off the reel. Life is made up of trifles, and our greatest happiness often depends upon a word, the glance of an eye, the tone of the voice, or what is more expressive, but more indescribable still, the manner. What a boon, a pleasure, and a blessing are pleasant manners! They give grace and confer happiness, far more than pearls or precious stones. Cultivate day by day pleasantness of manner. Let us analyse it Of what, or in what does pleasantness of manner consist? That trait which gives elegance and grace to woman, comeliness, and the power of doing good.
After church "Davy Jones" (John), your Mamma, and I dined alone. The children staid down town to the Sunday School celebration. But I was speaking of the Christian graces and human virtues and those traits which you should cultivate, and which embellish and adorn the character. The one great point which, after duty to God, you are to keep constantly in view is, to identify yourself with your husband, and strive mutually each to make yourselves the companion of the other.
There is but one way to do this, and that is by teaching yourself, my dear, to take an intelligent interest in those affairs and occupations which are from time to time employing your husband's thoughts and life. The husband's affairs are, in the married life, the affairs of the State. He provides; and, to say the least, the wife who seeks to be posted up in everything that concerns him, especially in the ever}'-day affairs of life, does nothing more than render a grateful homage. Do you, my love, first set the example, and if you do not win tenfold, I have much mistaken the character of the man who has won your affections.
You must learn the servants on the plantation by name, the cattle and the fields too; you must learn of Wellford, in the morning, what he is going to do during the day, and take the same lively interest in his occupations as you would do were they your own. The Farm Book[1] will help you to do this, and if its dry details be mastered for the first year they will be dry no longer, for then you can tell him when to sow and when to reap, how the signs and seasons are. Then
- ↑ Alluding to a large blank book be had given her for the purpose.
