CoNVENTiojs'—B etter and happier Homes. 181 
Many years since a young lady schoolmate of mine, a few years 
older than myself, married a young man and moved to the forests 
of Michigan. They settled in a dense oak forest, and for years 
there was no house within miles of them. Here they commenced, 
as thousands had done before them, and thousands have done since, 
to hew out a home and a competence. After years of hard labor, 
a pleasant farm spread itself out before them. Their home was a 
plain, though comfortable log house. Outside of it grew shrubbery, 
fruits and flowers. A magnificent prairie rose had covered a por¬ 
tion of the logs from view, and was trying to cover the roof. Inside 
was a small library of select works. Papers and magazines were 
always there. There was not a single article of expensive furniture 
about the house, though there were the thousand and one little 
things that only the loving wife and mother’s hands can so arrange 
as to make everything seem just as it should be. One day a friend 
came in. He was the owner of a very large and finely furnished 
home, one of the best in the county. After chatting a minute or 
two, he threw himself down upon a lounge in the room and said, 
“ Well, Sarah, there is more pure home in this house than in any 
place that I was ever inside of in my life.” A family of children 
grew up there; but the sons were in no great hurry to leave their 
home; the daughters did not promise themselves that they would 
never marry farmers; and now as old age is creeping on and claim¬ 
ing this happy pair for its own, the loving hands of sons and 
daughters and grandchildren are clustered about them to shield 
and protect them from every earthly ill as far as it is within their 
power. They are not rich; the world will never hear of any great 
deeds of theirs. But a happy home is theirs; and an intelligent 
and happy family has grown up about them, and now a happy old 
age is theirs. Is not such a home, humble though it be, worth 
having? Is not such a life worth living? A friend was describing 
a visit that he had made among some friends at a rural home. I 
may not give the exact words, but they were substantially as fol¬ 
lows: “ The house was not expensively nor extravagantly fur¬ 
nished. There was a small library and plenty of papers and maga¬ 
zines seemed to be lying about loose everywhere. There was a 
musical instrument and plenty of music, as the family were nearly 
all singers. The house was not a large nor an expensive one, yet 
it was one of the biggest homes that I ever got into in my life.” 
