The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1898-02-11
A Cheerful Nature,

Not long ago a newly-made Benedict,
writing to his anxious family about his
young bride, wound up the catalogue of
her many virtues by saying: ''She is
very sweet-tempered. Nothing ever wor-
ries her." and the family breathed sigh
OF relief For there be many things that
go towards making the happiness of man,
but the greatest of these is a wife who
is good-natured and who doesn't worry.
No other one thing could have seemed
to hold out such promise for the future
Not beauty, or brilliance, or wit, or talent
are to be compared when one chooses a
companion for the journey of life, with
the serene and calm spirit that meets the
inevitable worries and anXieties of exist
ence with brave heart and an untrou-
bled front. 1t is Il very tower of strength
to her husband, and makes his home a
place OF peace and rest, to which he may
fly in times of stress, secure of Il safe ha-
ven in which to ride out the storm.
Notwithstanding all the gibes that have
been thrown at them. the. question, of
making their homes attractive and their
families happy is a very real one with
most women. and one to which they give
much thought. and it is passing strange
that it does not oftener occur to them to
try the experiment of good temper as a
promoter of domestic bliss. The woman
is always the barometer of the house She
makes it's sunshine, or it's shadow. If she
is bright and cheerful and takes the good
home is bound to be cheerful and happy.
If she is sour and cross and discontinued
she diffuses an atmosphere of gloom that
no one escapes.
Women have always esteemed bad tenn
per very trivial fault, and have been
very far from giving it it's due Importance
as a factor in the happiness of the fam
i1v A of faof .nOfhinU oISn :
so important, and though she had all
other virtues in the world, and lacked
that, she cannot atone for it. A woman
may be frugal, and Industrious, and pat
tern of all other wifely virtues. yet make
her husband endure a very inquisition
from her constant complaints and CON
tinued fretting. She may slave herself to
fault, and scold until they flee from her
as from the pestilence. Such u woman
| always considers herself martyr to the
ingratitude of those about her. "Look.
she says, Eat my toil-worn hands, look
how I have sacrificed youth and good
me, while there is Mrs. B., whose hus-
band and children adore her, and she is
doing nothing but laughing with them
half the day.
In all good truth there is no other vir-
tue so we'll worth cultivating for home
use as cheerful disposition and a sweet
temper. There is always something very
pathetic in the fact that we let little
things, infnitesimal worries and cares so
| often cloud the sunshine, and that we
vent on those nearest and dearest to us
the pent-up crossness, the surly temper
! that we dare not show to the world. The
tart word, the quick and unkind reply.
| that is sometimes like dagger thrust in
the wound it deals a loving heart, the ul,-
necessary and useless opposition to some
that sends a child away with quivering
| lips-how all these things come back to
| us when it is forever too late to make
or mar the happiness of our home.-New
Orleans Picayune.