one receives from going into that family circle!
No home-life can be an inspiration and a blessing where selfishness is
allowed to reign. Nor can it be useful and happy.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox describes a selfish, though a kind and loving
husband:

THEIR HOLIDAY.

THE WIFE:

Our house is like a garden--
The children are the flowers,
The gardener should come, methinks,
And walk among his bowers.
So lock the door of worry,
And shut your cares away,
Not time of year, but love and cheer,
Will make a holiday.

THE HUSBAND:

Impossible! You women do not know,
The toil it takes to make a business grow:
I can not join you until very late,
So hurry home, nor let the dinner wait.

THE WIFE:

The feast will be like Hamlet,
Without the Hamlet part;
The home is but a house, dear,
Till you supply the heart.
The Christmas gift I long for
You need not toil to buy;
O, give me back one thing I lack:
The love-light in your eye.

THE HUSBAND:

Of course I love you, and the children, too.
Be sensible, my dear. It is for you
I work so had to make my business pay;
There, now, run home, enjoy your holiday.

THE WIFE, TURNING AWAY:

He does not mean to wound me,
I know his heart is kind,
Alas, that men can love us,
And be so blind--so blind!
A little time for pleasure,
A little time for play,
A word to prove the life of love
And frighten care away--
Though poor my lot, in some small cot,
That were a holiday.

To preserve the family circle, the home must be made attractive.
No amount of practical wisdom, of Puritanic piety, nor mere kindly
treatment will hold a family of children together until they are strong
enough to resist the temptations of the world. The home must be made
more attractive than the street or places of amusement. The average boy
or girl who loses interest in home and uses it chiefly as an eating and
sleeping place, does so with good reasons. Home has lost its charm. No
provision is made for his pastime and pleasure. Not finding this at home
he will go elsewhere in search of it. "An unattractive home," says one,
"is like the frame of a harp that stands without strings. In form and
outline, it suggests music, but no melody arises from the empty spaces;
and thus it is an unat