Occupations > Frugal housewife

MODERATE FORTUNE. 159
him to take back an empty bottle which
belonged to the shop, he, with a mortified
look, begged me to do it np neatly in a
paper, that it might look like a small pack¬
age. Is this boy likely to be happier for
cherishing a foolish pride, which will for
ever be jarring against his duties ? Is he in
reality one whit more respectable than the
industrious lad who sweeps shops, or carries
bottles, without troubling himself with the
idea that all the world is observing his little
unimportant self? For, in relation to the
rest of the world, each individual is unim¬
portant ; and he alone is wise who forms his
habits according to his own wants, his own
prospects, and his own principles.
TRAVELLING AND PURLIC AMUSEMENTS.
There is one kind of extravagance rapidly
increasing in this country, which, in its
effects on our purses and our habits, is one of
the worst kinds of extravagance ; I mean
the rage for travelling, and for public
amusements. The good old home habits of
our ancestors are breaking up—it will be
well if our virtue and our freedom do not
follow them! It is easy to laugh at such
prognostics,—and we are well aware that
the virtue we preach is considered almost
obsolete,—but let any reflecting mind in¬
quire how decay began in all republics, and