2 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN’S ASSOCIATION. 
Thus my fancy kept dreaming, 
O’er the hot dishes steaming, 
And wondering why I must a kitchen fire tend, 
Till an angel’s low whispering 
Compelled me to listening, 
And taught me these household discomforts to mend. 
“ Is your work not the oldest, 
The usefulest, the noblest— 
In ministering daily to the life God has given ? 
If the work is unceasing 
Of washing and sweeping— 
Remember that order’s the first law of heaven ! 
11 Pray what gives more pleasure 
Than a well-seasoned dinner 
When tastefully served on the family board ? 
Thank God you can labor, 
Can knead, mix an’ flavor, 
And draw pleasant meals from a farmer’s rich hoard— 
“ That lieartsome delight 
At morn, noon and night, 
When the family gathers for chat and good cheer ! 
Then should you be complaining 
Of work unavailing, 
That brings joy to the loved ones each day of the year? ” 
Strategic movements occasionally have a most happy 
effect in the home field. Let the lord of the manor but 
imagine he has his own way, how sweetly he will consider 
himself the originator of your feats of generalship, and the 
household ship in its swan-like progress is a pleasing sight 
to behold. In all homes one or the other rule, and may no 
discord ever mar the beautiful harmony of that life. With¬ 
out domestic happiness nothing on earth is to be desired , 
and with it, no withholding of earthly goods is to be dread¬ 
ed. But the domestic machinery does not always run 
smoothly: sometimes it is on the center and doesn’t run at 
all. There are examples of placid, lovely people often 
before our mental vision, “ Oh ! world look on and wondei, 
yet if we were to live the round of the seasons in their 
home-life, we would say the “ half has not been told. 
Actually so like their neighbors, with a good bit of the 
common humanity flesh is heir to, with which to spice their 
everyday life, we heartily condemn their faults and ways, 
because they are out of our possession. How ours must 
appear to them. 
