CITY AND COUNTRY LIFE CONTRASTED.
The pensive reader must not take it for granted that in going into the
country we escaped all the annoyances of domestic life peculiar to the
city, or that we fell heir to no new ones, such as we had never before
experienced. He must remember that this is a world of compensations, and
that nowhere will he be likely to find either an unmixed good or an
unmixed evil. Such was exactly our experience. But on summing up the
two, the balance was decidedly in our favor. It is true that though the
town close by us had well-paved streets, yet the walk of half a mile to
reach them was a mere gravel path, which was sometimes muddy in summer,
and sloppy with unshovelled snow in winter. But I walked over it almost
daily to the post-office, not even imagining that it was worse than a
city pavement. The tramp of the children to school was not longer than
they had been used to, and my wife and daughters thought it no hardship
to go shopping among the well-supplied stores quite as frequently as
when living in the city. Indeed, I sometimes thought they went a little
oftener. They were certainly as well posted up as to the new fashions as
they had ever been, while the fresh country air, united with constant
exercise, kept them in good appetite, even to the rounding of their
cheeks, and the maintenance of a better color in them than ever.
As to society, they very soon made acquaintances quite as agreeable as
could be desired. Visiting became a very frequent thing; and after a few
months I let in a suspicion that the girls found twice as many beaux as
in the city, though there the average number is always larger than in
the country. On throwing out an insinuation of this kind to Kate, one
summer evening, after a large party of young folks had concluded their
visit, she made open confession that it was so, and volunteered her
conviction that they were decidedly more agreeable. I admit this
confession did not surprise me, as there was one young man among the
party who had become especially attentive to Kate--bringing her the new
magazines as soon as they were out, sundry books and pictorials, and
always having a deal to say to her, with a singular genius for getting
her away from the rest of the company, so that most of their mysterious
small-talk could be heard by none but themselves. Another remark which I
made to Kate on a subsequent occasion, touching this subject, covered
her bright face with so many blushes that I ventured to mention the
whole matter to my wife; but she made so light of the thing that I said
no more at the time, thinking, perhaps, that the women were most likely
the best judges in such cases. But I have since discovered that my
prognostications were much more to be depended on than hers.
Then the walks for miles around us were excellent, and we all became
great walkers, for walking we found to be good. Not merely stepping
from shop to shop, or from neighbor to neighbor, but stretching away out
into the country, to the freshest fields, the shadiest woods, the
highest ridges, and the greenest lawns. We found that however sullen the
imagination may have been among its griefs at home, here it cheered up
and smiled. However listless the limbs may have been by steady toil,
here they were braced up, and the lagging gait became buoyant again.
However stubborn the memory may be in presenting that only which was
agonizing, and insisting on that which cannot be retrieved, on walking
among the glowing fields it ceases to regard the former, and forgets the
latter. Indeed, we all came to esteem the mere breathing of the fresh
wind upon the commonest highway to be rest and comfort, which must be
felt to be believed.
But then we had neither gas nor hydrant water, those two prime luxuries
of city life. Yet there was a pump in a deep well under a shed at the
kitchen door, from which we drew water so cold as not at any time to
need that other city luxury, ice. It was gratifying to see how expertly
even the small children operated with the pump-handle. In a month we
ceased to regret the hydrants. As to gas, we had the modern lamps, which
give so clear a light not so convenient, it must be confessed, but then
they did not cost us over half as much, neither did we sit up near so
long at night. There were two mails from the city daily, and the newsboy
threw the morning paper into the front door while we sat at breakfast.
The evening paper came up from the city before we had supped. We had
two daily mails from New York, besides a telegraph station. The baker
served us twice a day with bread, when we needed it; the oysterman
became a bore, he rang the bell so often; and the fish-wagon, with
sea-fish packed in ice, directly from the shore, was within call as
often as we desired, with fish as cheap and sound as any to be purchased
in the city. Groceries and provisions from the stores cost no more than
they did there, but they were no cheaper. But in the item of rent the
saving was enormous,--really half enough, in my case, to keep a moderate
family. Many’s the time, when sweating over the weeds, have I thought of
this last heavy drain on the purse of the city toiler, and thanked
Heaven that I had ceased to work for the landlord.
We had books as abundantly as aforetime, as we retained our share in the
city library, and became subscribers to that in the adjoining town. It
is true that the road in front of us was never thronged like
Chestnut-street, but we neither sighed after the crowd nor missed its
presence. We saw no flash of jewelry, nor heard the rustling of
expensive silks, except the few which on particular occasions were
sported within our own unostentatious domicil. Our entire wardrobes were
manifestly on a scale less costly than ever. Our old city friends were
apparently a great way off, but as they could reach us in an hour either
by steamboat or rail, they quickly found us out. The relish of their
society was heightened by distance and separation. In short, while far
from being hermits, we were happy in ourselves. I think my wife became
a perfectly happy woman--what it had been the great study of my wedded
life to make her--the very sparkle and sunshine of the house. She
possessed the magic secret of being contented under any circumstances.
The current of my life had never been so dark and unpropitious, that the
sunshine of her happy face, falling across its turbid course, failed to
awake an answering gleam.
Speaking of visitors from abroad, I noticed that our city friends came
to make their visits on the very hottest summer days, when, of all
others, we were ourselves sufficiently exhausted by the heat, and were
disposed to put up with as little cooking and in-door work as possible.
But as such visitations were not exactly comfortable to the visited, so
we could not see how they could be any more agreeable to the visitors.
Yet they generally remarked, even when the mercury was up to
ninety-five, “How much cooler it is in the country!” They did really
enjoy either themselves or the heat. But my wife told them it was only
the change of scene that made the weather tolerable, and that if they
lived in the country they would soon discover it to be quite as hot as
in the city. For my part, I bore the heat admirably, though tanned by
the sun to the color of an aborigine; but I enjoyed the inexpressible
luxury of going constantly in my shirt sleeves. I can hardly find words
to describe the feeling of comfort which I enjoyed for full seven months
out of the twelve from this little piece of latitudinarianism, the
privilege of country life, but an unknown luxury in the city.
I saw that this press of company in the very hottest weather imposed an
unpleasant burden on my wife, for she and my two oldest daughters were
the sole caterers; and I intended to say something to her concerning it,
as soon as a large party, then staying several days with us, should have
concluded their visit. But on going into our chamber that very evening,
she surprised me by asking if I could tell her why, when Eve was made
from one of Adam’s ribs, there was not a hired girl made at the same
time, for to her mind it took three to make a pair--he, she, and a hired
girl. I replied that I had not given much time to the study of
navigation, but that I quite understood her meaning, and that it was
exactly what I had myself been thinking of. If Adam’s rib, after
producing Eve, had not held out to produce a hired girl also, I told her
there was a much quicker way of getting what she wanted, and that the
first morning paper she might pick up would produce her twenty hired
girls.
In this way, before the summer was over, I procured her a servant, thus
making her little establishment complete. For this luxury we paid city
wages. But this was a small item, when I saw how much her presence
relieved my wife. After that, I do not think she complained quite as
much of the hot weather, nor was she inclined so frequently to repeat
her former observation, that the sultry days always brought the most
company. Indeed, I am certain that on one or two occasions, when the
dog-days were terribly oppressive, she prevailed on different parties to
prolong their stay for nearly a week.
Now, this taking on of Betty did not imply that my daughters were to be
brought up to do nothing--or to do every thing that is fashionable
imperfectly. My wife had already educated them in domestic duties--not
merely to marry, to go off _with_ husbands in a hurry, and afterwards
_from_ them. To the two eldest she had taught a trade, and they were
both able to earn their salt. They could not only dress themselves, but
knew how to make their dresses and bonnets, and all the clothing for the
younger children. She cultivated in them all that was necessary in the
position in which they were born, one thing at a time, but that thing in
perfection; so that if parents were impoverished, or if in after-life
reverses should overtake themselves, they might feel independent in the
ability to earn their own support. She frowned upon the senseless
rivalries of social life, as destructive of morals, mind, and health,
and imbued their spirits with a devout veneration for holy things. She
taught them no worship of the almighty dollar, but sound, practical
economy, the art of saving the pieces. Surely it must be education alone
which fills the world with two kinds of girls--one kind which appears
best abroad, good for parties, rides, and visits, and whose chief
delight is in such things--good, in fact, for little else. The other is
the kind that appears best at home, graceful in the parlor, captivating
in social intercourse, useful in the sick chamber as in the dining-room,
and cheerful in all the precincts of home. They differ widely in
character. One is often the family torment; the other the family
blessing: one a moth consuming every thing about her; the other a
sunbeam, inspiring life and gladness all along her pathway. As my wife
embodied in herself all that to me appeared desirable in woman, so she
possessed the faculty of transfusing her own virtues into the
constitution of her daughters.