e who has this poetry in her soul; who with energy and discretion
can throw back and out of sight the sordid and disagreeable details
which beset all human living, and can keep in the foreground that
which is agreeable; who has enough knowledge of practical household
matters to make unskilled and rude hands minister to her cultivated
and refined tastes, and constitute her skilled brain the guide of
unskilled hands. From such a home, with such a mistress, no sirens
will seduce a man, even though the hair grow gray, and the merely
physical charms of early days gradually pass away. The enchantment
that was about her person alone in the days of courtship seems in the
course of years to have interfused and penetrated the home which she
has created, and which in every detail is only an expression of her
personality. Her thoughts, her plans, her provident care, are
everywhere; and the home attracts and holds by a thousand ties the
heart which before marriage was held by the woman alone."

V

THE TRANSITION

"The fact is, my dear," said my wife, "that you have thrown a stone
into a congregation of blackbirds, in writing as you have of our
family wars and wants. The response comes from all parts of the
country, and the task of looking over and answering your letters
becomes increasingly formidable. Everybody has something to
say,--something to propose."

"Give me a resume," said I.

"Well," said my wife, "here are three pages from an elderly gentleman,
to the effect that women are not what they used to be,--that daughters
are a great care and no help, that girls have no health and no energy
in practical life, that the expense of maintaining a household is so
great that young men are afraid to marry, and that it costs more now
per annum to dress one young woman than it used to cost to carry a
whole family of sons through college. In short, the poor old gentleman
is in a desperate state of mind, and is firmly of opinion that society
is going to ruin by an express train."

"Poor old fellow!" said I, "the only comfort I can offer him is what I
take myself,--that this sad world will last out our time at least. Now
for the next."

"The next is more concise and spicy," said my wife. "I will read it.

"CHRISTOPHER CROWFIELD, ESQ.:

"_Sir_,--If you want to know how American women are to be brought
back to family work, I can tell you a short method. Pay them as
good wages for it as they can make in any other wa