. Good temper may be set down as
an invariable condition of comfort. There must be peace, mutual
forbearance, mutual help, and a disposition to make the best of
everything. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is, than a stalled
ox and hatred therewith."

Comfortable people are persons of common sense, discretion, prudence,
and economy. They have a natural affinity for honesty and justice,
goodness and truth. They do not run into debt,--for that is a species of
dishonesty. They live within their means, and lay by something for a
rainy day. They provide for the things of their own household,--yet they
are not wanting in hospitality and benevolence on fitting occasions. And
what they do, is done without ostentation.

Comfortable people do everything in order. They are systematic, steady,
sober, industrious. They dress comfortably. They adapt themselves to the
season,--neither shivering in winter, nor perspiring in summer. They do
not toil after a "fashionable appearance." They expend more on warm
stockings than on gold rings; and prefer healthy, good bedding, to gaudy
window-curtains. Their chairs are solid, not gimcrack. They will bear
sitting upon, though they may not be ornamental.

The organization of the home depends for the most part upon woman. She
is necessarily the manager of every family and household. How much,
therefore, must depend upon her intelligent co-operation! Man's life
revolves round woman. She is the sun of his social system. She is the
queen of domestic life. The comfort of every home mainly depends upon
her,--upon her character, her temper, her power of organization, and her
business management. A man may be economical; but unless there be
economy at home, his frugality will be comparatively useless. "A man
cannot thrive," the proverb says, "unless his wife let him."

House-thrift is homely, but beneficent. Though unseen of the world, it
makes many people happy. It works upon individuals; and by elevating
them, it elevates society itself. It is in fact a receipt of infallible
efficacy, for conferring the greatest possible happiness upon the
greatest possible number. Without it legislation, benevolence, and
philanthropy are mere palliatives, sometimes worse than useless, because
they hold out hopes which are for the most part disappointed.

How happy does a man go forth to his labour or his business, and how
doubly happy does he return from it, when he knows that his means are
carefully husb