THE SUCCESSFUL HOUSEWIE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 1, Issue 61, 14 February 1880, Page 3

THE SUCCESSFUL HOUSEWIE.

* J The first step towards success must oo „ learning to love the work. If a girl brought r up in the city and used to the ways of ( c city life marries a thrifty young fanner and undertakes to do the housework necessary for her to do, or to oversee it done, she may be astonished to find it disagreeable. Thinking, in her innocence, - thatsho is willing to do anything for him she loves, she by degrees finds she is not. - Tired, discouraged and heart sick, she ) longs for her old home, but knowing she has°chosen her lot and must abide by her , choice, she assumes an indifference to her , work, which soon becomes a reality, and she plods around as a machine might, could one bo invented to do housework. Her husband knows things do not go right in the house but can devise no means to bettor them, and also grows indifferent and when children begin to add their noise to the general confusion, he flees to I the field by day and the village store by . night, and the poor wife has another grief to* add to her catalogue of woes. By learning to love her work the young house- ' wife (and old ones too, perhaps) may avoid mneh misery of miud, ; aud body—i say of body—for we well know that the body sympathises with the mind, and often one feels sick when one is only worried. The farmer's wife has much , work to do that the mechanic’s wife knows nothing of. It amuses me to hear women toll how much work they have to do, and w hen yon get at the root of the matter, they hire their washing done ; hire their dresses cut, and perhaps made, and no milk to take care of!! ! I sometimes wonder what some of them would do if the care of the milk of half-a-dozen cows was added to their work. We fanners wives have one advantage. We can sea nature in all its beauty. Our work requires us to be up in the morning with the birds, and we step about skimming milk, working up butter, washing and scalding pans and pails, no one can hinder our drinking in the beauty of the morning ; but when tired (and shall I say ! it cross) we wilfully deny ourselves a s glance out of the open door, and when husband comes in fresh from the dewy s fields and while tracking our floor woe- , fully, speaks of the fineness of the mornl ing, we see only the dirty boot mark, and , answer accordingly, we have not learned 3 to love our work. There is nothing that f will help us so much as a hearty, genuine r love for what we are doing, and I believe i that love may be born, reared, and ma- - tured wherever we find our life work. If e yco consider ourselves martyrs, drudges,

over-worked women etc., etc., we cannot bo successful. Our work requires an carnest, thoughtful, loving spirit, a patient but energetic persevering hand, and a pleasant, smiling face.—S. B. Sawyer in the “Itural Now Yorker.”