The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1892-08-13
THE KEYNOTE OF THE DAY.
Vt Is Usually Sounded at the Breakfast
Table.


Vt Is Usually Sounded at the breakfast
Table.
In most households the keynote of
the day is sounded at the breakfast
table. The mothers morning mood
makes the melody or the discord for the
children and their father. If the mother
wears cheerful aspect, her face not
frowning, but placid, the tones of her
voice low and even, the atmosphere she
diffuses that of tranquility, then the
complex affairs of the day begin to
move smoothly in her home. 1t is won.
derful to see how quickly children and
servants feel the atmosphere of mother
and mistress. She may not have said
word by way of reproof; she may have
carefully repressed every sign of irrita-
ton and impatience; yet if her spirit is
perturbed there is a subtle sense of
trouble ahead, some thing like thunder
in the air, of which we are conscious
now,and then, though the skies are blue
and the sunlight is warm. More than
any one else in the home the mother
needs to feel constantly happy, and if
not content with her environment, to
live above its superficial nnoyances and
agitations 1t is import nt that the man
going to the coun ting-room or the shop
should set forth upon his day work with
that sort of preparation which comes
from the assurance that he leaves every
thing pleasant and as it should be at
home. The children going to school will
do very much better in their class-work
If mother has sent them off with a kiss
and smile; and as for Bridget, the
drudgery of her office will be far less
monotonous as she washes dishes, pre-
pares vegetables, pc fishes the stove, and
does the hundred and one things that
are to be done over and over every day,
If she knows that abovestairs her en-
ployer, equally busy, is going about her
work in cheerful spirit.
Everything depends, in the last ana
lysis, on the mothers usual attitude
towards care; if she accept it heartily
and gladly as Gods gift to her, the care
will not burden her so much as
feathers weight, and if she feel it, it
will be as the sh ip feels ballast, making
it ride more safe ly; but the mother re-
belling against the restraints and re-
strictions of her lot, chatting against the
pressure of duty, regarding the child
rem as encumbran ces, and losing all the
sweetness OF her life's cup because of
an occasional bitterness, will not sue
coed in making life harmonious. No
home maker she. no presiding genius of
peace and joy! She is herself an incar-
nate discord, and all the notes she
strikes will jar. By-and-by, when per-
haps it is too late, she will waken to the
fact that she has lost the loveliest part
of her life; she will see about her
clouded faces instead of sunny ones;
find her boys and girls dissatisfied in
stead of cont ented, and wish in vain
that the IN usic of her day had been
keyed to a noblcr pitch.
Sometimes the mother is at fault be-
cause she is physically too weak to give
her spirit the chance for adjustment.
A young mother with her children like
little brood in the nest must some
hard-when, for instance, the whole
family are down with the measles, when
Kittie has toothache, and Tommy ear
ache, and Johnnie a pain in the stom-
ach, and the baby cries, and there is a
sort of VIII irlwind of trouble blowing
from all q uarters; then indeed it is hard
for the mother to know what to do first.
How shall she be serene when everyone
else is ruff led? How dispense caresses
and smiles as soothing as the remedies
in her med icine chest? How hold fast
to deep tranquility of soul under the
manifest and manifold agitations of the
moment? Here is problem worth her
study, for whatever else may be going
on under the wide circuit of the sun,
thrones and dynasties, wars and tu-
mults, are less important than the
world beneath the mothers eye-the
little kingdom that owns her guiding
and controlling hand. Prayer and pains
may aid the mother, and she must
intermit neither as she lovingly sets the
keynote of the day.-Harper's Bazaar.
Coinures he Rule