had added to it,
which was all substantial, and made for use. The younger children--and
of these, younger and older, he had several--we found happy, healthy,
cheerful, and frolicking on the carpets; and their worthy mother, in the
plainest, yet altogether appropriate garb, was sitting among them, at
her family sewing, and kindly welcomed us as we took our seats in front
of the open, glowing fireplace. "Why, sir," we exclaimed, rubbing our
hands in the comfortable glow of warmth which the fire had given--for it
was a cold December day--"you are quite plain, as well as wonderfully
comfortable, in your country house--quite different from your former
city residence!" "To be sure we are," was the reply; "we stood it as
long as we could, amid the starch and the gimcracks of ---- street,
where we rarely had a day to ourselves, and the children could never
_go_ into the streets but they must be tagged and tasselled, in their
dress, into all sorts of discomfort, merely for the sake of appearance.
So, after standing it as long as we could, my wife and I determined we
would try the country, for a while, and see what we could make of it.
We kept our town-house, into which we returned for a winter or two; but
gave it up for a permanent residence here, with which we are perfectly
content. We see here all the friends we want to see; we all enjoy
ourselves, and the children are healthy and happy." And this is but a
specimen of thousands of families in the enjoyment of country life,
including the families of men in the highest station, and possessed of
sufficient wealth.

Why, then, should the farmer ape the fashion, and the frivolity of the
butterflies of town life, or permit his family to do it? It is the
sheerest possible folly in him to do so. Yet, it is a folly into which
many are imperceptibly gliding, and which, if not reformed, will
ultimately lead to great discomfort to themselves, and ruin to their
families. Let thoughtless people do as they choose. Pay no attention to
their extravagance; but watch them for a dozen years, and see how they
come out in their fashionable career; and observe the fate of their
families, as they get "established" in the like kind of life. He who
keeps aloof from such temptation, will then have no cause to regret that
he has maintained his own steady course of living, and taught his sons
and daughters that a due attention to their own comfort, with economical
habits in everything relating to houseke