Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-05-21

attack Of govt 10 the winter, when the doc
tors carriage was often at the door ~
Nobody but mamma. In not good at
nursing"
Aud yet you arc qualifying yourself
to be somebody else's mamma, in due time,
by paiien, frilling Of pink silk, and suit.
able devotion to your dainty bonnet Go
to, 70 to Z" Il love the dear old Saxon
words they are so convenient when you
don't know Just where to send your adver-
sary; To school," | fain would have
said, could there be but school that would
teach women that living is the aim of life.
Living, 10 its fullest sense, and not a mere
examining Of crude knowledge, nor the 9TH
er extreme Of Infinite sewing. Alas, for the
leagues upon leagues Of tu,ks and hens
and alas, for the faircst hours Of life spent
with that cruel little needle Not merely
cruel in the sense which Hood has set it in
IA tiny dagger to stab away girls life.
OF that. presently.
If were required to state formula Of
my belief, | would put it simply thus All
women sew too much.
The tired-out young mother from her
OVERLOOKING work table, which, with Lucys
ruiled aprons piled up on Ilarry's trousers,
aud the baby's bbs, is the feature of the
room, looks up in mild wonder at the
word.
"ls it possible to sew too much to save
too much, when ones income is so small ~
Yes, il is possible to save in mint and
cumin' TO waste a mothers life :"
All this time that you are stitching, driv-
ing at the whirring wheel, the children are
in the nursery, left to the ignorance Of the
halEgrown girl, who does, after fashion.
the "up.siairs' work, or walking out in the
bright afternoon with her. Ia the kitchen,
another UNFRAMED, though older girl, is
cooking diuuer--a dinner which your bus.
band will Sigh over, and which you will
have neither appetite nor courage to taste
when it comes. And yet to the cooking Of
that dinner will have gone the contents of
that generous basket that came home this
morning. You know there is waste. there
is breakage, there is coal enough burned,
MS your husband says sometimes, to sail
yacht across the ocean And yet you eau.
not make one step to prevent it, till your
sewing be all done.
You know that upstairs the children are
learning other lessons than your gentle pa.
thence would set for them-you know that
in their bright-eyed, rosy walk, they ask
question after question that Nora cannot
answer. Yet you shut yourself out from
that dearest privilege of motherhood, TO
share your chidrens play hour-for what ?
That they may be deliberately dressed, like
the children of Lady Midas over the way.
"Bui," says voice from the sunny cor
nor house, my children are not dressed
like those princesses | wouldn't afford it
1t could. And yet |, too, sew, day 10,
day out, over plain garments for every day
wear Don't come to tell me that this is
sn -
Indeed, indeed my dear little woman,
strong as you are to stand up against the
mask of folly, and shut it out from your
chidren's lives, you do not yet know, have
not fully weighed, those golden grains lost
and scattered from your own. They fall
about you those grains of time and oppor-
tunlty--in noiseless showers, while you sew
your life away.
That is helpmate, bonnie camerade,
sharer Of your husbands thought, of his
interests and plans When you married
him, years and years ago, you took that
Tor your vocation. And after, since the
babies came, it is your business to be moth.
or. You took no vow to lie seamstress
Nor is there any reason why you should
"a nd
ming Mt the purely physical one, the iujuri-
Gus effect Of the steady cramping work and
monotonous wbeel-driving-why you should
not.
Your duty is to live, to be alive and
strong, so long as your husband and chill
dren are about you. know that the ten
derest music in womans life comes of the
seli-sacrihce there is in it. But it must be
wise aud thoughtful sacrifice; not
wasteiul, wiIiul, unreasoning one.
1t is precisely the plain sewing, the long
and tedious hem and seam, that costs so
little when an expert does it, that is most
extravagant for you do.
When you rise in the morning, ,ou
should rise like the sun, shining everywhere.
If that luminary we're to concentrate his
beams upon one particular garden doubt.
less there would be wonders in the bort;.
cultural liue-mammoth cabbaQes and cor.
geous tulips; but what would become Of
all the grain fields. living cold and bleak
among the hills i?
Couine your efforts in needle and thread IN
the necessary buttons, and to the stitch in time
that saves so many little stockings and
trousers. Aud for the rest-which brings
us to our corollary, and the complement 81
your womanly wisd m. There are women
whose business it is to sew Did il eve,
occur to YOU that by giving this busines.
more outlets Unto friendly homes far in,
stance,) these women. the slaves of IN,
slop-shop. or hard. hearted contractor mn,
rise a stem biyher NAV gain new d;on;,,
Seek out in the yarret the woman wLou
Hood has immortslized Br;og her Won,