Peninsula enterprise. [volume] (Accomac, Va.) 1881-1965, 1893-04-15
The Keynote of the Day.

In most households the keynote
of the day morning mood makes the
melody or the discord for the children
and their father. If the motlerwears
a cheerful aspect, her face not frown-
ing, 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 wonderful to see how quickly child
rem and servants feel the atmosphere
of mother and mistress. She may
not have said q word by way of re-
proof; she may have carefully repress-
Z ed every sign of irritation and impa
tience; yet if her spirit is perturbed,
there is u subtle sense of trouble
air, of which we are conscious now
and the sunlightis warm. More than
any one else in the home the mother
needs to feel constantly happy, and
if not contented with her environ
ment, to live above its superficial
annoyances and agitations. 1t is
important that the man going to the
counting-room or the shop should set
forth upon his days 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
casswork if mother has sent them
off with kiss and smile; and as
for Bridget, the drudgery of her office
will be far less monotonous as she
washes dishes, prepares vegetables.
polishes the stove, and does the
hundred and one things that are to
be done over and over every day. if
she knows that above stairs her EN-
ployer, equally busy, is going about
her work in cheerful spirit.
Everything depends, in the last
analysis, on the mothers usual atti-
tude 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 ship feels
ballast, making it ride more safely;
but the mother rebelling against the
restraints and restrictions of her lot.
chatting against the pressure of duty,
regarding the children as encum-
brances, and losing all the sweetness
OF her llfe's cup because of an occa-
sional bitterness, will not succeed in
making life harmonious. No home
maker she, no presiding genius of
peace and JOY She is herself an in
carnate discord, and all the notes she
strikes will jar. By.and.by, when
perhaps it is too late, she will waken
TO the fact that she has lost the love.
Hest part of her life; she will see
about her clouded faces instead of
sunny ones; find her boys and girls
dissatisfied instead of contented, and
wish in vain that the music of her
day had been keyed to a nobler
pitch.
Sometimes the mother is at fault
because she is physically too weak to
give her spirit the chance for adjust
ment. \ young mother with her
children like little brood in the
nest. must sometimes face times and
seasons that are hard-when, for in
stance, the whole family are down
with the measles, when kittie has
toothache, and Tom earache, and Joe
pain in the stomach, and the baby
cries, and there is Il sort of whirlwind
vi lIOuDle plo"luS irOIl I'LL q uGrU6rS;
then indeed it is hard for the mother
to know what to do first. How shall
she serenewhen everyone else sruf-
fled. How dispense caresses soothing
as the remediesin her medicine chest.
How hold fast to Il deep tranquility
of soul under the manifest and mani
fold agitations of the moment ? Here
is a problem worth her study, for
whatever else may be going on under
the wide circuit of the sun, thrones
and dynasties, wars and tumults, are
lessimportant than the world beneath
the mothers eye-the little kingdom
that owns her guiding and controlling
hand. Prayer and pains may aid
the mother, aud she must interlnit
neither as she lovingly sets the key
note of the day.