St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1884-08-14
Her Monument.

not KNOW that she had n monument.
She lived in it but she did know that
it existed.
She never dreamed that she was
great; or that she had achieved any
thing worth living for. Sometimes
when she read the stories of historic
heroines she, too, had her ''dream of
fair women" and looked with n 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 nOiselesslv that
she neither Thought how long she was
ut 1t nor what beautiful pattern she
was weaving. Indeed, it would have
seemed to her, if she had ever Thought
about herself or her work, to weave
itself. But she did not. Her uncon-
seriousness was her charm. Self-con-
scionsness would have destroyed her
monument.
She WAS not a great woman mt 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 circulated i'm n 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 ID prcas Society: nor
the life of the Sewing Circle; nor a
leader in the Woman's Prayer Meet
ing nor the teacher of great Bible
Class. She had admiration for women
with Il "gift :" sometimes she was n
tritle 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 n
platform in her life; never lectured-
not even her husband never led in
prayer, except when her husband was
away from home, and then only bv
reading in II tremulous voice from Il
book at family prayers. This was the
one occasion of her life when self
consciousness came in to terrify her
and deprive her of that simple natural
ness 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 and train it. Her
husband had absolute trust in her. He
earned the money; she expended it..
And as she put as much thought in
her expenditure as he put in his earn
ings, each dollar was doubled in the
expending. She had inherited that
mysterious faculty which we call taste /;
and she cultivated it with fidelity
Every home she visited she studied,
though always uncOnseiously,as las 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 fit
ted 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 false
hood. She was patient with every
thing but a lie. So she never copied
in her own home or on her own person
what she had seen elsewhere yet
every thing she saw elsewhere entered
| INTO aud helped complete tho PorfvUt I
picture of life which she was always
painting with deft fingers in every
thing from the hOneysuckle which she
! trained over the door, to the bureau il
the guests room which her designing
made II new work of art for every new
! friend, if it were only by new nose
gay and change of vases. Putting
her own personality into her home
making every room and almost every
article of furniture speak of her, she
had the gift to draw out from every
guest his personality, and make him a
home, and so make him his truest anC
best self. Neither man nor woman o
the world could long resist the subtl,
L. Al. Il.
it's truth and love thawed out til,
frozen prOprieties from impersonate,
etiquette and whatever circle q
friends sat on the broad piazza in sum
mer or gathered around the open fir'
in winter knew for time the rare iO,
of liberty-the liberty of perfect trutl
and p.rfect love. Her home was hos
pitable because her heart was large
and any one was her friend to whom
she could minister. But her heart wa
like the old Jewish Temple
only came into the court of the Gen
tiles friends into an inner court; he
husband and her children found
court yet nearer her heart of hearts
yet even they knew that there was
Holy of HOLES which she kept for he
God, and they loved and reVered he
the more for it. SO strangely was com
mingled in her the inclusiveness ant
the exclusiveness of love, its hospital
ity and its reserve.
All! blessed home-builder! Yo
have no cause to envy women with
"gift." For there is nothing so sacre
on earth as home and no priest o
earth so divine us the wife and mOthe
who makes it; and no gift so great a
the gift which CRAFTS this bud of heave
, on the common stock of earth. ale
children rise up and call her blessed
her husband also, and he praiseth her.
Il Christian Union.