THE HOU§EH©LD>==aSmpplememmo A WOMAN’S THO UG’IIT. “I am so weary of my home i” she cried, “And of its endless tasks, so mean and small; I love to mingle with the world outside, To drink from life’s full cup; the drops that l'al1 From beakers others clasp, tho’ gladly quafied, Slake not my thirst, my hand must hold the draught.” She feels a little hand slip into hers, And little fingers clinging to her gown, And in her heart atender memory stirs Of violet lids by early death shut down; And as she lifts the little hinderer up, “ I drink,” she cried, “ at least from love’s full cup “Forgive, dear Lord, forgive the foolish speech For love is all; without it life is naught; Let me but have the blessings in my reach, And I will never more complain of aught; Life’s cup may hold for woman what it will- Without love’s wine she will be thirsty still.” ————oo.——-— . THE DOORYARD. I am glad to see Honor Glint is stirring up the farming community about their unsightly door-yards. The subject will bear agitation. I do not care how hand- some a house a man may live in, unless it is surrounded by a neat lawn and shaded by trees and shrubs, it is like abeautifu1 gem in a pinchbeck setting, it loses in in- trinsic beauty. There can be no com- parison, to my mind, between the fin mansion set in a wilderness of weeds, e-treeless and bleak, and acottage-vineclad and tree~embowered. One represents money, and the other taste. And trees and grass are the two things even the poorest farmer can have for a little trouble, and both will grow as thriftly for him as for his millionaire neighbor. Far- mers are too neglectful of such things, they are always waiting to do the thing en prince; when they build the new house they will set out the trees and beautify the place. It seldom seems to occur to them that they can plant the proposed site with trees, which will be “ aye growin’.” That was a wise and thoughtful man who, several years before he was able to, build a house to suit him, selected the most sightly spot on the farm for its lo- cation, graded it, decided how far from the road the house should stand, and es timated the size, then set his maples and evergreens. When he was ready to build, his house rose among well-established trees. and he had only to clear away the debris of building, and seed his lawn to “get to living right away,” as he said. Last summer I was visiting friends in an nterior city, and was taken for a ride in to the country one lovely August morning. We drove about eight miles, through a good farming district, where large barns, trim fences and good roads indicated ag- I‘iCllltlll‘ll prosperity, yet in that eight miles we passed just three farm houses which had flowers and. shrubs and tidy grass plot in front. There is no horticul— tural society in that county, but there is need of one, for the influence of such so- cieties is not alone in the interest of fruit- growing, but extends to the beautifying of home. It is only by educating farmers to appreciate the beautiful we can hope to incite them to action. So long as a man will only work for what will bring him amoney return, so long the pigs will root under the front windows and the gate swing on one hinge. Yet there is always this argument to appeal to the money-making instinct: a trim, tidy, at- tractive house and grounds give a higher market value to a farm than the same house, minus the beauty of grass and trees, Beauty has amarket value. But always there will be the men to whom flowers are but weeds, and who, if they get three square meals per diem, do not care where they are eaten. There is something pa- thetic, to me, in a little bed of common flowers striving to grow in a neglected yard, in the earth-filled box sowed with portulacca, or the flaunting marigolds and poppies one sees as spots of color in a desert of weeds and tangled grass. I am sorry for the woman in that home, for I am sure there is in her heart a love of beauty and color, struggling to find ex- pression, starved almost into extinction, yet kept alive by these humblest of Flora’s children. I am sure that if she had her way, that “ wilderness wsuld blossom as the rose.” I do not like to see the dooryard fenced in just the width of the house, as if it were a sort of apron worn by the dwell- ing, but. I believe farmers are often deter- red from improvements because of the too liberal allowance made for a yard. If the space is planted to trees and shrubs only a lawn mower can be used on it, and to a man accustomed to “cut a wide swath ” it looks like fooling away time and perspiration to shove a hand mower. The grass may get cut a couple of times in a season with a scythe, or he may turn in the calves or the sheep to eat it off, but this is fatal to flowers and shrubs, for a sheep will gnaw the bark off an orna' mental tree, or browse on a choice shrub, when it would not deign to touch the tenderest grass dew ever sparkled upon; it is the “total depravity of the critter.” City lawns are well tended because they are generally small; if farmers would be less ambitious as to area. and more gen- erous with care and labor, we should see more beautiful yards in the country. At the winter meeting of the State Horticultural Society, held at Ann Arbor the first of the month, I was much inter- ested in the talk about flowering surubs for the lawn. Messrs. Saunders and Beadle, of Ontario, gave some brief hints as to varieties. As one of the most beau- tiful shrubs for lawn planting, Mr. Saunders mentioned Fang/(Mam fine yel- low flowering shrub; also sz’rea pruni- folz’a,S. Thunbergia, S. Reedsii, Daphne cneorum, whose lovely blossoms have a spicy odor like that of the carnation. and the Weigela, of which he said the 01d rosea was as satisfactory as any. Mr. Beadle mentioned the Japan Quince as making a very pretty low hedge where it was desirable to divide one par: of the garden from another. The Mania is a fine shrub but rather a tender one; of D. gracilta he said aplant muid be taken up late in the fall, stored in the cellar till about the holidays, tht :1 brought to light and heat, when it would blossom abund- antly. He also spoke of Prunes m’toba, pink and pretty, resembling the double flowering almond. Mr. W. (L. Barry, of Rochester, N. Y., also talked on this sub ject, but as time and the cars wait for no woman, I was obliged to leave before he had fairly embarked upon his subject. I did. however, hear him enrich: all that had been said 117 favor of the f'trsgthz‘a. And I am sure that in the discussion which followed somebody must have said a good word for Hydrangea paniculata grandifiora, a hardy and showy shrub. whose bloom, though coming later in the seasonthan others named above, is very persistent. Like the snowball, its blos- some are at first a pale green. whi :h grad- ually changes to clear white. and then in- to a deep dullpinkish red. Some of these shrubs are very beau‘iful in their autumn garb; Spirea pr'unz‘f‘oliu becomes a deep crimson; Sperm Thv‘znzbergz‘a has very graceful, fern—like foliage which turns a delicate rose pink. The fruit of the Japan Quince renews its beauty later, while the smoke tree, Rhus comma, is very showy because of its misty purplish gray, feath. ery fruit stalks. And about planting flow often we see everything planted in straight lines, arid every tree and shrub nodding at its counterpart on the other side of the walk; .. hm "was..." «MMv~.r.mv‘..m:~u (4. a4»: - a,~.~_fi:m.4~z,n§utnmafiwf 2 THE HOUSEHOLD. and it is quite as common to see alawn cu“ up by single shrubs dotted closely over its surface. This is all wrong. Asweep of level greensward has a dignity and beauty peculiar to itself. Leave a clear space in front and mass the shrubbery at the sides if the lawn is- small: this increases the ap- parent size. When shrubs are planted singly and couspicubusly the temptation is very great not to break the sod more than is “absolutely necessary,” that is, more than a circle a foot in diameter, to which the roots of the plant are by a pleasing fiction supposed to be kind enough to confine themselves. Actually. the strong growing grass roots seek out and appropriate the nutriment of the soil, and we wonder why our half-starved shrub does not thrive and blossom as we desire. Alittle mound of “chip dirt,” or stable litter heaped about the stem of a plant is very like bandaging a crutch to cure a sprain. If the lawn is large and the house stands far back, of course a different method of planting should be employed. I would not plant anything in straight lines, unless intended It! a hedge. The Campus at the Ann Arbor l'niversity is handsome, but the view from the front and city side is far less im- posing than it would be were the trees less regularly planted. The Campus at the Agricultural College is exceptionally fine by reason of its magnificent forest trees which have been most fortunately preserved. There is no excuse for the farmer who neglects the beautifying of his home. The days he goes to town on small occasion, as Honor G‘rlint suggests, if applied to the work of (mbellishing his grounds, would be amply suflieient, and the result ought to yield him a purer enjoyment than whittlii g soft pine and spinning yarns at that “school for scandal,” the village grocery. BEATRIX. MOO— MAN’S MISSION IN THE HOME. “Women should live at home, mind the children. and make it comfortable and pleasant for their husbands.” This has been decided as being woman’s sphere and woman’s mission. N ow I beg leave to ask has any one found out what man’s sphere and man’s mission is? Does he owe no duty to home and family; has he nothing to do in the home circle to make it attractive, so that his wife and children will like to stay at home, and not be gadding about? Let us give im- agination free scope and improvise acase. The evenings are long now, we have to light up at half past four, the men have lots of chores to do, and so supper must necessarily be at six or half past. After that meal is over the women folks must wash the dishes, if there is a baby that must be undressed and rocked to sleep, the work is hurried as much as possible, .30 as to get set down and visit with hus- band, who has possibly been working in the woods, or hauling wood. After bolt- ing down his supper, three mouthfuls at once. too hungry to take avery active part in the conversation, as soon as he has filled up he pushes back from the table, and it is an exceptional case if he does not indulge in a smoke; he then lies back in the big rocker and snoozes, grunts out an answer once in awhile, and finally starts for bed, where dozing merges into such sound slumber that the merry laugh and gay sallies of the rest of the family fail to rouse him. What good does it do for a wife to crimp her hair, wear pretty dresses and post up on politics, wheat market, the “corner” on corn in Chicago, or lard in New York, debates in Congress, or “Chinese Gordon?” If I had such a husband I know I should resort to fancy work; everything in the house should be trimmed with table scarfs and tidies in the composition of which I had soothed my lacerated feelings. Such a man never fixes up. .He slouches around in torn and dirty overalls, un- shaven face and uncombed hair, thinking no doubt that “Love throws such a halo around the dear one’s name ” that these shortcomings are completely lost in the halo. Now do not labor under such a delusion, for we expect more of our hus- band than we did of our lover. While we love, we can yet see our husband’s failings. Now this man’s premises look very ~much as he does, the fences are down, cattle and sheep pasture in the front yard and garden, and finally wander out in the road, barn doors are off the hinges, no pump in his cistern or swill barrel at the back door. My word for it he does not take the MICHIGAN FARJIER, forin all the families where it is taken the husband is neat and tidy in his per- sonal appearance, has a well stocked farm and good barn and fences, stays at home evenings and helps entertain the family, is as lover-like to his wife, as in the days when he went courting, for he knows that “Tis love that makes the world go round.” The wife alone cannot succeed without the aid and assrstance of her husband. The heart must love; it was made to love. “ The heart, like the tendril accustomed to cling, Let it grow where it will, cannot flourish But willllgzrtlgto the nearest and loveliest thing, It can twins with itself, and make closely its own. Men must of necessity go out in the world more than women; their business brings them in contact with all classes of society, and after the worry of the day is over, we would naturally suppose that they would turn toward home gladly. How much is expressed in that word home. John Howard Payne has im- mortalized it. Home is where the heart is; where the heart is there is the treasure; in the home nest is man’s treasure, and there methinks is man’s mission as well as woman’s. When the labor of the day is over, and the night comes on, how pleasant to light the lamp, replenish the fire and draw the curtains, a world of cares shut out, a world of love shut in.the father and mother and children all happy in each other. Society has its charms, but I would not break the home circle to enjoy it. One writer tells us that we have three duties that we owe, one to ourselves, one to the public, and one to our God. I think we could with propriety add, one to our family. There is not a child but looks to his father for an example. See the little boy who has gotten his first pants and pockets, see the little hands thrust into the pockets, and how he tries to walk just like papa, puts on the same swing and motion. Fathers, be on your guard, there are sharp eyes watching you, sharp ears listening. “ Thou must be true thyself If thou the world would teach.” If you use profane language before them do not be shocked if you hear the same some day—it would never do to punish him. for “papa said so.” The youth of to-day are the children of yesterday; let your example shine bright before them, and do not Shirk your duty in the home circle, remembering always that your manners and conversation will go out into the world with your children, for good or for evil. EVANGELINE. BATTLE CREEK, [The poetry which Evangeline sends us with the above, and which is apropos to the concluding paragraph, was pub- lished in the FARMER several months ago. --ED.] ———.0.-——-—- TIME VS. INCLINA’I‘ION. I have been wanting for a long time to say something in reply to Brunefille, who says “Marriage subordinates to itself woman’s every talent, thought and pro— ject,” and doubts “whether marriage offers any prospect of development ck cent in the qualities of wife and mother." These are broad assertions.‘;j;There are wives and mothers whose hands are busy all day with household'cares, with “Leads in the kitchen and hearts in the nursery " —and so, also, are there wives and mothers with the same number of cares and duties, who have time to keep posted in the literature of the day, and to beautify home with flowers and fancy work. I think no woman with a mind will allow herself to become a mere household drudge. I have never met the woman yet, whose mind was wholly absorbed in household duties, who really when the facts are known would care to be other- wise situated. I do not mean they were not intelligent and, in their way smart; but a woman with a decided taste for reading, or a talent for art . in any form, will find the time to improve it, more or less. Only a few days ago a. farmer’s wife said to me, “Idon't have any time for fancy work, or to cultivate flowers, or to keep my own dress in the present style. I can’t get time to make over my dresses and modernize them. This silk is just as I made it five years ago. We only take two papers, I can find no time to read them.” We had both been dressmakers before marriage, and always made our own dresses. Our cases are very similar, each has a family of four, each does her own work, sewing included. In our family we have five weekly papers, and in winter get abook every week from a circulating library, which I manage to read, also cultivate a few house plants in winter. and some garden flowers in summer, and 5 to .ttle and into walk ring ard, tarp fore the D to >11”). 1515’; fore the that go ren, ends 9120.9 mb- tgo. vife for r to yle. sses just le 'ead rers our lar, her aily iter in g ilso ter. and ‘THE' HOUSEHOLD. 3 do quite a little fancy work. She could .find time for nothing of the sort, and‘ looked dowdyish, almost slovenly, al- together out of style; and could talk of absolutely nothing but housekeeping af- fairs. , Where is the difference? Has marriage so completely changed her? No. I hap; pen to know that before she was married she did no more reading nor fancy work than she does now. She thinks she would like to, and seeing my home decorations, and hearing me talk of what I had read, really made her wish she could if she had the time. It is not the want of time, but want of real inclina- tion. If she had the taste, she’d make the time, and the will would make the way. It is not that she is awife and mother. The girl who loves reading or music, or fancy work, or flowers, will love it just as much when a married woman, and will find or make the time to improve and enjoy them. M. E. M. H. LA'PEER. CHRISTMAS IN THE CITY. All the day before Christmas the snow softly sifted down, making excellent traveling for Santa Claus and his reindeer team over the housetops. All day crowds of people, busy, important, smiling, bundle-laden, hurried through the streets and thronged the stores, dodging each other, running over the inevitable small boy, and being in turn run over by the delivery wagons driven with impetuous haste by lads distributing Christmas din- ners, while the merry jingle of myriad sleighbells filled the air. All day myste— rious packages were hurried to the post and express oflices, or flew by special messenger across the town. In the mar— kets the Christmas turkey, cords of him, implored with outstretched claws “ come buy me,” and Dives selected the fattest and plumpest and had it “ sent up ” with oysters and cranberries, while Lazarus chose the skinniest of the store and car- ried home his own dinner. Christmas trees that were to be, swept through the streets as if Birnam wood were on its way to Dunsinane; now a stately, sym- metrical evergreen, fit to stand in lofty parlors, now a tiny one to grace an humble home, and be laden more heavily with loving wishes than with gifts. Real English holly, with its brilliant berries and glossy leaves, and yards upon yards of ground pine were to be bought “for a consideration,” and prices reminded us that “ Christmas comes but once a year.” From the florists came baskets of rare flowers, costly indeed at this season; creamy callas and great white-throated lilies for church altars; white hyacinths, violets, clove-scented carnations, pale pink roses and trails of smilax, till one wondered if indeed the time could be December, in presence of all this tropical luxuriance of beauty and fragrance. Child faces were bright with delight at the gorgeous shop Windows. Scantily clad little ones gazed with wide eyes at the great tree in the Bazar window, laden with glittering baubles, a beauti ful vision of joys beyond their reach. In another shop-window Santa Claus him- self, venerable as to flowing heard, but with avery youthful bloom as to com- plexion, as if 1118 warm heart had kept him young in spite of Time’s wantonness with his whiskers, had opened his pack, and stood bowing politely, if stitfiy, to the crowd outside. “What does he say when he bows his head?” was asked a little lassie whose blue eyes gravely re- garded him. “ Says he’ll call round and see us Christmas morning.” The child- faith in the story of Santa Claus, his wonderful sleigh that can carry toys for all the children in all the world, and his reindeer steeds that spring to the house- tops and never tire. is beautiful and dear. And as the day waned into Christmas Eve, and the electric towers shone out all over the city, the crowds increased till it was a wonder how merchants could serve their customers. “ In happy homes we saw the light Of household fires gleam warm and bright,” and through misty lace the passer-by caught glimpses of trees all alight with tiny candles, of flower‘trimmed parlors, and ladies in bright dresses and children wild with delight, singing Christmas carols. How many hungry, shivering, friendless ones saw such glimpses of plenty, and turned away to a fireless hearth and an empty cupboard, God knoweth; how many others looked on- viously in, coveting not what wealth gave, but home happiness and love, and all love’s tenderness, and went away heavy-hearted even on Christmas Eve, only He knoweth. BEATRIX. ___.__.”___._. ABOUT BOYS . My boys begin to ask if I am going to have Christmas. They say they want to come home and have a good time. They always expect to come either Christmas or New Year’s. One girl and four boys come with happy hearts to help me eat my Christmas dinner. What shall I get, and how shalllI cook it, is my query. What can I get that will taste as good as grand- ma’s? for they think what she makes is all right; she' is now eighty-two, and makes lovely bread. How I love to have my children come to me! There is nothing in the house too good for them. It makes me feel young again to hear their merry voices, and to see the chlld-like feeling existing between them. I love boys; I wish I had four more. Some say they are glad they have no boys, they are so rough and noisy. Why, bless you, they are no more noisy than girls, if you educate them right. Teach them when they come into the house to clean their feet,and step on to the carpet quietly. and to put their things into the place for them, so there will be order in the house. Let each one have his chores to do from childhood up; never allow them to contend or quarrel in your pres ence, and they will grow up to love one another, and help each other willingly and cheerfully. If they play a little too hard in the house, tell them pleasantly to stop, or go out and run around the house. Fur- nish them books and papers and play- things, apples and nuts, and anything that will tend to'develop their minds and strengthen their bodies, and that will make them feel that home is the best place in the world. And when night comes, gather them around the family altar, and as they kneel, as): God to bless them and to help you lead then: in the right way, that they may grow at: eonest and truthful in all things. It dim-3 me good to visit where there is a family of lively children. It seems as thmgh their parents had something to live and work for. I think those who have no boyc nor irls to share their home and make things ively ought to adopt some. I have little to say about girl 3, as E i ave ralsed but one, and she was our first welcome visitor. She wa< a g'r‘t: it . '2 keeping the boys quiet, a 3". WM, ant. .- ways will be, a pet among them: Whth she said and did was lavv to t.‘-. em. LLF‘d they loved to please her. i have given her up to make another home happy, httpl‘g’gj she will ever prove faithful to her husband and Christ. Our children have all gmtc to lib. tr and make homes for themselves except a bay twelve years old. We are trying :1 to spoil him by too much humming, and hope he will be a joy and comfort tef us in future days. He says he 11158115? be farmer. thts. l‘. Honrox. .____...__...._. , QUESTIONS ALS‘WERED. I will enter the circle a few I .inutes this evening to reply to some of the gue