Household hints

can dwell is that of Darwin watching with his matchless patience and noting down the indications of dawning intelligence in his little son. To give at least the hour between " the dark and the daylight " to the family is within the power of almost everybody. To sit around the fire and tell stories, to talk over the events of the day, to find out what each one of the family has thought about most that day, is all enjoyable and instructive. In one home of whose inner working I know something it is the usual practice, and, unless interrupted by visitors, each one in turn "makes up" a story; sometimes each one takes the same subject. Sometimes a limited time is given to each, and he must fill that time with the story he manufactures for the occasion. This is not only pure fun, but the correct use of language is taught in the best possible way. Another interesting amusement is to trace the association of ideas ; it has a fascination for children, and after a very little practice they will tell with accuracy and delight how they came to think and speak of this thing and that. I fancy that children who go out of homes in which they have been made intellectual companions of father and mother will not only be better prepared to express their thoughts, but will really have something to express. They will be less easily influenced and carried about by divers strange doctrines. WHY THE GIRLS DO NOT MARRY. There appear from time to time articles in the newspapers upon a subject which might be talked over in some homes with good effecf. These articles frequently take the form of communications from young men who have a certain amount of income, and who would like to marry, but who say that they dare ask no young woman whom they know to share it with them. The amount was sufficient for the fathers and mothers, but will not do for the daughters — ^girls are so extravagant nowadays, and require so much. It may be that this is true, but I have grave doubts of it, and should like to ask who it is that makes the objections ; how many fathers and mothers are willing that their daughters shall begin life as they did, with just as simple surroundings ? It is not the higher education that our girls receive that ' unfits them for it ; there is nothing in mechanics or geology to inspire a girl with the notion that unless she can marry a man with ample means to support her in idleness she can not consent to a life with him. It is rather the false ideas instilled into her mind at home. What folly in her to leave a luxurious home for the unpretending one her husband can give her, where she will be obliged to do her share toward the common work of making it what it should be ! What obstacles are put in her way ! Unless she is a girl of high spirit and great determination, and who can follow Montaigne's advice, and do what she is afraid to, she gives up, but not because she believes that she could not be happy and useful in the home offered to her. It is the old story that a woman will follow the man she loves "beyond the night, across the day, through all the world.'' The girls are not to blame, but the parents, who, like crusty gardeners, have watched and guarded the perfect bloom of the hot-house plant, and will not allow it to be taken from them. TRYING VISITORS. Hard as it is to bear with grace the trials caused by agents, there is another class of visitors whose calls are fully as unwelcome. Indeed, I believe it is easier to get through the troubled half hour in which the broken-down minister — that pathetic figure who so frequently darkens our door — introduces to our notice his wonderful *^ Faith Cure " ; or that in which the audacious young man polishes one leg of a table, thereby disgracing the other three for