CHAPTER IX.
MISCELLANEOUS.
OLDTOWN FOLKS.
[Sidenote: The company room.]
It takes some hours to get a room warm where a family never sits, and which therefore has not in its walls one particle of the genial vitality which comes from the indwelling of human beings.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The turn of the tide.]
When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you, till it seems as if you could not hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that’s just the place and time that the tide’ll turn.
SAM LAWSON’S STORIES.
[Sidenote: Little things.]
“Some seem to think the Lord don’t look out only for gret things; but, ye see, little things is kind o’ hinges that gret ones turns on. They say, take care o’ pennies, an’ dollars’ll take care o’ themselves. It’s jest so in everything; and ef the Lord don’t look arter little things, He ain’t so gret as they say, any way.”
LITTLE FOXES.
[Sidenote: Sincerity and courtesy.]
Truth before all things; sincerity before all things; pure, clean, diamond-bright sincerity is of more value than the gold of Ophir; the foundation of all love must rest here. How those people do who live in the nearest and dearest intimacy with friends who, they believe, will lie to them for any purpose, even the most refined and delicate, is a mystery to me. If I once know that my wife or my friend will tell me only what they think will be agreeable to me, then I am at once lost, my way is a pathless quicksand. But all this being premised, I still say that we Anglo-Saxons might improve our domestic life, if we would graft upon the strong stock of its homely sincerity the courteous grace of the French character.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: Flattery.]
Flattery is _insincere_ praise, given from interested motives, not the sincere utterance to a friend of what we deem good and lovely in him.
HOUSE AND HOME PAPERS.
[Sidenote: Household fairies.]
In fact, nobody wanted to stay in our parlor now. It was a cold, correct, accomplished fact; the household fairies had left it,—and when the fairies leave a room, nobody ever feels at home in it. No pictures, curtains, no wealth of mirrors, no elegance of lounges, can in the least make up for their absence. They are a capricious little set; there are rooms where they will _not_ stay, and rooms where they _will_, but no one can ever have a good time without them.
SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS.
[Sidenote: Cathedrals.]
Cathedrals do not seem to me to have been built. They seem, rather, stupendous growths of nature, like crystals, or cliffs of basalt.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: French conversation.]
Conversation of French circles seems to me like gambols of a thistledown, or the rainbow changes in soap-bubbles. One laughs with tears in one’s eyes. One moment confounded with the absolute childhood of the simplicity, in the next one is a little afraid of the keen edge of the shrewdness.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: The Germans.]
These Germans seem an odd race, a mixture of clay and spirit—what with their beer-drinking and smoking, and their slow, stolid ways, you would think them perfectly earthy; but ethereal fire is all the while working in them, and bursting out in most unexpected little jets of poetry and sentiment, like blossoms on a cactus.
MY WIFE AND I.
[Sidenote: Physiognomy of a house.]
Houses have their physiognomy as much as persons. There are commonplace houses, suggestive houses, attractive houses, mysterious houses, and fascinating houses, just as there are all these classes of persons. There are houses whose windows seem to yawn idly—to stare vacantly; there are houses whose windows glower weirdly, and glance at you askance; there are houses, again, whose very doors and windows seem wide open with frank cordiality, which seem to stretch their arms to embrace you, and woo you kindly to come and possess them....
Is not this a species of high art, by which a house, in itself cold and barren, becomes in every part warm and inviting, glowing with suggestion, alive with human tastes and personalities? Wall-paper, paint, furniture, pictures, in the hands of the home artist, are like the tubes of paint, out of which arises, as by inspiration, a picture. It is the _woman_ who combines them into the wonderful creation which we call a home.
When I came home from my office, night after night, and was led in triumph by Eva to view the result of her achievements, I confess I began to remember, with approbation, the old Greek mythology, and no longer to wonder that divine honors had been paid to household goddesses.
LETTERS.
[Sidenote: Heaven.]
You _do_ like to do good, and live a life worth living, and when you get to heaven you will always want to do exactly the thing by which you can best please the dear Lord. The fashions there in Heaven are set by Him who made himself of no reputation, and came and spent years among poor, ignorant, stupid, wicked people, that He might bring them up to himself,—and I dare say the saints are burning with zeal to be sent on such messages to our world,—I don’t think they “sit on every heavenly hill,” paying compliments to each other, but they are flying hither and thither on messages of mercy to the dark, the desolate, the sorrowful. That’s the way you’ll be when you get there, and spite of all you say about yourself, you’ll get to liking that sort of work more and more here.
* * * * *
[Sidenote: His own house.]
I shall be glad when he is in a house of his own,—a man isn’t half a man till he is.
FINIS.
INDEX OF BOOKS.
THE MINISTER’S WOOING, 1, 55, 84, 105, 118, 134, 158, 171.
OLDTOWN FOLKS, 13, 58, 89, 105, 119, 135, 159, 175, 188.
SAM LAWSON’S STORIES, 60, 119, 188.
PEARL OF ORR’S ISLAND, 19, 60, 91, 108, 119, 161, 178.
LITTLE FOXES, 21, 62, 93, 121, 189.
HOUSE AND HOME PAPERS, 24, 65, 95, 122, 161, 189.
THE CHIMNEY CORNER, 25, 66, 96, 110, 123, 136.
THE MAYFLOWER, 26, 67, 97, 110, 124, 136, 181.
PINK AND WHITE TYRANNY, 29, 69, 100, 112, 125, 163.
BETTY’S BRIGHT IDEA, 32, 112.
DEACON PITKIN’S FARM, 32, 70, 100.
AGNES OF SORRENTO, 33, 71, 101, 113, 126, 139, 163.
UNCLE TOM’S CABIN, 38, 72, 102, 113, 126, 141, 183.
DRED, 41, 73, 127, 141, 164, 183.
PALMETTO LEAVES, 18, 103, 143.
SUNNY MEMORIES OF FOREIGN LANDS, 45, 75, 114, 144, 165, 190.
POGANUC PEOPLE, 47, 76, 103, 114, 151, 168, 184.
LITTLE PUSSY WILLOW, 48, 76, 114, 128, 154, 169.
A DOG’S MISSION, 49, 78, 115, 128.
QUEER LITTLE PEOPLE, 77, 155.
MY WIFE AND I, 49, 78, 103, 116, 130, 155, 169, 187, 191.
WE AND OUR NEIGHBORS, 51, 80, 104, 132, 169.
RELIGIOUS POEMS, 52, 156.
LETTERS, 192.
INDEX OF TITLES.
A boy’s growth, 57.
A busy-body, 77.
A cascade, 148.
Acceptable advice, 71.
A childlike nature, 61.
A child’s crosses, 116.
A child’s defense, 113.
A child’s longing for sympathy, 110.
A child’s love, 110.
A child’s philosophy, 107.
A child’s power, 111.
A child’s questions, 108.
A common mode of reasoning, 67.
Affinity of opposites, 26.
Agony of uncertainty, 7.
Agony in the voice, 36.
A good picture, 163.
A help-meet, 95.
A lesson in faith, 19.
“All for the best,” 33.
Alpine air, 150.
Altruism, 51.
Altruistic faith, 21.
Amusements, 17.
A mutual education, 119.
A natural education, 120.
A New England woman, 70.
Animal spirits, 76.
Animation, 113.
A perfect character, 97.
Appreciating individuality, 132.
A ship-building community, 178.
A Southern thunder-shower, 141.
Aspiration, 32.
A sympathetic God, 36.
A true home, 95.
A typical New England village, 181.
Autumn, 153.
A well-developed man, 123.
A woman’s view, 90.
Baby’s dreams, 112.
Baiting the boy, 120.
Beautiful old age, 102.
Beauty in nature, 144.
Bird-talk, 153.
Blessedness _vs._ happiness, 3.
“Blessings brighten as they take their flight,” 73.
“Bobservation,” 126.
Books, 169.
Books of meditation, 169.
Broken idols, 78.
Candace’s theology, 8.
Capacity of feeling, 27.
Careful observation, 65.
Care inevitable to human nature, 67.
Cathedrals, 190.
Character, 103.
Characters worth exploring, 79.
_Châteaux en Espagne_, 66.
Child faith, 114.
Child instinct, 105.
Childish antipathies, 106.
Child’s buoyancy, 109.
Child’s intensity, 105.
Child’s mission, 113.
Child’s reasoning, 110.
Clairvoyance, 31.
Clearcut thought, 175.
Cloud landscapes, 147.
Coincidence, 37.
Color-blending, 150.
Congeniality of opposites, 42.
Connection with the spirit world, 44.
Conscience in New England women, 183.
Control of the thoughts, 9.
Convenient duties, 68.
Conversation, 25.
Courage, 133.
Courage in the truth, 3.
“Cuteness,” 67.
Danger in apparent safety, 68.
Dangers of vanity, 125.
Death in life, 8.
Defective education, 118.
Depression after exaltation, 56.
Developing power of love, 11.
Different temperaments, 108.
Difficulty of confession, 76.
Difficulty of criticism, 165.
Difficulty of inspiring others, 34.
Difficulty of self-knowledge, 62.
Discipline, 12, 19.
Discipline of patience, 49.
Doing our _own_ work, 133.
Doubt, 50.
Dreams, 35.
Dual nature, 71.
Duty _vs._ expediency, 57.
Early New England society, 180.
Earnestness of the New England people, 171.
Educating boys for husbands, 131.
Education of man and woman, 119.
Effect of harshness, 73.
Effect of sinning, 60.
Ennobling power of sorrow, 50.
Exaction, 102.
Expression of love, 21.
Expressive silence, 58.
Faculty, 173, 187.
Faith, not sight, 14.
Family worship, 185.
Fate, 110.
Fine natures perverted, 75.
First false step, 77.
First principles of home-making, 24.
First steps, 74.
Fitful persons, 20.
Flattery, 189.
Flaws in gems, 81.
Flowers, 145.
Forcing a daughter, 101.
Forgiveness of friends, 51.
French conversation, 190.
French nature, 56.
Friends, 50.
Friendly gossip, 80.
From different standpoints, 75.
Garrets, 174.
Gems, 136.
Genial and ungenial natures, 69.
Getting used to the world, 106.
Girls’ confidences, 93.
God as an artist, 46.
God’s comfort, 53.
God’s cordials, 14.
God’s sympathy, 27.
God’s tests, 5.
God working through man, 52.
Good and evil inseparable, 74.
Good wherever we seek it, 34.
Gossip, 83.
Grace in affliction, 45.
Greek, 161.
Growing alike, 70.
Growth from within, 16.
Habit, 118.
Heart-wisdom _vs._ worldly wisdom, 27.
Heaven, 192.
Heavenly children, 116.
Hebrew literature, 159.
Heimweh, 19, 47.
Help in sorrow, 26.
Help from work, 51.
Heredity, 79.
His own house, 192.
Hobbies, 115.
Holiness of age, 15.
Holiness of infancy, 108.
Holiness of woman, 84.
Home education, 122.
Honoring mother, 127.
Household fairies, 189.
Human error, 118.
Human nettles, 81.
Hymns, 163, 170.
Idealizing our work, 130.
Idealizing power of love, 13.
Idle talk, 88.
Ignorant selfishness, 55.
Immutability of nature’s laws, 132.
Impossibility of evading trouble, 82.
Individuality, 38, 90, 121.
Individuality in children, 107.
Inexplicable preferences, 42.
Influence, 27.
Influence of the invisible, 4.
Influence of a mother’s prayer, 29.
Influence of heredity and associations, 59.
Influence of surroundings, 155.
Influence of the Bible, 160.
Inner life, 52.
Innocence, 37.
Inspiration, 38.
Intemperance, 124.
Intuition, 100.
Inward peace, 45.
“I told you so,” 82.
Joy in endurance, 44.
Joy of living, 57.
“Keep straight on,” 119.
Lack of religious instruction, 131.
Language of the Bible, 167.
Latent caloric, 22.
Laws of prayer, 4.
Learning to love, 25.
Letters, 163.
Letting go, 119.
Life, 60.
Life an engrossing interest, 176.
Life as a play, 60.
Life renewed, 18.
Limitation, 20.
Limit of responsibility, 130.
Line between right and wrong, 50.
Little things, 188.
Living together, 28.
Longing for love in the unlovely, 47.
Looking through blue glasses, 66.
Lost confidence, 75.
Lost innocence irrecoverable, 35.
Love a sacrament, 5.
Love a test, 21.
Love of a bargain, 65.
Love of solitude, 109.
Making people like us, 67.
Making the best of it, 59, 121.
Man’s childish impatience, 49.
Marks of genius, 77.
Maternal element in woman’s love, 93.
Meditations of the oak, 136.
Memory, 9.
Ministering spirits, 28.
Minor modulations, 9.
Mischief, 108.
Miss Prissy’s motto, 3.
Modern saints, 94.
Moral atmosphere, 39.
Moral courage, 131.
Moral earnestness, 13.
Moral inheritance, 15.
Morbid feelings, 64.
Moss, 144.
Mother-love for a son, 86.
Mother pride, 112.
Mother’s inconsiderateness, 87.
Mother’s intuition, 88.
Mother’s work, 89.
Mountain air, 146.
Mountain brooks, 149.
Music the language of Italy, 164.
Naïveté, 34.
Natural and moral elevation, 139.
Natural religious sensibility, 40.
Nature’s anguish, 150.
Nature’s lesson on love, 142.
Need of home attractions, 122.
Neighbors’ influence, 91.
Nervous sensibility, 37.
New England nobility, 177.
New England spring, 151.
New England theology, 171.
New England the parent of the West, 175.
New England winter, 154.
Night resolutions, 43.
October in New England, 135.
Opinionated people, 76.
Orderliness, 104.
Our Charley, 115.
Our thoughts in others’ words, 169.
Patient waiting, 126.
Peace through suffering, 52.
Perfect faith, 10.
Perfection in little things, 123.
Persistence, 72.
Persistency, 81.
Personal magnetism, 12, 59.
Personality, 80.
Phases of nature, 148.
Physical good-humor, 60.
Physiognomy of a house, 191.
Pines, 151.
Poetry and prose, 116.
Power of a tone, 59.
Power of an honest character, 71.
Power of beauty, 70.
Power of inward emotion, 168.
Power of mind over body, 38.
Power of real love, 85.
Power of song, 43.
Power of sympathy, 33.
Practical and ideal, 41.
Praise and blame, 52.
Privileged truth-tellers, 68.
Proof of heaven, 43.
Prophecy and revelation, 164.
Pure joy, 108.
Puritan music, 168.
Quiet children, 107.
Reaction of harshness, 49.
Reading only for amusement, 161.
Real conversation, 104.
Real love, 62.
Real music, 167.
Recreation, 121.
Regret, 23.
Relation of age to youth, 72.
Religious development, 185.
Religious instruction at home, 124.
Rembrandt and Hawthorne, 166.
Repression, 5, 17, 87, 117, 179.
Reproach, 51.
Reserve, 91.
Reserve not understood, 62.
Restrictions of the body on the soul, 2.
Responsibility, 11.
Reverence the basis of faith, 88.
Righteousness through repentance, 82.
Right side of human nature, 81.
Romance, 158.
Rough exterior, 176.
Rubens and Shakespeare, 166.
Sacred music, 162.
Saintliness, 25.
Scepticism, 60.
’Scuses, 73.
Seeing and feeling, 47.
Seeing the bright side, 48.
Self-deception, 1, 68.
Self-forgetfulness, 40.
Self-ignorance, 31.
Selfish love, 58.
Selfishness, 100.
Self-sacrifice, 39.
Selling their disadvantages, 183.
Sensitive natures, 110.
Sensitiveness to blame, 55.
Shadow, 46.
Shyness of love, 64.
Silence of deep emotion, 37.
Silent companionship, 15.
Silent influence, 127.
Simple honesty _vs._ worldliness, 56.
Simplicity, 114.
Sincerity and courtesy, 189.
Sorrow an educator, 38.
Sorrow a preparation for love, 34.
Soul-absorption, 2.
Soul-communion, 1.
Soul-growth, 12.
Soul-language, 78.
Soul-relation, 18.
Soul-striving, 46.
Speaking as a friend, 73.
Starting right, 128.
Starved faculties, 130.
Streaked men, 74.
Strength of despair, 39.
Struggling for higher things, 14.
Sublimity in nature, 148.
Suffering in silence, 44.
Summer rain, 155.
Summer studies, 156.
Sunshine of the heart, 35.
Superiority, 27.
Superstition, 40.
Suppression, 101.
Sweetness, 92.
Sympathy, 1, 18, 27, 31, 33.
Sympathy through sorrow, 7.
Tact, 93.
Taught by suffering, 29.
Teachings of suffering, 25.
The artist as prophet, 165.
The artist’s mission, 163.
The art of home-making, 96.
The Bible, 161.
The brook in winter, 137.
The calm of God’s love, 53.
The child as teacher, 112.
The company room, 188.
The curfew, 187.
The divine ideal, 10.
The do-nothing, 176.
The education of the parent, 122.
The effect of Christianity, 167.
The farmhouse, 182.
The Germans, 190.
The human soul, 41.
The ideal and the practical, 9.
The kitchen, 171.
The kitchen fireplace, 186.
The lesson of faith, 32.
The morning star, 141.
The mother in every woman, 89.
The mysterious in nature, 146.
The negro love of beauty, 72.
The New England wife-mother, 100.
The object of life, 30.
The odd one, 105.
The oleander, 143.
The reserve power of quietness, 91.
The right side and the wrong, 144.
The right way to study, 128.
The Sabbath, 179.
The sea, 134.
The spirit within, 53.
The strongest passions, 35.
The study of a new language, 161.
The summit of Vesuvius, 140.
The sunrise, 135.
The turning-point in life, 128.
The turn of the tide, 188.
The universal book, 164.
The world’s injustice, 57.
Throwing away happiness, 64.
Too much heart, 68.
Transient uplifting, 36.
Transition periods, 43.
Trees in winter, 138.
True beauty, 101.
True courage, 91.
True heroism, 39.
True greatness, 130.
Trust, 33.
Truth told by an enemy, 132.
“Turn about,” 103.
Two kinds of frankness, 69.
Unacknowledged motives, 32.
Unconscious heart-thrusts, 5.
Undercurrent, 10.
Unintended hurts, 61.
Unity in conflict, 16.
Unity in prayer, 7.
Unperverted taste, 114.
Unseen dangers, 109.
Unsuspected danger, 79.
Unsuspected influence, 11.
Use of a chatterbox, 74.
Using knowledge, 89.
Value of ready expression, 75.
Value of truth, 133.
Want of sympathy in nature, 134.
Warning for mothers, 65.
What girls should be taught, 125.
“What shall we do with Charley?” 128.
Will-power, 57.
Winged and walking spirits, 6.
Winter clouds, 139.
Winter, North and South, 143.
Wit, 75.
Woman and Christianity, 104.
Woman as a gospel, 84.
Woman ennobled by man’s love, 85.
Woman feels; man reasons, 4.
Woman’s instinctive silence, 87.
Woman’s life within, 92.
Woman’s mission, 104.
Woman’s moral influence, 99.
Woman’s nature, 89.
Woman’s spiritual power, 103.
Woman’s veneration, 86.
World conflicts, 37.
Yankee grit, 184.
TEXT AND VERSE
FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR.
Scripture Passages and Parallel Selections from the Writings of JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER, arranged by GERTRUDE W. CARTLAND. Tastefully bound in cloth. 32mo, 75 cents.
This little book of helpful passages for every day is composed of a verse from the Bible and a stanza of similar character from Mr. Whittier’s works arranged together. The spirit of Mr. Whittier’s poetry renders this association altogether harmonious, and the little book furnishes a series of stimulating and consoling thoughts for the whole course of the year.
Calculated to give strength and comfort to a wide circle, and to increase the poet’s admirers.—_The Nation_ (New York).
Very pretty, very cleverly done, and a success of which the authoress may be proud.—_The Churchman_ (New York).
FIVE EXQUISITE BIRTHDAY BOOKS
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Beckonings for Every Day.
A Calendar of Thought. Arranged by LUCY LARCOM, editor of “Breathings of the Better Life,” etc. 16mo, $1.00.
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A book of devotional thoughts for daily use, of a much higher order than common.—_New York Evening Post._
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This little book has been prepared with much intelligence and care, and includes a large number of striking and quotable passages from Mrs. Stowe’s various works. They form a book of quite remarkable variety, admirable for brief leisure moments. Side titles are inserted in the text for each quotation, so that one can see at a glance what is the subject of each of the selections.
After Noontide.
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A book containing passages designed to add sunshine and comfort to the afternoon of life. The selections are from numerous writers, of widely differing schools of literature and religion, but are rendered harmonious by the spirit of cheerful acceptance of the peculiar blessings which advancing years bring, and the recognition of the fact that though some burdens and infirmities may accompany these years, yet they are, or at least may be, full of cheer, of pleasant memories, and of serene hope.
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTE
The index was not checked for proper alphabetization or correct page references.
Obvious typographical errors and punctuation errors have been corrected after careful comparison with other occurrences within the text and consultation of external sources, including the texts quoted.
Some hyphens in words have been silently removed, some added, when a predominant preference was found in the original book.
Misspellings in the text, and inconsistent or archaic usage, have been retained.