DEC f8 
THE 
without being made happier. u The Fantastic 
History of the Celebrated Pierrot” is a book 
over which my own children have spent many 
a delightful hour. “ Home Fairy Tales,” by 
Jean Mace, and “Fairy Tales and Legends of 
Man} r Nations,” by Burkhardt, will delight 
the heart and capture the fancy of any child. 
There arc here and there bigoted parents 
who taboo all fairy literature; Gradgriuds 
who believe in nothiug but facts, but when 
even so good and great a man and author as 
George MacDonald has given it his sanction 
by writing one of the most exquisite of fairy 
stories, “The Princess and the Goblin.’ - we 
think these well-meaning but misguided peo¬ 
ple need not fear to place such books, without 
which no child-life is complete, in the hands 
of their sons aud daughters. “Alice in Won 
derlaud” for pure, unrivalled, rollicking non¬ 
sense will be appreciated by a certain class of 
children, and they will not be found amoug 
the dull ones. “The Jimmyjohns,” and the 
“Peterlnns” are familiar to all the readers of 
St. Nicholas, aud are to be had in book form 
by those who are. not the fortunate possessors 
of that valuable magazine. 
The above mentioned books compose, per¬ 
haps, but a small library; for voracious read¬ 
ers there are hundreds of other valuable books, 
but a few good volumes read aud remembered 
will be of more service as a means of eduea - 
tion than greater uumbers carelessly skimmed. 
A Hindoo in India once served on a jury with 
Englishmen ami astouished jury, lawyers, 
judges and spectators by the remarkable 
acuteness he displayed in cross-questioning 
witnesses. It afterwards transpired that he 
had never read more thau one book, but this 
book which was the logic of Aristotle, he had 
read until he almost knew it by heart. 
BUSY MOTHERS. 
NAOMI. 
Is the housekeeper to blame for becoming 
the household drudge? Partly, and partly not. 
Starting out in life with little capital, but 
with a loving heart and willing hands she 
gladly takes tip the burden. Joyfully she goes 
ou her wav, bravely bearing on her shoulders 
all the weight that falls to her portion to carry. 
One responsibility after another is added, as 
each new-comer lifts up its pleading voice aud 
helpless bauds. Coujugal love, maternal love 
and love of order, neatness aud plenty are each 
-separate incentives to continued perseverance. 
At first husband being so engrossed iu his occu¬ 
pation, and the bodies of the children seeming 
to be all that require her thought and labor, 
her mind settles into the channel in which her 
body moves. To clothe aud feed the family, 
have the home comfortable and orderly, and 
at the same time save her husband’s;/) money, 
seem to be not the chief end and aim of life, 
but the cud aud aim. 
I do not feel to blame such, for my heart 
goes out in sympathy to them aud their child¬ 
ren when 1 think of the future needs of the 
hungry minds. Mothers are prone to forget 
that they have performed but a portion of 
their duty when they liuve ministered to the 
visible wants of their offspring. Children love 
to share all things with those who are iu sym¬ 
pathy with them. If Mary finds her lesson 
difficult to understand aud teacher does not 
see just the point that troubles her, what a 
help to briug her trouble to mother who will 
make it so plain that the morrow will be 
eagerly anticipated instead of dreaded. But 
if met with a “Don’t bother me, child; ask 
teacher, I’m too busy,” she is not apt to try it 
again soon, aud an avenue to that daughter’s 
heart is closed to the mother by her own act. 
Had the mother ouly showed a desire to help 
her, it would have been a bond of union be¬ 
tween them. But i f mother cares only for her 
house, aud Mary ouly for her books, what com¬ 
mon feeling shall unite them? 
We should Seek to retaiu our places as 
companions aud helpers to our children. 
Their footsteps arc now led iu pleasant paths 
of knowledge. Ways that were crooked and 
rough for our feat arc made straight aud 
smooth for them, aud no wonder if they go 
so fast that we cannot keep pace with them. 
We can keep alongside in some things that 
are of common interest to all who meditate 
upon the advancement of our generation in 
science aud art and literature. The trouble is 
that the mental powers become sluggish from 
inactivity and the great demands upon the 
body, and it is an almost impossible task to 
arouse them to action. The children learn to 
think that mother is too busy to go to a lec¬ 
ture, or read an interesting book, or take a 
trip with them to visit some natural curiosi¬ 
ties, all of which would help mother and child¬ 
ren to grow' into companionship with one an¬ 
other. 
“The recompense of reward!” The loving 
companionship of our children. Sharing 
their joys aud sorrows, advising them in their 
perplexities, warning them of dangers ahead, 
gently leading them in ways of truth aud up¬ 
rightness, and all the time knowing that we 
are the one to whom their hearts will ever turn 
for comfort in sorrow, and for congratulation 
in 3 ° y ’ _ 
SOME WAYS AND THINGS AT THE 
RURAL GROUNDS. 
ALICE BROWN. 
We have had no winter weather, although 
this is the last day of November. The ground 
is not frozen, and the mud reminds one of 
Spring. The evenings are long, aud suggest 
busy hours around lighted lamps. 
So many turn to favorite studies as Winter 
shuts them iu for the greater part of every 
day, that something about study seems most 
appropriate just now to write from the Rural 
Grounds. Home study has been gaining 
much in favor during recent years. Simply 
written text books and interestingly told his¬ 
tories have multiplied to help those who have 
only books for their teachers. Easy as study 
has been made m many ways, it is still true 
that persistent earnest application is the only 
way to any wealth of knowledge. 
“If an education could be had just for the 
wishing, everybody would be educated, 
nobody really wishes to be ignorant,” Mr. 
Carman sometimes tells Cerise, when she finds 
it hard to fix her mind upon her studies. The 
difficulties surrouuding home study are not 
small, but a great many have overcome them, 
and many always will when the choice lies be¬ 
tween no advance at all, or some progress 
without a teacher. 
Reading wall not take the place of study, 
for it does uot strengthen and train the mind. 
Doing but once all the various things done in 
the household, once baking bread, once cook¬ 
ing a dinner, once ironing, churning or mak¬ 
ing a bed will not fit anyone to become a 
housekeeper, or take away the awkwardness 
of first attempts. Reading is usually going 
over but once a great variety of subjects and 
learning none. 
Mr. and Mrs. Carman have kept up a course 
of study ever since their married life began. 
Usually Mr. Carman has acted as teacher, 
which, of course, has given Mrs. Carman an 
advantage over mauy home students. The 
study first taken up, and the one that has been 
most enthusiastically followed is botany, aud 
the pupil has now in some departments of the 
subject outstripped her teacher, so that to her 
are given all the plants and grasses sent to him 
for identification and names. 
All the w r ooils and fields lor several miles 
around the Rural Grounds were searched 
through and through at all seasons of blos¬ 
soming, uutil not a weed or flower remained 
to be analyzed and named. The practice and 
knowledge gained in this wuy has made it 
possible to analyze aud name the wild flow¬ 
ers, grasses, and flowering weeds from any 
part of the Uuion where the flora has been 
described and classified in published books. 
If the evenings for one Winter are given to 
the study of botany it will be possible in the 
Spring to analyze most if not all of the wild 
flowers growing in the woods and fields of any 
locality. If the study has beeu carefully pur¬ 
sued many interesting things will have been 
learned about common, familiar plants and 
flowers. Although the evenings of a few 
months will enable auyone to analyze and 
name hundreds of flowers, the study can be 
carried on for years without reaching the end 
of its interest and charm. 
The home student often uses his time to poor 
advantage by undertaking some study too hard 
aud soou tires of it and gives it up. It is bet¬ 
ter to begiu with the review of some study 
once taken iu school than to fail in trying 
something new T . At one time Mrs. Carman, 
fiuding she had in a measure forgotten the 
rules of grammar, took up the study with one 
or two others who were members of their 
household at the time, and very carefully 
studied through Brown's grammar committing 
to memory rules, definitions and declensions 
as though for the first time. 
Geography is a useful study to take up, and 
one that few people know so perfectly that a 
review of it will not touch them mauy inter¬ 
esting things, Travers, Cerise and I, as a 
pleasant plan for studying geography in ad¬ 
dition to the regular lessons, organized last 
Winter a little society of three members that 
we called the “Geographical Reading Club.” 
Trnvvie was our president and a very enthu¬ 
siastic member ot the “G. R. C.” Our plan 
was to read aloud from books describing 
places, keeping the geography open at the 
maps of the [daces aud locating cities, rivers, 
etc., as we read. In this way we studied the 
waters and coasts between Newfoundland and 
Northern Greenland, by reading the story of 
the voyage ou a sealing vessel of the “Knock¬ 
about Club,” written by C. A, Stevens. 
We tried to read “Picturesque America,” a 
book describing the most noted natural wou- 
ders of A merica, but we found the words too 
large for our seven-year-old president, so 
after reading a few’ chapters we gave it up for 
something worded more simply; after that, 
though our progress w r as slow it w r as 
pleasant, 
A Geographical Club with members old 
enough to road for themselves, and take turns 
in reading aloud, could spend many pleasant 
horn's, learning from good maps just where 
the places are of which chey read. A file of 
the Rural containing Mrs. Fisher’s Trans¬ 
continental Letters would furnish one course 
of geographical reading. Many pleasant books 
of travel have been written that are suitable 
for use iu such a Reading Club. Mrs. Helen 
Jackson, who wrote so many good things 
under the signature of H. H. t has writteu two 
or three books of travel that would be espec¬ 
ially good for the use of a “G, R. C.” They are 
“Bits of Travel,” “Bits of Travel at Home,” 
and “Glytnpsesof Three Coasts.” 
Mark Twain’s “Innocence Abroad” would 
prove instructive if the route taken by the 
Innocents he carefully followed on a map, and 
the book is full of funny incidents and 
descriptions. 
I cannot close this better thau to quote from 
advice giveu by Mr. Carman to a young man 
asking what heshouldstudy in hisspare minutes 
to gain an education. “Study something,” he 
said, “almost anything, so you make a begin¬ 
ning; study hard, don’t give it up, and you 
can’t help learning something.” 
GOLDEN GRAINS. 
Tiie most manifest sign of wisdom is con¬ 
tinued cheerfulness... 
Let amusements fill up the chinks of your 
existence, but not the great spaces thereof.... 
Wealth, legitimately acquired, is valuable, 
and only valuable when thus acquired. 
The tuples, the jo.vs of earth, the same In Heaven will 
be. 
Only the little brook has widened to a sea.. 
There always comes some smooth running 
to every skein before all is done. You mustn’t 
try to see through the wffiole skein or to 
straighten it all out iuto a single thread before 
you begin to wind: that makes a snarl always. 
There is always an eud, and it is what you 
have got to take hold of. 
It depends upon what one’s life is, and 
w’here is the spring of it, and what it feeds 
upon, how one rallies from a shock of auy 
sort ... 
We love those for wiiom we have beeu pri¬ 
vileged to perform some helpful service; for 
love grows through serving. If we do not 
sufficiently love another for what he has done 
for us, let us iucroase our loving interest in 
him by loving service for him... 
IIe that provides for this life, but takes no 
care for eternity, is wise for a moment, but a 
fool forever, aud acts as unto warily and 
crossly to the reason of things as can be 
imagined. 
Domestic Cfmwrtraj 
CONDUCTED BY MRS. AGNES E. M. CARMAN. 
BATH-ROOMS FOR FARMERS. 
The most convenient bath-room I have ever 
seen in a farmer’s house was planned and lo¬ 
cated in the house of Col. M. J. Hogarty, a re¬ 
tired army officer, whose home is iu Greeley, 
Colorado. 
This bath-room adjoins the large kitchen, 
Fig. 400. 
and is entered by a door near the cook-stove 
or range. It is supplied with hot and cold 
water through pipes leading to it from the 
stove aud force pump. A large tank is fitted 
up near the front of,, the^ stove, ^four or.five 
feet high and 18 inches iu diameter. The wa¬ 
ter in this cylindrical tank is heated in pipes 
naming around the inside of the stove and 
outside and above the coal-box. The tank is 
filled with water through pipes leading from 
a force-pump situated in the pantry. The 
door leading to this pantry is at the right of 
the stove, and that of the bath-room to the 
left. The pump not only supplies the pantry 
sink, but the stove and bath-tub, also a mar¬ 
ble basin in one corner of the bath-room. A 
looking-glass, roller-towels and plenty of short 
towels, brushes and combs and soap make this 
little room a first-class toilet room for the 
family at all seasons. 
There is a faucet at the bottom of the tank, 
where water can be taken out at any time. 
If the farmers cannot afford a tank with 
hot and cold water pipes leading to the room, 
they may be able to have a bath-room ad join¬ 
ing the kitchen without these luxuries. 
Nearly every farmer has a stove with a res¬ 
ervoir. from wuich water can lie taken at any 
time and this, with a couple of pails of cold 
water added, will bo sufficient for a good bath 
without much trouble. It is a great conven¬ 
ience to the house mother to be able to give 
her little flock a bath at least once a week, 
aud to lie able to do r.his so near a warm fire, 
during the cold weather, is a great comfort to 
all concerned. mrs. o. Howard. 
BREAKFAST, AND WHAT TO PRE¬ 
PARE. 
Breakfast is undoubtedly the housekeep¬ 
er’s most difficult meal, both because at that 
early hour of the day at which it is usually 
served, appetites are apt to require tempting, 
and because there is less time for its prepara¬ 
tion. Now that, the Winter has set in and 
vegetables are becoming scarce, it is pleasant 
to know how to make the most of the slender 
resources at hand. 
There is, perhaps, no vegetable so abused 
in its cooking as that commonest of all—the 
potato. Delicately fried potatoes are the ex¬ 
ception, uot the rule. In fact, where their 
cooking is entrusted to a servant, one need 
not look for an edible dish. .Still, they are 
not difficult to prepare in many appetizing 
ways. A French cook of great celebrity 
boasts that lie can prepare potatoes in two 
hundred different ways, and apples in four 
hundred. Potatoes boiled with the skins on 
can be cooked over far better than if boiled 
without their jackets. Those intended for the 
breakfast should be taken from the fire when 
about half done, aud after removing the skins, 
set away uutil the following morning. If 
they arc boiled until fully done they will be 
too crumby and mealy to cook over well. 
Slice some of these potatoes half an inch thick, 
dredge them with a little flour and fry in a 
pan containing a tablcspoonful of hot butter 
or drippiugs, put a cover on the pan, season 
them, aud when brown on one side, turn and 
brown on the other. Use just us little fat as 
will keep them from burning, and serve them 
very hot on a hot dish. 
Cauliflowers left from diuner are excellent 
if wanned with mashed or fully boiled cold 
potatoes. Chop equal parts of each, put a 
spoonful of butter and two or three spoonfuls 
of the white sauce that was served with the 
cauliflower, or if there is none of the sauce re- 
rnaiuiug, add just enough rich milk or cream 
to make it a little moist, season nicely, using a 
little Cayenne, and stir until it leaves the bot¬ 
tom and sides of the saucepan. 
Cabbage may be used m the same wmy, ouly 
in this case a little of any kind of good gravy 
may be used for moistening it. A delicious 
breakfast vegetable is made from mixed cel¬ 
ery and potatoes. Boil, the day before, the 
white ends of some of the coarser stalks of 
celery that are uot nice enough for table use, 
in salted boiling water until tender. Mix with 
three-quarters the amount of cold-boiled pota¬ 
toes, aud heat as above, using butter and a lit¬ 
tle cream or milk. Both the celery uud pota¬ 
toes should be chopped tine. 
Broiled tomatoes are another dainty, and 
taste quite unlike tomatoes cooked in any 
other way. In Sun Francisco, one may have 
fresh tomatoes almost the year round, but it is 
quite possible to broil canned tomatoes if you 
have canned them yourself. When you are 
canning them take some of the larger ones 
that are not very ripe, wipe them clean and 
just allow them to get hot through in the ves¬ 
sel in which you are cooking the tomatoes for 
canning. Seal up builiug-hot iu wide-mout hed 
cans. To broil then, slice, either the fresh or 
canned articles in two,leaving the skin on, dip 
iu melted butter and crumbs and broil over a 
slow fire or t he crumbs will scorch. They may 
also he fried, and with a delicate slice of 
broiled ham, some warmed cauliflower and po¬ 
tatoes, and a hot muffin, form one of the nicest 
breakfasts that oven nu epicure could wish. 
Fried cucumbers are auothcr possible win¬ 
ter dish. Take ..large cucumbers that have 
been put jlow’n iu brine for pickling, and soak 
