Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1861-08-07


81 dressed myself and went out.''
ssAnd what time did you go out ?''
:'A little after twelve O'clock
.fAn hour was spent in dressing ~
eyes, sir.''
ssWhere did you go ?''
ssI called for Ellen Boyd, and we took a walk
down Broadway"
''And came home just in time for dinner
think met you at the door ~
eyes, sir.'
ssHOw was it after dinner ?''
''1 slept from three until five, and then took
bath and dressed myself. From six until tea
time, sat at the parlor window"
ssAnd after tea ?''
eRead Cavalier until | went to bed.''
ssAt what hour2'
ssEleven O'Clock"
s'Now we can make up the account" said
Mr.. Thornton.
ssYou arose a. seven and retired at eleven.
Sixteen hours. And from your account of the
day, but single hour was spent in any thing
useful-that was the hour at your piano. Now,
your mother was up at half past five, and went
to bed from sheer inability to sit at her work
any longer, at half-past nine. Sixteen hours
for her, also. How much reading die you do
in that time ?''
And Mr.. Thornton looked at his wife.
ssReading Don't talk to ME of reading
I've no time to read," Mrs. Thornton answer
GU d fittit Inc COntTaSI Of
daughters idle hours with her own life of ex-
hausting toll did not effect her very pleasantly.
ssAud yet," said Mr.. Thornton, ssyou were
always very fond of reading, and can remenl
ber when no day went by without hour
two passed with your books. Did you lie
down after dinner 20
ssOf course not!''
an or take pleasant walk on Broadway?
Nor sit at the pa-lor window with Ellie {? How
about that 20 SHOW, the case is a very plain
one," continued Mr.. Thornton. s'In fact
nothing could be palmer. You spend from
fourteen to sixteen hours every day in hard
work while Effie, taking yesterday as sample,
spends about the same time in what Is little
better than idleness. Suppose new adjust
mcnt were to take place, and Efiie were to be
employed in helping you for eight hours every
day, she would still have eight hours left for
self-improvement and recreation, and you. re-
lieved from your present overtasked condition,
might get back portion of the health and
spirits, of which these too heavy household
duties have robbed you.''
ssFatherp' said Effie, speaking through tears
that were falling over her face, ssI never saw
things in this light. Why haven't YOU talked
to me before 4? I've often felt if I'D like to
help mother. But she never gives me anything
to do, and if offer to help her she says you
can't do it, or Il had rather do it myself
Indeed it isn't all my fault
replied Mr. Thornton ssbut 1t will certainly
be In the future, unless there is a new arrange
ment of things. 1t is a false social sentiment
that lets daughters become idlers, while moth
ers, fathers and sons take up the daily burden
of work, and bear it through all the busy
hours"
Mrs. Thornton did not come gracefully into
the new order of things proposed by her hus-
band and accepted by Ellie. False pride in
her daughter, that future lady ideal, and an
inclination to do all herself, rather than to take
trouble to teach another. were all so many i'm
pediaDts. But Effie and her father were both
in earnest, and it was not long before the
mothers face began to lose its look of wear
ness, and her languid frame to come up to an
erect bearing. She could find time for the
old pleasure in books now and then, for 4
healthy walk in the street, and a call on some
valued friend.
And was Effie the worse for this change
DID the burden she was sharing with her moth
er depress her shoulders and take the lightnesS
from her step? Not so. The languidness en-
gendered by ideness, which had begun to
show itself, disappeared in few weeks the
color came warmer into her cheeks, her eyes
gained in brightness. She was growing, in
fact, more beautiful, for lind cheerfully
conscious of duty was moulding every Inca
ment of her countenance into a new express
sion.
Dlu Sel-lInpCoVetnenl stop OH, no. rom
one to two hours were given to close practice
every day. Her mind becoming more vigor
Gus in tone, instead OF enervated by Idleness,
chose a better order OF reading than had been
induged before, and she was growing towards
a thoughtful, cultivated, intelligent woman
hood. She also found time, amid her home
duties for an hour twice week with Ger
man teacher, and she began, also, to cultivate
a taste for drawing. Now that she was en-
ploying the time she found at her disposal,
how cheerful and companionabe she grew
She did not seem like the Effie Thornton of a
month before. In fact, the sphere of the whole
household was changed. As idler, Effie
had been to the rest, and the weight
of that burden had been sufficient to depress,
through weariness, the spirits of all. But now
that she was standing up, self-abstained, but a
sharer in the burden of each. all hearts came
back to lighter measure, beating rythme-
tcally and in conscious enjoyment