St. Paul evidently knew what he was about when he re- peated that great lesson of his, <all embodied in the one word " rejoice," and it seems we need to have it shouted down to us from the hill-top to-day. Were it not for the fact that we are constantly meeting with expressions of the kind mentioned, it would seem that we do not need to be told how necessary is cheerfulness in the home, in the street, and wherever we may be. A generous concealment of our own trifling ailments, and a laudable desire to help others to bear their troubles, and possibly to forget them, ought to mark our every-day life. The people who deal so lavishly in commonplace phrases of pity remind one of the little boy three years old who. 108 HOUSEHOLD HINTS. upon being told to be silent unless he had something to say, looked up to his mother with wide open, innocent eyes, and said : " But, mamma, I want to talk when I haven't anything to say." AUTUMN PLEASURES. " From the later weeks of October to Christmas Eve is the period during which happiness is in season." So wrote De Quincey long ago. There has come a pause in the housekeeper's life ; no unusually hard work is to be done ; the house is clean and in perfect order ; the cellar- shelves are loaded with cans and jars of fruit and pickles. The hurry of the fall sewing is over, and a season of calm enjoyment has arrived. She may now become acquainted with her children, and enter heartily into their thoughts and interests. There is no time at which a mother's influence may be so powerfully exerted as when she is apparently at one with her family. She leaves her censor's seat, and descends to the level of the children ; if she can for a little while throw aside the remembrance of the years of care that stand be- tween her and them the best results are certain. Words spoken then are not forgotten, or put away with the Sun- day's sermon, of which, possibly, the text may linger a few days. She has also now an opportunity for self -culture ; it is a sad thing if she is content to let this time go by without doing something to add to her own mental power. She needs greatly to have reserved forces to aid her in the continued giving-out process of a mother's life. It is almost incredible how much one may do if she has the determina- tion to improve. A half hour's careful reading each day will, in the course of a year, amount to a great deal. An excellent daily rule is to practice, if for a few moments only, that she may not be wholly silent when music enters the house. A very busy woman whom I know well, whose TALKS UPON VARIOUS SUBJECTS, 109 life is crowded with work, and who would be excusable — if any one is — ^for ignorance of the outside world, is, her husband proudly says, better informed than he is in politi- cal economy, and is not unmindful of the best things in literature. She has simply cultivated a habit of never being idle ; she has a book or paper close at hand always, or even in her pocket, so that if she has not more than five minutes to give to it she does not consume half that time in looking for it. That woman's place in her household is not, as is some- times asserted of such women's positions, that of a servant without wages. And the son coming up to manhood in the healthful atmosphere of that home will probably never have the idea that a woman is, or ought to be, a brainless piece of machinery, and will not imitate the wicked old doctor of whom I have heard, who remarked to the young wife he had married that her duty was to be as nearly as possible like a clock — always in one place and always going. SUNSHINE IN THE HOUSE.

AI-modernized reading of the original text

St. Paul evidently knew what he was about when he repeated that great lesson of his, all embodied in the one word "rejoice,"" and it seems we need to have it shouted down to us from the hill-top to-day. Were it not for the fact that we are constantly meeting with expressions of the kind mentioned, it would seem that we do not need to be told how necessary is cheerfulness in the home, in the street, and wherever we may be. A generous concealment of our own trifling ailments, and a laudable desire to help others to bear their troubles, and possibly to forget them, ought to mark our every-day life. The people who deal so lavishly in commonplace phrases of pity remind one of the little boy three years old who upon being told to be silent unless he had something to say, looked up to his mother with wide open, innocent eyes, and said : " But, mamma, I want to talk when I haven't anything to say." AUTUMN PLEASURES. " From the later weeks of October to Christmas Eve is the period during which happiness is in season." So wrote De Quincey long ago. There has come a pause in the housekeeper's life ; no unusually hard work is to be done ; the house is clean and in perfect order ; the cellarshelves are loaded with cans and jars of fruit and pickles. The hurry of the fall sewing is over, and a season of calm enjoyment has arrived. She may now become acquainted with her children, and enter heartily into their thoughts and interests. There is no time at which a mother's influence may be so powerfully exerted as when she is apparently at one with her family. She leaves her censor's seat, and descends to the level of the children ; if she can for a little while throw aside the remembrance of the years of care that stand between her and them the best results are certain. Words spoken then are not forgotten, or put away with the Sunday's sermon, of which, possibly, the text may linger a few days. She has also now an opportunity for self -culture ; it is a sad thing if she is content to let this time go by without doing something to add to her own mental power. She needs greatly to have reserved forces to aid her in the continued giving-out process of a mother's life. It is almost incredible how much one may do if she has the determination to improve. A half hour's careful reading each day will, in the course of a year, amount to a great deal. An excellent daily rule is to practice, if for a few moments only, that she may not be wholly silent when music enters the house. A very busy woman whom I know well, whose life is crowded with work, and who would be excusable — if any one is — ^for ignorance of the outside world, is, her husband proudly says, better informed than he is in political economy, and is not unmindful of the best things in literature. She has simply cultivated a habit of never being idle ; she has a book or paper close at hand always, or even in her pocket, so that if she has not more than five minutes to give to it she does not consume half that time in looking for it. That woman's place in her household is not, as is sometimes asserted of such women's positions, that of a servant without wages. And the son coming up to manhood in the healthful atmosphere of that home will probably never have the idea that a woman is, or ought to be, a brainless piece of machinery, and will not imitate the wicked old doctor of whom I have heard, who remarked to the young wife he had married that her duty was to be as nearly as possible like a clock — always in one place and always going. SUNSHINE IN THE HOUSE.

Household hints