Stepping Stones to Happiness: Fourth Index Page

About Pets. The human members of our happy household cannot flatter themselves that they are the sole constituents of the family. There are certain other members whose affection and whose intelligence have a great deal to do with the happiness of the house. To be sure, in the city certain pets are impossible; it is difficult, for example, to have large dogs in town and give them the exercise needed for health. But when one is willing to take the trouble of giving them their frequent run, how much they add to our amusement and the liveliness of the family!

• Poor Dog Tray
• Famous Dogs
• The Dog in Literature
• Harmless Necessary Cat
• The Cat's Beauty
• The Cat's Virtues
• The Cat a Fireside Ornament
• The Little Egyptian Cat
• The Cat's Usefulness
• The Norway Rat
• The Bird in the Cage
• Pretty Poll
• The Children and the Parrot
• Famous Parrots
• A Kerry Cow
• Advantages of the Cow
• Pegasus
• The Woman Who Used to Drive
• The Woman Who Drives Now

The Household Conduct. If we would have perfect happiness in our house, one of the first things we will do is to arrive at a perfect understanding as husband and wife. There are two statements very frequently used concerning the married life which must always be peculiarly offensive to those who desire the good of the family as an institution of beneficence, and through that of the good of the race. One of these statements implies that it is given to the husband to rule ; the other implies that without seeming to have her own way, the wife quietly manages the husband and has it. Both of these ideas are as absurd and injudicious as they are harmful.

• The Ideal Household
• Managing and Ruling
• Tyranny and Its Result in Cunning
• Working Together
• Daily Cares
• The Hired Housekeeper
• The Strong Box
• A Vacation
• School for Cooks
• A Radical Procedure
• Old Cookery Books
• Ancient Feasts
• The Peacock at Banquets
• A Battle at Table
• Some Economies
• The English Woman's Economy
• Saving on a Small Scale
• Old Dishes
• Different Kitchens
• Undreamed of Dishes
• The Mushroom
• The Story of Sylvia Dexter

Work. As necessary a stepping stone to happiness as there is in the whole world is to be found in work enough work, and not too much. When we murmur about our work, we seldom reflect how much more pitiful would be the condition of the most laborious among us if we were suddenly to be deprived of it. We often look upon it as a burden, when it is in reality a blessing in disguise. We picture to ourselves how much happier we should be without it, and envy those who are born to a heritage of idleness, when we should be, in truth, the most wretched beings alive could we exchange places with them for a day. What an angel of mercy has it proved to many! What a solace for vacant

hours! What a panacea for troubles, sentimental or otherwise! Did not John Bunyan bless it, think you, in Bedford jail, where he beguiled the time with toiling over his Pilgrim's Progress? Has it not ministered to many a mind diseased, plucked from the heart many a rooted sorrow? Is it not the

only sure antidote to ennui? a remedy against a host of ills to which flesh and spirit are heir? Has it not rendered us oblivious to injuries and neglect?

      That the money value of work is not its ultimate charm is well attested by those who, having been hard workers for the greater portion of their lives, retire from business, expecting to enjoy themselves and their hard-earned wealth, but rinding the weeks and months heavy upon their hands, finally resume their old habits of industry, having made the important discovery that they had been enjoying themselves all their days; that their true contentment was like the statue hidden in the marble block something to be wrought out by toil; that work was the only talisman against low spirits and hypochondria. We rarely, if ever, hear busy people complaining of megrims; they do not often swell the number of suicides. They have little time to spare for their neighbors' affairs, since the sincere worker must pin his mind to his work, if he would accomplish anything worth dignifying with the name, and not some slop-shop makeshift. We sometimes feel that if we could only choose our work or exchange with another we should be better pleased and more successful ; then we should become earnest in its pursuit ; then should we cease to slight and slander it ; then would our efforts be as spontaneous as the bird's song. But is it not wiser for us to do honestly that which falls in our way, if it be only to darn stockings or to scour knives, without waiting for anything more worthy of our strength or talents? Is it not a reproach to Him Who assigns it to suppose it a mistake and something beneath our abilities, as well as a vanity in us, to imagine ourselves capable of more ambitious tasks?

And are we not assured that

"Who sweeps a room as by God's laws,

Makes that and the action fine? "

•  Mrs. Browning's Word
• The Value of Work to Character
• All Creation Works
• Conscience in the Work
• Work Here and Abroad
• Love of Art Equaling Conscience
• Those Who Are Down on Their Luck
• Rest After Work
• The Rest of Travel
• The Mind in Travel
• The Reader in Travel
• Travel in Our Own Land

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