Try to make your house a happy home for yourselves and for your
children. So far as you can, keep the children clean and neat.
Especially take care that they don’t learn bad ways, by getting into
the company of bad children.
Make things as pleasant as you can in and around your house. What a
difference there is! Some cottages or cabins look very pretty, and some
look very bad. It is easy to tell what sort of people live in a house,
by the very looks of it. Dirty within and dirty without tells a bad
story of the inmates. On the other hand, when we pass a log-cabin where
things look tidy, we are apt to say to ourselves, “Some nice people
live there.”
Now, when a stranger approaches your house, let him notice a pretty
garden-spot, with flowers and vegetables, all well kept. When he
enters, let his eye be cheered by seeing how nice every thing looks,
how well swept the floor is, how the tin things shine. Let him notice a
few books, with marks of study or reading upon them. Especially let him
see the Bible or Testament in daily use. As he glances around, it would
be pleasant if he could see a little picture here and there hanging on
the wall, or a flower-pot with a pretty pink or rose blooming in it,
showing that you have a liking for such things. He would say, “Well,
this looks like freedom. I think you must be quite a happy family.”
Will any one say that such a picture of home comforts may not be seen
among the families of the freedmen? I trust that many who read this
little book, or hear it read, will say to themselves, “Well, I mean to
try and see if I can’t have such a home.” Try, then, and we believe
you will succeed. It will be a very pretty picture to show some who
maintain that it is useless to attempt to elevate or to improve the
condition of the colored race.
These counsels are from your friends. We rejoice in your freedom, and
we long to see you improve it to the utmost, thus showing to the world
the superiority of a state of freedom under the _worst_ aspects over
that of slavery under the _best_.