--frills and ruffles and ill-darned
stockings--fine bonnets and clouted shoes--silk gowns and dirty
petticoats; while the husband goes about ragged and torn, with scarcely
a clean thing about him.

Industry is of course essential. This is the soul of business; but,
without method, industry will be less productive. Industry may sometimes
look like confusion. But the methodical and industrious woman gets
through her work in a quiet, steady style,--without fuss, or noise, or
dust-clouds.

Prudence is another important household qualification. Prudence comes
from cultivated judgment: it means practical wisdom. It has reference to
fitness, to propriety; it judges of the right thing to be done, and of
the right way of doing it. It calculates the means, order, time, and
method of doing. Prudence learns much from experience, quickened by
knowledge.

Punctuality is another eminently household qualification. How many
grumblings would be avoided in domestic life, by a little more attention
being paid to this virtue. Late breakfasts and late dinners,--"too late"
for church and market,--"cleanings" out of time, and "washings"
protracted till midnight,--bills put off with a "call again
to-morrow,"--engagements and promises unfulfilled,--what a host of
little nuisances spring to mind, at thought of the unpunctual housewife!
The unpunctual woman, like the unpunctual man, becomes disliked, because
she consumes our time, interferes with our plans, causes uneasy
feelings, and virtually tells us that we are not of sufficient
importance to cause her to be more punctual. To the business man, time
is money, and to the business woman it is more,--it is peace, comfort,
and domestic prosperity.

Perseverance is another good household habit. Lay down a good plan, and
adhere to it. Do not be turned from it without a sufficient reason.
Follow it diligently and faithfully, and it will yield fruits in good
season. If the plan be a prudent one, based on practical wisdom, a ll
things will gravitate towards it, and a mutual dependence will gradually
be established among all the parts of the domestic system.

We might furnish numerous practical illustrations of the truth of these
remarks, but our space is nearly filled up, and we must leave the reader
to supply them from his or her own experience.

There are many other illustrations which might be adduced, of the art of
making life happy. The management of the temper is an art full of
beneficent