Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-04-23
and one wing she puts over the flock in the
house, and the other wing she puts over
the flock in the grave.

house, and the other wing she puts over
the flock in the grave.
There is nothing but the old fashioned
religion of Jesus Christ that will take a
woman through thu trials of horne life. At
first there may be a romance or a novelty
that will do for n substitute. The a
rage hour has just pa sed, and the per-
plexitics of the household are more than
atoned by the joy of being together, and
by the fact that when it is late they do not
nave to discuss the question as to whether
1t Is time to go. The mishaps of the house,
hold, instead of being a matter of anxiety
and apprehension, are a matter of merri-
ment-the loaf of bread turned into a geo.
logical specimen; the slushy custards: the
jaundiced or measly biscuits. 1t is a very
bright sunlight that falls on the cutlery.
and the mante ornaments of a new home.
But after awhile the roman is all gone,
and then there is something to be prepared
for the table that the book called "Cookerv
Taught in Twelve Lessons" will not teach.
The receipt for making it is not a handful
of this, a cup of that, and a spoonful of
something else. 1t is not something
sweetened with ordinary condiments.
or Favored with ordinary havors,
or baked in ordinary ovens.
1t is the loaf of domestic happiness: and
all the ingredients come down from Heav-
en-, and the fruits are plucked from the
tree of life, and it is sweetened with the
new win of the kingdom, and it is baked
In the oven of home trial. Solomon wrote
out OF his own experience. He had q
wretched home. A man can not be happy
with two wives, much less six hundred:
and he says, writing out of his own expe-
rience: ''Better is a dinner of herbs where
love is, than a stalled OK aud hatred there
with"
How great are the responsibilities of
housekeepers. Sometimes an indigestible
article of food, by its effect upon a COM
mander or king, has defeated an army or
overthrown an empire. Houskecpers, by
the food they provide, by the couches they
spread, by the books they introduce. by
the influences they bring around their
home, are deciding the physical, intellect
ual, moral, eternal destiny of the race.
You say your life is one of sacrifice. I
know it. But. my sisters, that is the only
lite worth living. That was Florence
Nightingale's life; that was Payson's
life; that was Christ's life. We admire it
in others, but how very hard it is for us to
cultivate ourselves. When in this city
young Doctor Hutchinson, having spent a
whole night in a d%iphtheritic room for the
relief of a patient, became saturated with
the poison and died, we all felt as if we
would like to put garlands on his grave;
everybody appreciates that. When il the
burning hotel at st. Louis, a young man
on the fifth story broke open the door of
the room where his mother was sleeping,
and plunged in amid smoke and fire, cry
ing: "Mother! where are you?" and never
came out, our hearts %applauded that young
man. But how few of US nave the Christ
like spirit-a willingness to suffer for
others. A rough teacher in q school called
upon a poor, half starved lad, who had Of
Tended against the laws of the school, and
said:
stake off your coat directly, SIR"
The boy refused to take it off. Where
upon the teacher said again:
the whip through the air. The boy re-
fused. 1t was not because he was afraid
of the lash-he was used to that at home
but it was from shame; he had no UNDER
garment, and as at the third command he
pulled slowly off his coat, there went a
sob through the school. They saw then
why he did not want to remove his coat,
and they saw the shoulder blades had
almost cut through the skin, and a stout,
healthy boy rose up and went t. the
teacher of the school and, said: .-.
"Oh, sir, please don't hurt this poor fell
low: whip me; see, he's nothing but a poor
chap; don't you hurt him, he's poor; whip
me-"
"Well," said the teacher, "it's going to
be a severe whipping; I an, willing to take
you as a substitute"
SWELL" said the boy, 81 don't care; you
whip me, il you will let this poor fellow
CO."
The stout, healty boy took the scourging
without an cutlery.
"BrayoW says every man-"Bravo! !"
How many of lis are willing to take the
s%courging, and the suffering, and the toll,
and the anxiety for other people? Beauti-
full thing to admire, but how little we have
of that spirit. God gave us that self-deny-
ing spirit, SO that whether we are in hum
BILE spheres or in conspicuous spheres, we
may perform our whole duty-for this
struggle will soon be over.
One of the most affecting "reminiscences
OF my mother is my remembrance of her
as a Christian h~ousekeeper. She worked
very hard, and when we would
come in from summer play and sit
down at the table at noon, 1 re-
member how she would come in with
beads of perspiration along the line of
gray hair, and how some times she would
sit down at the table and put her head
against her wrinkled hand and say:
"Well, the fact is. Pm too tired to eat"
Long after she might have delegated this
duty to others, she would not be satisfied
unless she attended to the matter herself.
In fact, we all preferred to nave her do so,
for somehow things tasted better when she
prepared them. Some time ago, in an ex-
press train, l shot past that old home
stead. Hooked out of the window and
tried to peer through the darkness.
While I was doing so one of my old
schoolmates, whom I had not seen for