garden, because the dullest book takes on a certain saving
grace if read out of doors, just as bread and butter, devoid of charm in
the drawing-room, is ambrosia eaten under a tree. I read Luther all the
afternoon with pauses for refreshing glances at the garden and the sky,
and much thankfulness in my heart. His struggles with devils amazed
me; and I wondered whether such a day as that, full of grace and the
forgiveness of sins, never struck him as something to make him relent
even towards devils. He apparently never allowed himself just to be
happy. He was a wonderful man, but I am glad I was not his wife.

Our parson is an interesting person, and untiring in his efforts to
improve himself. Both he and his wife study whenever they have a spare
moment, and there is a tradition that she stirs her puddings with one
hand and holds a Latin grammar in the other, the grammar, of course,
getting the greater share of her attention. To most German Hausfraus
the dinners and the puddings are of paramount importance, and they pride
themselves on keeping those parts of their houses that are seen in a
state of perpetual and spotless perfection, and this is exceedingly
praiseworthy; but, I would humbly inquire, are there not other things
even more important? And is not plain living and high thinking better
than the other way about? And all too careful making of dinners and
dusting of furniture takes a terrible amount of precious time, and--and
with shame I confess that my sympathies are all with the pudding and the
grammar. It cannot be right to be the slave of one's household gods, and
I protest that if my furniture ever annoyed me by wanting to be dusted
when I wanted to be doing something else, and there was no one to do the
dusting for me, I would cast it all into the nearest bonfire and sit and
warm my toes at the flames with great contentment, triumphantly selling
my dusters to the very next pedlar who was weak enough to buy them.
Parsons' wives have to do the housework and cooking themselves, and are
thus not only cooks and housemaids, but if they have children--and they
always do have children--they are head and under nurse as well; and
besides these trifling duties have a good deal to do with their fruit
and vegetable garden, and everything to do with their poultry. This
being so, is it not pathetic to find a young woman bravely struggling
to learn languages and keep up with her husband? If I were that husband,
those pudding