The true home-maker does not spend all of her time with her ducks,
chickens, pigs, and cows, nor yet with her neighbors, her club, nor her
Church. She finds some time to cultivate her intellectual nature and the
finer feelings of her children. She does not degenerate into a mere
household drudge. She is not the slave of her husband, but his companion.
If she has musical ability, she keeps up the practice of her music; if she
is inclined to literature, she reads some every day. Whether literary or
not, every woman should spend some time each day in reading that she
might keep abreast with the world, at least with her companion, in the
movements and thoughts of every-day life. The true home-maker plans
to have a few minutes each day which she calls her own, in which she
may do as she pleases regardless of call or duty, that she might relax
herself, remove the strain of intense effort, rest, give her nature its free
bent and inclination. It will pay her in every way. She will accomplish
more and better work in the busy hours. A spirit and a force will
characterize every effort. The women of to-day are overworked. They
can not do themselves, their families, not their homes the true spiritual
service that it is their part to do. Plan for a few minutes rest with the
daily routine of care. But how is one to do this with so many demands
made upon her? For she is expected to be seamstress, laundress, maid,
cook, hostess, a companion to her husband, a trainer of her children, a
social being, and a helper in the Church. If it is impossible or impracticable
for one to have a servant, she will find these few minutes for daily recreation
and study only in a wise choice of more important duties, and will allow the
less important ones to go undone. Many housewives could well afford
to keep a helper. It becomes a question which is of greater importance,
the life and health of the wife and mother, or the paltry wages of a servant?
We knew a family in Illinois who were quite able to keep help in the home,
but did not do so. The mother made a slave of herself, in a few years