting in the house all day, instead 
of breathing this delightful September air under 
the open sky, and burning the lamp late at ni-ffit 
reading some new French novels, which a friend had 
sent her. Edward and I talked the matter over and 
determined to initiate her, unconsciously to herself 
into the delight and the wholesoraeness of ample 
out-door exercise and early hours of sleep at night 
So every day since she came, we have planned 
some excursion or some pastime, Avhich has given 
us .dl full draughts of tins boundless ocean of air 
the Creator has poured above and around us The 
roses are beginning to bloom on her cheek, and she 
has ceased to inquire constantly for “ some inter¬ 
esting book.” If our American women would but 
spend an hour or two every day in the open air 
how much should we as a n.ation gain in health and 
lappiness. Tlie exercise of housework is not suffi¬ 
cient ; It is monotonous and liable to become mere 
drudgery. The wife and mother, if she would ever 
mep fresh m feeling and firm in health, if she 
would be always cheerful and a bright and radiant 
ttntei of home delight, must daily leave her cares 
ffiate 'l" of lier domestic activities and 
place hei spirit in harmony with the perpetual 
Pftlm and the annual round of nature ^ ^ 
Se 2 A. 21th. —Tc'.tcrday and to-day we have made 
a lounge for our sitting room, and we sliall find it 
a great addition to our comfort this fall and winter. 
Edward got out the frame and legs, fastened them 
securely together and nailed some slats on the un¬ 
der side of the long side pieces. Into these, at reg¬ 
ular intei-vals, we put some second hand springs he 
found at an upholsterer’s, and tacked over them an 
old quilt, tying each spring with twine to the quilt 
to keep it in place. Tlieii I made a mattress case 
of tow cloth and filled it with the shucks we saved 
when we were drying corn, and some other.s, wjiich 
were all caicfiilly picked over, and covered the 
whole with brown calico, and a very presentable 
article of furniture it makes. I priced a lounge 
the other day at the store, and the cheapest article 
I could find, and that a very poor one, was thirteen 
dollars, so I determined to make one myself. We 
reckoned uji the cost, and find it amounts to just 
six dollars and fifty cents. The frame limber is 
worth fifty cents, the sprinjrs cost thirty, the ten 
yards of tow cloth came to three dollars and a half 
and the calico cover two dollars and tw'enty cents! 
Jane made the cover while I made the mattress, 
and we finished the whole thing up very quicklv. 
Sept. 2Qth. I thoiurht it would do Jane good to 
see a little of Sue White’s housekeeping, and her 
excellent management of her boys, so she consent¬ 
ed to stop on her way home to visit my excellent 
friend, if I would go with her. I was curious to 
learn too, how Sue, who at school had been noted 
for her love of Plato and the classics, had become 
so thoroughly practical a woman in all domestic 
matters. Our conversation naturally fell on the 
routine of household duties, and I expressed to Sue 
my surprise at the perfect familiarity she seemed 
to have with all the little details of nice cookery 
and every department of family industry. “It is 
very true,” said she, “ that at school I reveled in the 
ideal world. I dreamed with Plato, I deHghted in 
Shakespeare and the poets, but after marria-m my 
husband placed Bacon’s Novum Oi-ganura in my 
hands for me to read, and it effected an entire rev 
olution in my daily life. I saw the be.auty of utili¬ 
ty, and determined to become as Baconian in my 
practice as a housewife as I had been Platonic in 
my previous modes of thinking. From that time 
I have made it a principle and a study to have every 
article on my table prepared in the very best man¬ 
ner possible, and to perform every task in the most 
thoroughly practical and sensible manner” 
_ October ith.-Fov two days I have been engao-ed 
in a task that would have been very heavy had not 
Edward assisted me. We assorted the wool that 
we reserved from the spring clipping, taking a few 
pounds of the best for stocking yarn, washed and 
dried the remainder, and made it into a mattress, 
of tickino-. 
Mrs. George told me of an excellent and clie.an 
way of making a spring bed, by purchasing three 
or four dozen of spiral coils of wire at an uphol- 
s erers establishment, and setting them into the 
S .Its of the bedstead. She has a set of them that 
have been m use many years, and are now as good 
as ever. The upper end of the wire is fastened to 
the last turn of the coil, and the wires covered with 
an old quilt upon which the mattress is laid 
Leaves from My Journal.—Ko. VII. 
PKIZE ESSAY BY MBS. B. MC’LELnAN, OP OHIO. 
Septe>nher.~Theve is much sickness in town from 
}phoid fever. That is always tedious, distressing 
and alarming. When sickness comes, how vafn 
never to be so engrossed by them again. And yet 
could hardly bear always to carry about tlm 
esiSffir't T sick seems 
specially to belong to woman, but man’s stronger 
. ns and nerves are quite as indispensable. “Oh ” 
.1 a ^ aughter, after recovering from a long and 
in ^ was 
dht es ''-PI annoy and 
a^^ musrb" is weak with thebody, 
uispiacement of furniture, a spider hanging 
Irora its web in some corner, music on the street, 
noise of the children, bread burned instead of nice¬ 
ly toasted, tea not boiling hot, water not just from 
the well, jar upon the sensitive nerves and create 
suffeiing and complaint, which, to one never or 
rarely sick, ajipear childish in the extreme. Ire- 
member when Nellie was but four, she was sick 
with a disease affecting the head. The room to 
which she was confined had a window containing 
in the lower sash but two frames in deoth, while 
the upper one had three. She often said aloud, 
“ three and two, three and two!” We supposed her 
mind wandering, but at last discovered it was the 
incongruity of the window, from which she could 
not divert her attention. At another lime a friend 
whose shoulder had been dislocated, and wlio was 
obliged to lie in one position, suffered greatly from 
a stray hair that was under the shoulder. I laugh¬ 
ingly told her it ivas only herfancy, until seeing the 
tears in her eyes, I found and removed it. In health 
we may c.all such things foolish—in sickness we had 
better not. Fresh air and w'ater work winders in 
the sick room Cover the patient, head and all, with 
the bed clothes, adding more if the weather is cold, 
and open wide the windows for two or three min¬ 
utes, when the day is fine. Every time the patient 
drinks, let the w'ater be fresh. The nerves of taste 
and smell become as sensitive as any others. 
Fresh linen is a luxury, and everything about the 
person and bed should be kept strictly clean. 
It becomes, of course, no light task to take care 
of the sick, and calls for a large stock of patience 
and endurance. Lost sleep must be mtide up at 
odd times, as far as possible, a bath often taken, 
and fresh air Avithout stint. A good meal, too, is 
an excellent disinfectant. A cheerful fivee, a cheer¬ 
ful tone of voice, never a whUper., rather quick and 
decided movements, instead of timid and lingering, 
all tend to inspire the patient with hope, and pro! 
duce happy results. These are small things in 
themselves, but being usually left by the physician 
to the good sense of the nurse, should not be over¬ 
looked by her, or even considered less important 
than medicine towards effecting a cure. 
Our dear father has gone to his rest. Though 
lobust for one ot his age, he had not strength to 
rally again from so long and Avasting a fever. My 
husband AV'as the younger of his children, and his 
home has been Avith us for a few' years past. AVc 
shall miss his gentle quiet ways', his hat by the door, 
his cane in the corner. His chair at the fireside 
Avill be vacant now'. No more stories for the chil¬ 
dren, of the times Avhen he Avas a little boy, about 
which they never wearied of hearing. He didn’t 
seem old as he Avas, for his heart Avas Avarm and 
young. His age was seA'enty-five. To the child 
hoAV far in the future ! To him it Avas “but a span.”' 
Has life to him opened again, w'here death never 
comes? We trust “All is Avell.” 
To-day I was made glad with the sight of Lizzie’s 
dear fiice peering in through my blind, while she 
called me to take a a'Icav of Georgv, Avho, Avithout 
ceremony, had seated himself under an apple tree 
and after filling his lap with apples, had commenced 
the work of eating them all up. How he has grown ! 
I venture to say that grandmother thinks there 
never was such a child before, though she may have 
a dozen of her oavu. Ah, yes, I sec it now ! Those 
little socks so gaily shaded and ribbed, are her Avork, 
I knoAv. The apron with long sleeves, fitting close! 
ly about the neck, and substantial shoes, haA-e come 
from her good motherly advice. But can it be that 
baby Georgy has gone, and this stout boy has taken 
his Mace ? Mr. Beecher says : “ Nothing on earth 
gi'OAvs SO fixst as children.” I should know, if he 
had said no more, that his OAvn Avere leaving the 
home circle; that he too Avas groAA'ing old! But 
Lizzie has improved in looks. The rest from care 
awhile has been just what she needed. Home too 
Avill seem dearer now than ever, and with’nev,’ 
energy she Avill enter upon its duties. Of one thing 
I am pretty sure. Her mother never betore found 
an ear more ready to listen to instruction, in a.l 
her girlhood days she learned not so much about 
housekeeping^ as in these few weeks under her 
mother’s tuition. Hoav often she had heard the 
same things before ! Now they have a real value. 
