with the food swallowed that they have no strength left for the battle
of life; and though your wife may know how to play on all musical
instruments, and rival a prima donna, she is not well educated unless
she can boil an Irish potato and broil a mutton-chop, since the diet
sometimes decides the fate of families and nations.
Have a sitting-room with at least one easy chair, even though you have
to take turns at sitting in it, and books out of the public library or
of your own purchase for the making of your family intelligent, and
checkerboards and guessing matches, with an occasional blind man's
buff, which is of all games my favorite. Rouse up your home with all
styles of innocent mirth, and gather up in your children's nature a
reservoir of exuberance that will pour down refreshing streams when
life gets parched, and the dark days come, and the lights go out, and
the laughter is smothered into a sob.