"Dinner to get for six or more,

No loaf left o'er from Sunday
And baby cross as he can be-
He's always so on Monday.

"And there's the cream, it's getting sour,
I must forthwith be churning,
And here's John wants a button on-
Which way shall I be turning?

""Tis time the meat was in the pot,

The bread was worked for baking,

The clothes were taken from the boil-
Oh, dear! the baby's waking!

"Oh, dear! if Frank should just come home,
And find things in this bother,
He'll just begin and tell me all
About his tidy mother:

"How nice her kitchen used to be,
Her dinners always ready
Exactly when the clock struck onc-
(Hush, hush, dear little Freddy.)
"And then will come some hasty word
Right out before I'm thinking-
They say that hasty words from wives
Set sober men a-drinking.

"Now isn't that a fine idea,

That men should take to sinning,
Because a weary half-sick wife
Can't always smile so winning?

"When I was young I used to earn
My living without trouble;
Had clothes and pocket-money too,
And hours of leisure double.

"I never dreamed of such a fate,

When I, a lass! was courted

Wife, mother, nurse, seamstress, cook, housekeeper,
chambermaid, laundress, dairywoman, and
scrub generally, doing the work of six,

For the sake of being supported!"

A woman cannot always be expected to be smiling, although she should try to cultivate this habit as much as she can. Husbands must try to remember that if with one pair of hands and feet she has to cook, mend, and make, to answer the door a dozen times or more, to get rid of a neigh

bour or friend who now and then drops in, to tie up a cut finger of a three-year-old, to nurse a one-and-a-half-year-old who is cutting a tooth, to say nothing of sweeping, dusting, cleaning the rooms, &c., it is no wonder that she will look and feel tired sometimes when you (one home tired too. Well, let "a fellow-feeling make you wondrous kind" to her. Give her a word of sympathy. Ask her how she has got on with this or that, just as you wo ld have done if you had

been courting her. Never let her ask such a question or get such an answer as the following:

"My dear, what makes you always yawn ?'

The wife exclaimed-her temper gone

'Is home so dull and dreary ?'

"Not so, my love,' he said, 'not so,

But man and wife are one, you know,
And when alone I'm weary.'

You remember when you were sweethearting, that when you expected "your intended" to pay you a visit, how careful you were to be neat and clean when he appeared, with

what care you arranged your bit of ribbon, smoothed your hair, that your collar was clean and your dress in proper condition, and do you not think that now he is your husband he expects the same kind of thing? Depend upon it, you will lose nothing by keeping up with the greatest of care all those attentions to the "little things" which you thought so much of in your courting days. A husband likes to see his wife neatly dressed, and clean and tidy in her general appearance when he comes home from his work. Show him that you wish him to see that you are the same prim and attentive woman. Do not change from better to worse, but, if possible, try to improve yourself in such matters. Never be heard saying, "Anything will do for him," but try and get the best thing ready when you expect him to turn in. It is an old fable that "love is blind." While this is to a certain extent true, it is, nevertheless, equally true that no eyes are so sharp as those of lovers. Every true wife will notice a shade upon her husband's brow, and every honest husband will quickly detect a change in the voice of his wife. It is true that this is where many husbands and wives miss their way. They do not cultivate the watchful spirit. That is all the more to be regretted. Many, little by little, allow their blessings to become commonplace, and in this way cease to be lovers, and in doing so they lose their keenness of vision and droop down into two common people yoked together by the law of the land. If ever it comes to this it will not much matter whether the house is built of marble or of bricks, whether the floors are covered with the best of carpets or with sand, whether the dinners are served up with costly china and silver or with plain ware and ordinary knives and forks, whether the walls are hung with costly oil-paintings or with a few cheap prints, whether the windows are hung with beautiful curtains or simply with a common blind-it will be a desert instead of a garden, where the genial atmosphere and the spring sunshine alone car cause the flowers to bud and to grow. Be assured of this,

my friend, that if a loving word was needful before care and trouble crossed the threshold of your house, it becomes doubly needful when care and trouble enters. If a thoughtful attention gave joy and pleasure before you settled down to domestic duties, the delicate consideration, the gentle acts, the entire confidences which marked your conduct then, will be specially precious now, amid the daily duties of the home, or the heavy claims of a busy life as they draw forth so much anxiety, and, at times, require so much consideration. Such attentions will even make any wilderness into which you may be cast "blossom as the rose."

II. Seek to be of one heart. What a blessed thing it would be if every couple would seek to do as they used to do when courting! If they would they might be able to say, with Ellen Tupper, at the close of the journey

""Tis many a day since we were wed
In the village church on the green,
But I well remember people said,
No prettier bride could be seen:
Ay, she was pretty, and she is good,
And as the years roll by,

We stand together as then we stood,
My dear old wife and I.

"Mine was only a lowly co,

And I laboured day by day;

But she made the best of her humble lot,
And cheered me on my way:

Then pleasant it was when toil was o'er
And night was drawing nigh,

Sitting-as now-by the cottage door,
My dear old wife and I.

""Tis true of troubles we've had our share-
From these is no one free-

And many a time have sickness and care

Filled us with misery:

But though with bitter grief and pain

We watched our little ones die,

We are looking forward to meet them again,
My dear old wife and I.

"But still we were not of all bereft,
And happiness came once more-
We had many sons and daughters left,
And plenty crowned our store:
Now children's children round us throng,
And with mingled smile and sigh

We think of the time when we were young,
My dear old wife and I.

"Long years have passed and we are old,
We soon from all must part;
And yet our love has not grown cold,
We still are one in heart:

Yes, here's the secret, we agree―
Good neighbours, won't you try?
Then may you all be happy as we,
My dear old wife and I."

Married life invariably means-1. Additional expenses; 2. No additional income. Of course there are some exceptions, but we are concerned with the general rule. It is all very well for a young man to say, "It will only cost as much to keep two as one," but he will soon find out his mistake, aud if there happens to come, in the course of time, one, two, three, or more to the home, he will have to say that he is in for it now either for "richer or poorer." He may be richer in one way, but poorer in another, inasmuch as he may have more mouths to fill with less food, more clothes to provide with less cash to purchase, greater demands and less means. Now is the time, therefore, to realise that it is his duty, and it ought to be his pleasure, to be on the look-out to do all he can to provide everything convenient for his wife. With every provision he can possibly make, hers will be but a life. of care and toil. She is the sentinel who can seldom, if ever, be relieved. Others can sleep, but if there be any one who must watch, it is she; she ought, therefore, to be furnished with every comfort within the means of her husband. Generally every shilling expended by the husband for the accommodation of his wife in her domestic operations is returned upon him fourfold; if not precisely in pecuniary