. Now, if a woman cannot broil a beefsteak, nor
boil the coffee when it is necessary, if she cannot mend the linen,
nor patch a coat, if she cannot make a bed, order the dinner, create a
lamp-shade, ventilate the house, nor do anything practical in the way
of making home actually a home, how can she expect to make even a good
wife, not to speak of a better or best wife? I need not continue this
sermon. Wise girls will understand.

9. THE BEST KEEPER OF HOME.--As to who is the best keeper of this
transition home, memory pictures to me a woman grown white under the
old slavery, still bound by it, in that little-out-of-the-way Kansas
town, but never so bound that she could not put aside household tasks,
at any time, for social intercourse, for religious conversation, for
correspondence, for reading, and, above all, for making everyone who
came near her feel that her home was the expression of herself, a
place for rest, study, and the cultivation of affection. She did not
exist for her walls, her carpets, her furniture; they existed for her
and all who came to her She considered herself the equal of all; and
everyone else thought her the superior of all.

* * * * *

ADAPTATION, CONJUGAL AFFECTION, AND FATAL ERRORS.

ADVICE TO THE MARRIED AND UNMARRIED.

1. MARRYING FOR WEALTH.--Those who marry for wealth often get what
they marry and nothing else; for rich girls besides being generally
destitute of both industry and economy, are generally extravagant
in their expenditures, and require servants enough to dissipate a
fortune. They generally have insatiable wants, yet feel that they
deserve to be indulged in everything, because they placed their
husbands under obligation to them by bringing them a dowry. And then
the mere idea of living on the money of a wife, and of being supported
by her, is enough to tantalize any man of an independent spirit.

2. SELF-SUPPORT.--What spirited husband would not prefer to support
both himself and wife, rather than submit to this perpetual bondage
of obligation. To live upon a father, or take a patrimony from him, is
quite bad enough; but to run in debt to a wife, and owe her a living,
is a little too aggravating for endurance, especially if there be not
perfect cordiality between the two, which cannot be the case in money
matches. Better live wifeless, or anything else, rather than marry for
money.

3. MONEY-SEEKERS.--Shame on sordid wife-seekers, or