The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-07-16
Her Monument.

She built it herself and yet she did
not know that she had monument. She
lived in it; but she did not know that it
existed. She never dreamed that she was
great or that she was specially useful
or that she had achieved anything worth
living for. Sometimes when she read
the stories Of historic heroines she, too,
had her "dream of fair women" and
looked with sigh upon her life, made up
of little deeds, so little that even she who
did them was not conscious of the doing,
she whose loom moved so noiselessly that
she neither thought how long she was at
it nor what beautiful pattern she was
weaving Indeed, it would have seemed
to her, if she had ever thought about her
self or her work, to weave itself. But she
did not. Her Inconsistencies was her
charm. Self.consciousness would have
destroyed her monument. She was not a
great woman at least no one thought her
so. In truth they did not think much
about her. they simply loved her. She
wrote no books; her letters never circu-
lated in wider circle than that of few
favored friends. Her song of love was too
sacred, and she was too shy to sing it
to the public or to strangers. She
was not president of Dorcas society !;
nor the life of the sewing circle; nor
leader in the Woman's prayer-meeting
nor the teacher of great Bible class.
She had admiration for women with a
"eift;" sometimes she was trife
tempted to envy them but she had no
gift " herself. She did not even sing in
the choir. Her only singing was lullaby
to her own baby. AS to public speaking,
she never was on platform in her life;
never lectured-not even her husband |;
never led in prayer, except when her hus-
band was away from home, aud then only
by reading in tremulous voice from a
book at family prayers. This was the
one occasion of her life when self.con-
seriousness came in to terrify her and
deprive her of that simple naturalness
which was her gift. Her monument was
her home. 1t grew up quietly, as quietly
as flower grows, and no one knew, she
did not know herself, how much she had
done to tend and water aud train it. Her
husband had absolute trust in her. He
earned the money; she expendedit. And
as she put as much thought in her ex-
penditure as he put in his earning, each
dollar was doubled in the expanding.
She had inherited that mysterious faculty
which we call taste and she cultivated
it with fidelity. Every home she visited
she studied, though always unconsciously,
as though it were museum or an art
gallery and from every visit she brought
away some thought which came out of
the alembic of her loving imagination
fitted to its appropriate place in her own
home. She was too genuine to be an
imitator; for imitation is always of kin to
falsehood and she abhorred falsehood.
She was patient with everything but a
lie. So she never copied in her own home
or on her own person what she had seen
elsewhere; yet everything she saw else.
where entered into and helped com
plete the perfect picture of life which
she was always painting with deft
fingers in everything from the honey
suckle which she trained over the door,
to the bureau in the guests room which
her designing made new work of ar
for every new friend, if it were only by {
new nosegay and change of vases
Patting her own personality into he
home, making every room and almos
every article of furniture speak of her, she
had the gift to draw out from every CUES
his personality, and make him at home
and so make him his truest and best sell
Neither man nor woman of the worl'
could long resist the subtle influence o
that home; the warmth of its truth ant
love thawed out the frozen prophetic
from impersonated etiquette; and what
ever circle of friends sat on the broat
piazza in summer or gathered around tn
open fire in winter, knew for time tn
rare Joy of liberty-the liberty of perfec
truth and perfect love. Her home wa
hospitable because her heart was large
and any one was her friend to whom sh,
could minister. But her heart was lik
the old Jewish Temple-stranger onl,
came into the court of the Gentiles
friends into an inner court her husban,
and her children found court yet neare
her heart of hearts yet even they kney
that there was Holy of Holes which sh
kept for her God, and they loved an
revered her the more for it. So strangel
was commingled in her the inclusive
ness and the exclusiveness of love
its hospitality and its reserve. All
blessed homebuilder You have n
cause to envy women with "gift." Fo
there is nothing ON earth 80 sacred as
home and no priest on earth 80 divin
as the wife and mother who makes il
and no gift so great as the gift whic
gratis this bud of heaven on the commo
stock of earth. Her children rise u
and call her blessed her husband ais
and he praiseth here Christian Union.
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