Home Scenes, and Home Influence

䉘Home Scenes, and Home Influence

Project Gutenberg's Home Scenes, and Home Influence, by T.S. Arthur #24 in our series by T.S. Arthur
Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this or any other Project Gutenberg file.
We encourage you to keep this file, exactly as it is, on your own disk, thereby keeping an electronic path open for future readers.
Please do not remove this.
This header should be the first thing seen when anyone starts to view the etext. Do not change or edit it without written permission. The words are carefully chosen to provide users with the information they need to understand what they may and may not do with the etext. To encourage this, we have moved most of the information to the end, rather than having it all here at the beginning.
**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts**
**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971**
*****These Etexts Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!*****
Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get etexts, and further information, is included below. We need your donations.
The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with EIN [Employee Identification Number] 64-6221541 Find out about how to make a donation at the bottom of this file.

Title: Home Scenes, and Home Influence
Author: T.S. Arthur
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
Release Date: November, 2003 [Etext #4629] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 20, 2002]
Project Gutenberg's Home Scenes, and Home Influence, by T.S. Arthur *******This file should be named hmsnh10.txt or hmsnh10.zip*******
Corrected EDITIONS of our etexts get a new NUMBER, hmsnh11.txt VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, hmsnh10a.txt
This etext was created by Charles Aldarondo ([email protected])
Project Gutenberg Etexts are often created from several printed editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we usually do not keep etexts in compliance with any particular paper edition.
The "legal small print" and other information about this book may now be found at the end of this file. Please read this important information, as it gives you specific rights and tells you about restrictions in how the file may be used.

HOME SCENES, AND HOME INFLUENCE.
A Series of Tales and Sketches.
T. S. ARTHUR.
PHILADELPHIA:
1854.

PREFACE.
MANY of the scenes presented in this volume are such as show the mother's influence with her children; a few include the marriage relation; and a few give other domestic pictures. In all will be found, we trust, motives for self-denial and right action in the various conditions of social life. Home is the centre of good as well as of bad influence. How much, then, depends on those to whom have been committed the sacred trust of giving to the home-circle its true power over the heart!
This volume makes the fifth in "ARTHUR'S LIBRARY FOR THE HOUSEHOLD."

CONTENTS.

TAKING COMFORT. CHILDREN--A FAMILY SCENE. LOSING ONE'S TEMPER. TROUBLE WITH SERVANTS. HAVEN'T THE CHANGE. OLD MAIDS' CHILDREN. THE MOTHER AND BOY. THE CHRISTMAS PARTY. IS SHE A LADY? GOING INTO MOURNING. IF THAT WERE MY CHILD. I WILL! A MOTHER'S INFLUENCE. THE POWER OF PATIENCE. AN OLD MAN'S RECOLLECTIONS.

HOME SCENES.
TAKING COMFORT.

"REALLY, this is comfortable!" said I, glancing around the handsomely furnished parlour of my young friend Brainard, who had, a few weeks before, ventured upon matrimony, and was now making his first experiments in housekeeping.
"Yes, it is comfortable," replied my friend. "The fact is, I go in for comforts."
"I'm afraid George is a little extravagant," said the smiling bride, as she leaned towards her husband and looked tenderly into his face.
"No, not extravagant, Anna," he returned; "all I want is to have things comfortable. Comfort I look upon as one of the necessaries of life, to which all are entitled. Don't you?"
I was looking at a handsome new rose-wood piano when this question was addressed to me, and thinking about its probable cost.
"We should all make the best of what we have," I answered, a little evasively; "and seek to be as comfortable as possible under all circumstances."
"Exactly. That's my doctrine," said Brainard. "I'm not rich, and therefore don't expect to live in a palace, and have every thing around me glittering with silver and gold; but, out of the little I possess, shall endeavour to obtain the largest available dividend of comfort. Ain't I right?"
"Perhaps so."
"You speak coldly," said my friend. "Don't you agree with me? Should not every man try to be as comfortable as his means will permit?"
"Yes, certainly."
"Of course he should. Some men set a value upon money above every thing else, and sacrifice all comfort to its accumulation; but I don't belong to that class. Money is a good gift, because it is the means of procuring natural blessings. I receive