Occupations > Frugal housewife

*02 HINTS TO PERSONS OF
appears insipid, and it requires no small
effort to return to the quiet routine of your
duties. And what do you get in return for
all this ? Some pleasant scenes, which will
soon seem to you like a dream; some pleasant
faces, which you will never see again ; and
much of crowd, and toil, and dust, and
bustle.
I once knew a family which formed a
striking illustration of my remarks. The
man was a farmer, and his wife was an
active, capable woman, with more of ambi¬
tion than sound policy. Being in debt, they
resolved to take fashionable boarders from
Boston, during the summer season. These
boarders, at tie time of their arrival, were
projecting a jaunt to the Springs ; and they
talked of Lake George crystals, and Cana¬
dian music, and English officers, and “ dark
blue Ontario,” with its beautiful little brood
of lakelets, as ,Wordsworth would call them ;
and how one lady was dressed superbly at
Saratoga ; and how another was scandalized
for always happening to drop her fan in the
vicinity of the wealthiest beaux. All this
fired the quiet imagination of the good
farmer’s wife; and no sooner had the
boarders departed to enjoy themselves, in
spite of heat, and dust, and fever, and ague,
than she stated her determination to follow
them. “ Why have we not as good a right
to travel as they have ? ” said she; “ they