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A Plethora of Happiness.
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the bargain. I firmly believe in Satan's finding 'some mischief still for idle hands to do.'"

"Ah! but we have such different temperaments! You and I are so unlike!"

"Perhaps so; but we are governed by the same unalterable laws."

"I could not interest myself, as I have heard that you do, in schools for 'ragged children,' and in procuring employment for young women; in sewing societies, and all that sort of thing. I hate what busy people call their 'duties.' I think, generally speaking, the most tedious people in all the world are people who can't do that, or must do this, because it's a 'duty.'"

"And I think that duty is only another word for methods of earning happiness. Duty is something laid out at interest to bring in an income of pleasure. You need not seek your duties in 'ragged schools' and institutions for the employment of young women, or in 'sewing societies,' all of which seem so distasteful to you; leave these for the busy hands of old maids—such as I intend to be if I don't change my mind. A wife and mother has abundance of pleasant occupation in the circuit of her own home, if she will but think so, and seek for it diligently. But she must not fold her little. hands with a martyr-like expression of patience, as you do now, and close her bright eyes upon all that is beautiful and joy-imparting around her. If she does, her energies will stagnate,—and"—

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