A MOTHER'S WORK.
"THINGS are ever so much better than they used to be. Why, it feels
like a different house," Janet Humphrey said to Mrs. Simmons, on the
afternoon of the same Saturday when old Isaac Meads found his treasure
to have vanished. The Humphreys had just been enjoying a good hot
dinner, with "father" of course to share it, and Mrs. Simmons had
dropped in afterwards, to find Janet, tidy and smiling, with the baby
in her arms.
[Illustration: Mrs. Simmons had dropped in afterwards, to find Janet,
tidy and smiling, with the baby in her arms.]
"I'm sure I'm glad to hear it," said Betsy Simmons; "and I hope it'll
go on."
"I hope so too," said Janet. "I shouldn't like to go back and live
all in a mess again. You haven't been near me for a great while, Mrs.
Simmons."
"Well, no; it does seem a good bit," said Mrs. Simmons. "But I haven't
had time to spare. Fact is, whenever I can I just go across, and sit
with Miss Daisy for an hour, and let Mrs. Davis get out for a little
fresh air. She ain't a strong woman, and the nursing's been a long pull
upon her. And I'm sure nobody knows how much longer it mayn't go on.
How's your husband to-day, Mrs. Humphrey?"
"He's quite well," Janet said; "and he's doing a lot of carpentering.
It's wonderful how Jem has took to carpentering lately. He always was
a good hand at it, but he used to say it wasn't worth while, and I
couldn't get him to do anything. And now he's talking of making all
sorts of things. Just look here, he's put up these shelves for me in
the corner, so as I might have more room on the dresser. And he's just
now making a book-case, and we mean to get it full of books too, in
time. I don't see why we shouldn't. And Tommy broke the leg of a chair
lately, and Jem got up early next morning and mended it. Why, if I'd
asked him a while back—"
"It isn't so very astonishing," said Mrs. Simmons. "Stands to reason, a
man don't care to waste his time in ornamenting a pig-stye."
"Oh, Mrs. Simmons, it wasn't a pig-stye," said Janet, rather hurt.
"Well no, my dear, it wasn't," said Mrs. Simmons. "Folks don't spend
their whole lives in scouring and scrubbing of a pig-stye, and that's
what you did, pretty nearly. But for all your scouring and scrubbing,
you didn't get the place clean, Mrs. Humphrey."
"No, I didn't," assented Janet meekly. "I suppose it was because I
hadn't regular times for regular work, and somehow I never seemed to
finish anything off."
"Just that exactly," said Mrs. Simmons. "Well, and how are the
children? I hope Janey's getting to be a help to you."
"Oh, she's only a child yet," said Janet.
"She isn't too much of a child to be trained into womanly ways," said
Mrs. Simmons. "Now, Mrs. Humphrey, don't you give in to being one of
them selfish mothers, as are always slaving for a lot of idle children,
and never making the children do a hand's turn for themselves."
"Selfish!" Janet repeated in astonishment.
"Selfish—yes. Of course it's selfish," said Mrs. Simmons; "and lazy
into the bargain. Of course it's a deal less trouble to do a thing
yourself, than to teach Janey how to do it, more particularly if Janey
gets a troublesome fit and won't try. But it isn't a question of just
now only; it's a question of by-and-by as well. You've got to prepare
Janey for being a woman; and one of the first lessons you ought to
teach her is how to work. Half the wives and mothers of the present day
are pretty nearly useless, because they've never learnt how to work."
"I shouldn't wonder," said Janet.
"Shouldn't wonder! Why, can't you see it for yourself? Children are
left to grow up anyhow, and to scramble into any sorts of ways and
habits, and then people expect 'em somehow suddenly to change into
sensible hard-working useful women, with no trouble ever taken to make
them so. O yes, they go to school, of course. But school can't do what
I mean. School don't teach them to be useful and thoughtful and tidy
in their own homes. School don't teach them scrubbing and washing, and
dusting and cooking. Only a mother can teach them all that, or somebody
in a mother's place. And mind you, it won't come by nature. Bees gather
honey by nature, but girls don't scour and darn by nature."
"Well, I'm sure I never thought about teaching Janey such things," said
Janet. "I thought it would all come by-and-by. And she hasn't got much
time yet, what with schooling and all. She don't mind nursing the baby
for me, when she's in."
"I should hope she didn't," said Mrs. Simmons. "Mind helping her
mother! A pretty pass things are coming to! You're a deal too fond of
thinking what your children 'mind,' Mrs. Humphrey. What is good for
them is more to the point. Teach them to do their duty in God's sight,
never stopping to think about their own fancies, and let them see you
doing the same, and there's some hope they'll keep straight."
"I'm not what you may call a religious talker," said Janet.
"So much the better," answered Mrs. Simmons. "What folks call a
'religious talker' is very often a sham sort of specimen. It's more
important to ask if you're a religious doer, Mrs. Humphrey."
"I've been trying to do better lately," said Janet.
"Yes, I know you have. It's good, so far," said Mrs. Simmons. "And yet
that isn't all. Cleanliness and order of themselves aren't religion,
though they ought and must go alongside of religion. If you're truly
serving God from your heart, and if you sweep your room and cook your
dinner the very best you possibly can, just because you want to please
God, doing it with thoughts in your heart of trying to honour Him,
why then your sweeping and cooking are a part of your religion, sure
enough. But not else."
"I don't know as I've given much thought that way," said Janet
shamefacedly.
"I'd begin," said Mrs. Simmons gravely. "I wouldn't put off, Mrs.
Humphrey. And mind, you've got to train those children of yours for
Heaven. That's the work that lies ready to your hand. It isn't only a
question of training them to be useful men and women by-and-by. It's a
question of training them for Heaven."
"There don't seem much time," began Janet.
"There's time enough for eating and sleeping, and dressing and seeing
friends," said Mrs. Simmons. "Time enough, I suppose, for everything
except that. And yet that's the one thing above all that calls most for
attention."
"They go to Sunday-school," said Janet.
"That's something, but it isn't enough," said Mrs. Simmons. "It is
mother's teaching they want, Mrs. Humphrey. It's the teaching that will
help their little feet day after day to follow in the steps of the Lord
Jesus—teaching that'll make them want to serve Him, and fight against
naughty ways. That's what they want. You don't think an hour or two
once a week can do everything. No, no—it's home teaching as well as
Sunday-school that's needed. God has given them into your hands, for
training."
Janet said, "But,—" and paused.
"Yes, there's a 'but,'" said Mrs. Simmons, lowering her full hearty
tones, and looking gravely at Janet. "There's a 'but,' Mrs. Humphrey.
I don't quite see, for my part, how you're to manage to bring your
children to the Feet of the Lord Jesus, if you haven't ever come to Him
yourself, and asked Him for healing. There were mothers that brought
their little ones to Him to be blessed, and He sent none of them away.
But I've marked often, in my mind, how those mothers brought the
children themselves. They didn't just send them by somebody else."