Common sense bawls out at once, "Why, what wretched nonsense ! How can I be better off with seven children than I was with one or two ? How can I be as rich when I have to buy twenty pounds of bread a week as I was when I bought five ? " But when he learns that on this system all the profits, after the cost of management, made under the co-operative plan upon the ordinary retail prices, are saved as capital for the purchaser, a man begins to see that the greater his outlay the greater also are his profits. A similar law obtains in a man's or woman's life-work. The more we sow the more we shall reap. The more earnestness and industry we bestow upon the occupation we have chosen, or which circum- stances have allotted us, the greater will be the returns, the larger the profits. These profits are not to be estimated only by money. It is a great thing and should be every man's ambition to provide a comfortable home for those belonging to him, and to make that home as beautiful as possible with all that can add to the comfort and hap- piness of living in it. He should try to save all he can against the evening of his life and the time when " the night comcth in which no 152 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. man can work." As his eye rests upon house and garden, fruit-trees and flowers, live-stock and furniture, it is a grateful feeling to know that they are all his own and have been won by the honest labor of brain and muscle. But the man who has thus built his house, not on the sands of idleness, but on the rock of industry and independence, has other profits for his toil than house and lands and produce. He has educated himself by the noblest sort of education, that of hard work and honest ambition. While others have lagged behind at the pothouse or the gaming table, trusting to some turn of luck that will never come to recover lost time and neglected opportunities, the suc- cessful working man has never loitered, but has pressed forward steadily, not by fits and starts, in the race of life. He has reached the goal and won the prize, not only of material good but of the sweetest of all feelings, approval within. He can reflect with honest satisfaction that he did not owe his success to luck, but to law, the law which teaches that " whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap." Those that sow to the wind of idleness will reap the whirl- wind of poverty and degradation. Those of whom it may be said, as of " the Village Blacksmith," " Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, Onward through life he goes ; Each morning sees some task begin, * Each evening sees it close ; Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose," deserve all that they have earned. And the best reward of all is the consciousness of duty done and rest well earned. This is the true socialism, to help others, but be independent one's self; to " owe no man anything except brotherly love." This is a noble ambition, that of rising from being an employe of others to being an employer of others. Choose the occupation you are best fitted for and feel most interest in ; give your heart and energy to it ; then the world instead of being your master will be your servant, and in the good old Bible words, " When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid ; yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet."

AI-modernized reading of the original text

Common sense bawls out at once, "Why, what wretched nonsense ! How can I be better off with seven children than I was with one or two ? How can I be as rich when I have to buy twenty pounds of bread a week as I was when I bought five ? " But when he learns that on this system all the profits, after the cost of management, made under the co-operative plan upon the ordinary retail prices, are saved as capital for the purchaser, a man begins to see that the greater his outlay the greater also are his profits. A similar law obtains in a man's or woman's life-work. The more we sow the more we shall reap. The more earnestness and industry we bestow upon the occupation we have chosen, or which circumstances have allotted us, the greater will be the returns, the larger the profits. These profits are not to be estimated only by money. It is a great thing and should be every man's ambition to provide a comfortable home for those belonging to him, and to make that home as beautiful as possible with all that can add to the comfort and happiness of living in it. He should try to save all he can against the evening of his life and the time when " the night cometh in which no 152 THE hearthstone; or, life at home. man can work." As his eye rests upon house and garden, fruit-trees and flowers, live-stock and furniture, it is a grateful feeling to know that they are all his own and have been won by the honest labor of brain and muscle. But the man who has thus built his house, not on the sands of idleness, but on the rock of industry and independence, has other profits for his toil than house and lands and produce. He has educated himself by the noblest sort of education, that of hard work and honest ambition. While others have lagged behind at the pothouse or the gaming table, trusting to some turn of luck that will never come to recover lost time and neglected opportunities, the successful working man has never loitered, but has pressed forward steadily, not by fits and starts, in the race of life. He has reached the goal and won the prize, not only of material good but of the sweetest of all feelings, approval within. He can reflect with honest satisfaction that he did not owe his success to luck, but to law, the law which teaches that " whatsoever a man soweth, that he shall also reap." Those that sow to the wind of idleness will reap the whirlwind of poverty and degradation. Those of whom it may be said, as of " the Village Blacksmith," " Toiling, rejoicing, sorrowing, Onward through life he goes ; Each morning sees some task begin, * Each evening sees it close ; Something attempted, something done, Has earned a night's repose," deserve all that they have earned. And the best reward of all is the consciousness of duty done and rest well earned. This is the true socialism, to help others, but be independent one's self; to " owe no man anything except brotherly love." This is a noble ambition, that of rising from being an employe of others to being an employer of others. Choose the occupation you are best fitted for and feel most interest in ; give your heart and energy to it ; then the world instead of being your master will be your servant, and in the good old Bible words, " When thou liest down thou shalt not be afraid ; yea, thou shalt lie down and thy sleep shall be sweet."

The hearthstone; or, Life at home