Further, I charge you, let there be no outside interference with the
conjugal relation. Neither neighbor nor confidential friend, nor
brother, nor sister, nor father, nor mother, have a right to come in
here. The married gossip will come around, and by the hour tell you
how she manages her husband. You tell her plainly that if she will
attend to the affairs of her household you will attend to yours. What
damage some people do with their tongues! Nature indicates that the
tongue is a dangerous thing, by the fact that it is shut in, first by
a barricade of teeth, and then by the door of the lips. One insidious
talker can keep a whole neighborhood badly stirred up. The Apostle
Peter excoriated these busybodies in other people's matters, and St.
Paul, in his letter to the Thessalonians and to Timothy, gives them a
sharp dig, and the good housewife will be on the lookout for them, and
never return their calls, and treat them with coldest frigidity. For
this reason, better keep house as soon as possible. Some people are
opposed to them, but I thank God for what are called flats in these
cities. They put a separate home within the means of nearly all the
population. In your married relations you do not need any advice. If
you and your husband have not skill enough to get along well alone,
with all the advice you can import you will get along worse. What you
want for your craft on this voyage is plenty of sea-room.