Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1861-03-26
MISCELL A N Y
IDLE HANDS.
BY T. s. ARTHUR.

BY T. s. ARTHUR.
| Mr.. Thornton came home at his usual mid
day hour, and as he went by the parlor door be
saw his daughter, young lady of nineteen
lounging on the sofa with book in her hands
The whrr of his wife's sewing machine struck
on his ear at the same moment. Without paus.
/ ing at the parlor, he kept on to the room from
whence came the sound of industry.
| Mrs. Thornton did not observe the entrance
of her husband. She was bending close down
over her work, and the noise of the machine
was louder than his footsteps on the floor. Mr.
Thornton stood looking at her some moments
without speaking.
| "Oh, dearl" exclaimed the tired womap let
ting her foot rest on the treadle and straighten
| ing herself up, 'this pain in my side is almost
beyond endurance"
"Theu why do you sit, killing yourselta" said
Mr.. Thornton.
| Mr.. Thornton's aspect was unusually sober.
| 'What's the mattera Why do you look &C
serous2' asked his wife.
because | feel serious" he answered.
"Has anything gone wrong?" Mrs. Thorntont
countenance grew slightly troubled. Things hat
gone wrong in her husbands business more thar
once, and she had learned to dread the occur
renee of disaster.
"Things are wrong all the time," was replied
with some impatience of manner.
"In your business 2" Mrs. Thornton spoke 6
little family.
''No, nothing especially ont of tie way there
but it's all wrong at home"
81 don't understand you, Harvey. What is
wrong at home, prayg"
'Wrong for you to sit in pain and exhaustion,
over that sewing machine, whilst an idle daugh-
ter lounges over a novel in the parlor. That's
what wished to say" .-,..
s'It isn't Efie's fault. She often asks to help
me, but can't see the child put down to house
hold drudgery. Her time will come soon enough
Let her have little ease and comfort while she
may"
.'If we said that of our sons" replied Mr..
Thornton, land acted on the word, what eff
cient men they would make for the worlds
work! How admirably furnished they would
be for life's trials and duties !"
| "You are wrong in this thing-all wrong
continued the husband, and as to the ease and
comfort, as you say, if Efie is right-minded
girl, she will have more true enjoyment in the
consciousness that she is Tightening her mothers
burdens than it is possible to obtain from the
finest novel ever written. Excitement of the
Imagination is no substitute for that deep peace
| right discharge of daily duties. 1t is a poor
compliment to Efie's moral sense to suppose
that she can be content to sit with idle hands,
or to employ them in light frivolties, while her
mother is worn with toll beyond her strength -
Hester, it must not be !"
"And it shall not be-" said quick and firm
voice.
"Mr Thornton and his wife started. and
turned to the speaker, who had entered the
room unobserved, and been a listener to nearly
all the conversation we have recorded.
''It shall not be, father!" And Efie came
and stood by Mr.. Thornton. Her face was Grim
son her eyes flooded with tears, through which
light was flashing her form drawn up erectly !;
her manner resolute SIT isn't all my fault"
she said, and she laid her hand on her fathers
arm. "Tve asked mother great many times to
let me help her, but she always put me off, aud
says it is easier to do thing herself than to
show another. May be am little dull, but
every one has to learn you know. Mother did
not get her hand in fairly with that sewing ma.
wouldn't take me any longer. If she'd only
teach me how to use it, could help her great
deal. And, indeed, father, Pm willing!"
"Spoken in the right spirit, my daughter
said Mr. Thornton, approvingly. "Girls should
very things most likely to be required of them
when they become women in the most RESPONSE
BILE positions of wives and mothers. Depend
upon it, Efie, an idle girlhood is not the way to
cheerful womanhood. Learn and do, now,
the very things that will be required of you in
after years, and then you will have a required
facility. Habit and skill make easy what might
come hard, and be felt as very burdensome."
"And would you have her abandon all self
improvement" said Mrs. Thornton, egive up
music, reading, society 2"
"There are,n replied Mr.. Thornton, as his wife
paused for another word, 'some fifteen or six
teen hours of each Gay in which mind or hands
should be rightly employed Now let us see
how Efie is spending these long and ever recur-
ring periods OF time. Come, my daughter, sit
down. We have this subject fairly before u.s.
1t is one of lifelong importance to you, and
should be we'll considered How is it in regard
to the employment of your time2 Take yester-
day tor instance. The record of day will help
us to get towards the result after which we are
now searching"
Effie sat down and Mr.. Thornton drew a chair
in front of his wife and daugher. a..s.ss.
"Take yesterday, for instance, said the father.
"How was it spent9 You rose at seven this
morning"
..Yes, sir; / came down just as the breakfast
bell was rung," said Effie.
sAnd your mother was up at half past five, /
know, and feeling so weak she could hardly
dress herself. But for all this she was at work
until breakfast tme Now, if you had risen at
six, and shared your mothers work until seven,
you would have taken an hour from her days
burdens, and certainly lost nothing from your
music, self-improvement or social Intercourse