Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1875-10-27
Our Homes.


We wrote of Home in hgh-fown style,
when boys aud girls at school We love il,
We believe in it. To have no home means TO
us poverty in the saddest sense, for home
means love and loved ones, just that which
makes the best part of our own little world,
Aud yet, to look down just one short street,
with every few rods house, where people
live and call it home, to think Of their being
just 50 over all the land until their name is
legion, and then to remember how few really
are the blessed places that Home Sweet
Home" should be Discord reigns in so
many OF them.
Why need it be so Every one within
the four walls bewails It mentally. Each one
feels 1t q relief TO 90 into some other home
whore happiness presides, aud the feeling
the wish j. there even If 1t never finds form
in wordsworth that my home were like
this There are so many sources Of tronble
Lack of confidence short answers, glum
looks, even where no actual warfare exists.
How often we put ourselves out for strangers
when the service would be refused to our
friends We are polite and civil IN kind
10 the neighbor who drops ia, but we seem
10 think it not worth while to he so tO the
dear home folks Yet we love Them f,u tne
best aud il occasion should call forth the
effort would sacrifice almost anything for
them.
But IN this world it is only now aud then
that some great thing Is required. i is the
little things that count. The small. unob-
trusive attentions, the quiet, thoughtful kind.
ness. the little helps. the pleasant look aud
smile, the ready hand and gentle iorbear-
ance that tell that win, that do the great
work u making nome happy heemng IN
nhnd that others nave rights wlilch we are
bound 70 respect OF rather that we "lsh To
turther II auectloh prompts us-lhterestlhg
ourselves IN their Work or pliy-these are
the things that help the home atmosphere.
Clouds cannot come II sunny hearts aud faces
take up al the room, ana warm, klnd love |
wili drive away all the coldhess from the
family hearth.
One great trouble Is feeling OF :" going |
my own way, independent OF all else "a |
lack OF interest III each others pursuits, or
too mnch excess oi interest ~ our own AL
fairs over that OF others And 1t comes to |
pass that we go and come, and others
know not where and cice oersd, while any |
looking into the matter, right or wrong, is |
regarded as an infringement on liberty |
There are all degrees OF unpleasantness at
home, from the dreadful places where all |
the spirits OF hatred and abuse have play, to |
the outward show OF necessary civilities, but |
where, underneath, lies unsyinpathetic, care
less indifference.
II is almost incredible to look at a husband |
and wife who sit at the table with no word |
of morning greeting, who eat in silence save
the few words called forth 10y passing the !
food, who separate for the day without
pleasant goodbye, who notice by no outward |
sign the return at evening time, who take
their places opposite each other again 10 dis
euss tue evening meal, perhaps in inter 81
lence. who sit reading and sewing, each in
calm indifference to the other, aud so on, day
after day, perhaps week after week, till some
calamity opens their hearts, or something
more than usual leads on fiom cool polite
ness to a war OF words. ! say it seems in
credible to think that somewhere ia the past
there was q time when those two were
happy only IN each others society. when
they thought nothing IN the world could |
ever estrange them. And yet it may be |
that all this has been brought about by the |
smallest of triies, overlookings, forgettngs, |
careless ways, that showed diminution Of |
thoughtful love, and so on TIL this state Of |
things is reached and neither one would be
unable to tell how.
Let the desire to do right be ever so
u,ro fraI t.ft IN. ,l..t