Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: them eat what they like, so that they don't trouble you, and season it to their tastes; and here's hoping it will do them good. And now having located you comfortably under the quilt, out of harm's way, let me tell you that if you think you are doing God service, or anybody else, by using up a year's strength in a week, you have made a sinful mistake. I don't care anything about that basket of unmended stockings, or unmade pinafores, or any other nursery nightmare which haunts the dreams of these "Martha" mothers. You have but one life to live, that's plain; and when you are dead, all the king's men can't make you stand on your feet again, that's plain. Well, then —don't be dead. In the first place, go out a part of every day, rain or shine, for the fresh air, and don't tell me you can't; at least not while you can stop to embroider your children's clothes. As to " dressing to go out," don't dress. If you are clean and whole, that's enough ; have boots with elastics at the side, instead of those long mile Balmorals that take so long to " lace up,"—in short, simplify your dressing, and then stop every wheel in the house if necessary in order to go out, but go ; fifteen minutes is better than nothing ; if you can't get out in the day-time, run out in the evening; and if your husband can't see the necessity of it, perhaps he will on reflection after you have gone out. The moral of all which is, that if nobody else will take care of you, you must just take care of yourself As to the children—I might write a long book on this head, or those heads, bless 'em I They can't help being born, poor things, though they often get slapped for that, and nothing else, as far as I can sea It is a pity you hadn't three instead of six, so that the care of them might be a pleasure instead of a w...