Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1896-12-21
VISITING HERSELF.
The Novel Way a Hostess Gave Herself a
Vacation.

| The Novel Way Hostess Gave Herself
Vacation.
1t came about in this wise: For weeks
she had endured the ordeal of living In
house that was being made over, with
all the turmoil and tribulations that
this sort of housekeeping implies. Be
cause she wanted new piano she had
practiced all sorts Of economies. even
doing the housework for q large family.
! Result, wornout woman, with a set of
frayed nerves, which it behooved the
family to avoid encroaching upon. 1t
| became plain to all concerned that II
harmony was to reign in the new house,
as it had reigned in the old, it would be
necessary to do some nerve patching,
and that right speedily. Ana it was de-
creed that the homekeeper should have
rest and a change, whatever the cost and
| inconvenience might be to the family.
| There were tempting places to visit,
but that entailed journey, and she was
too tired for journeys. There were
friends who would have been glad to
entertain her, for she is popular guest,
but that would necessitata preparations
that she had not the energy to under
take. "What need,' she argued, ''to go
away for that which I h1 &c in my own
home, if only had leisr q 10 e>-joy it?
No one among all my lriends has a
more pleasant home 1t il maAifest that
people like to visit here-they say so,
and they come again and again. l will
pay myself q visit.
So she threw economy to the four
winds-it had served its day, for the
new piano was numbered among the
things she could not enjoy-and she or
dered in provisions for expected guests
and hired the best cook she could find
to prepare the food and do the chamber
work.
Then she dressed in her prettiest
frocks, put all problems of ways and
means resolutely behind her and made
herself as charming as possible to the
family, emitting no courtesy she would
have shown others had she been the
guest of strangers.
She did no work. Cook and the fam
lily entered into the joke and did their
part Loyalty. She slept as late as she
pleased and took a morning walk in
stead of making beds, busting and
sweeping. She luxuriated in uninter-
rupted siestas and fingered in the bath
and over her toilet.
When inclination led, she spent hap
py hours in music or dipped into the
new books and magazines. AS often as
she liked she rode or drove about the
quiet country roads. Always she forced
her thoughts away from plans for work
which lay before her when her visit
should end and dwelt upon only such
topics as she would have discussed with
friends.
1t was a happy visit for all. The
husband and children had not only been
spared the dismal period of the home
keepers absence, but they had also had
the opportunity to see at her best one
who had been Obliged by the mere limi-
tation of endurance to rust OUT in
every direction save housekeeping and
domestic problems
Many a woman has been in the tread
mill SO long she has ceased to cast ex-
pectant eyes toward restful green pas
lures. AS often as not she is herself to
blame. A little more resolution, little
less care for what others think of her
housekeeping, q deal less of the belief
that no one can fill her place, and she
would fare better
Where more than one woman lives in
a family they gain much of brightness
and hopefulness through alternating
work with pleasure, one doing the
necessary work and oversight one week |
and the other the next week. 1t ought |
to be possible in every family to arrange |
to secure an occasional period, long or
short, in which to forget accustomed
cares. Women who arc thus favored
wear longest as o rule. philadelphia
Times.