Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 September 1875 — Your Home. [ARTICLE]

Your Home.

You all love home, I take it for granted; that is, if that home is at all lovable. Now what do you do to make that home pleasant? Children are toq apt to regard the keeping of a home as a duty incumbent upon their parents, without realizing that they have as much to do with its formation almost as the parents themselves. Home is not perfect without the help of every member of the household. It has been beautifully likened to a karp—it all the strings are attuned in harmony sWeet melody is the result; but if one is out of tune it jars harsh discord upon the senses. The parents’ duty is to furnish a home where the comforts of the body are provided; where the mind is educated and the soul is trained and guided by pure teachings and holy example. The children’s duty is to respond to the efforts pf the parents—to echo, as it -were, the attention and affection shown them.’ Do the wee ones, whose little hands are Too tiny to more than pluck the blossoms by the wayside, remember that they can learn to help keep home tidy by picking up the little things that will get strewn about ? Whose hands so gentle in soothing away mamma’s headache or papa’s frown, as the little one that knows not its own strength? The little boy and girl can do many little tasks deftly—for boys, it is no lessening of dignity to learn to be handy about the house and help mother in her numerous household tasks. The manliest man I ever knew personally, takes laughing pride in his knowledge of housework, gained when he was a boy, the help of a mother who boasted of five boys younger than himself. Then do not hesitate to engage in the many duties that await you in the home; and girls save your mothers every step you can. Be light of heart and quick of foot, that your presence may bring real heartsunshine into the Tiome circle. Be true daughters, true sisters, making all who enter that home circle love and rely upon you. Do not be afraid of work, lest you brown or harden your hands; do not cast upon your mother a task because “ she can do it quicker,” or you “are just going out for a little walk.” It is she who needs the respite most; it is you who can give it her. p Home is not a rose-lined paradise, where all can sit and sing sweet melodies, unruffled by a cloud of care. Home is a place to love in and a place to labor in. The tasty rooms will grow unlovely, the ornaments will gather dust, and the myriad duties of home life will become distasteful and monotonous unless there is an earnest spirit that gives you courage to go on, day after day, with these same unchanging tasks. That courage 7 comes from a higher love than love of self—and when the right love fills the heart, the commonest tasks become glorified and invested with a beauty we never saw before. Then remember, girls and boys, to do your part toward making a home. It is a duty that rests upon each one of you, and unless you fulfil it conscientiously you will loose many moments of rapture and will rob the future of many pleasant and joyous memories, as also the consciousness of having done right.— Annie R. White, in Young Folks' Monthly.