A PAGE OF FUGITIVE VERSE. ORIGINAL AND SELECTED.

BEFORE MY SWEET BIRDLINGS
WERE FLOWN.
(Published by request.)

As I sit me here in the twilight,
In my old armchair all alone,

I bethink me of days gone forever.
Before my sweet birdlings were flown.
And as fancy the bright picture colors,
Two forms with distinctness I see,
With their chairs drawn up close beside me,
And their loving arms thrown around me.
"Please mamma, now tell us some stories,"
From prattling lips quickly I hear.
And the stories so often repeated,

Fall like music on each listening ear.
Anon-and the scene quickly changes

And a school-girl so happy and bright, Now sits in her rocking-chair reading

While her brother is mending his kite. Soon the clock tells the hour for retiring, And I accompany my darlings to rest; And the sweet good-night kiss ne'er forgotten, Is again on my lips fondly pressed. Yet another change comes o'er my picture In the girl a sweet maiden I seeAnd the boy, with his kite and his marbles, Has outgrown both his father and me.

And now their young friends gather round them,

And the old house re-echoes with mirth;
Their hearts, with pure joy overflowing,
In laughter and music ring forth.
Oh my children how dearly I love you,
No fond words of mine can e'er tell;
And that you love and trust me as ever,
I know and appreciate well.

May you cherish with fond recollection,
The old home deserted and lone-
And the new ones that rise at your bidding,
May God's blessing 'round them be thrown.

I fain would your path strew with roses--
Fain guard and protect you from ill---
But to His loving care I resign you,
Our God, who hath done all things well.

Yet I love to sit here in the twilight-

And think of the days that are gone; And again hear those happy young voices Before my sweet birdlings were flown. -Mrs. M. A. Calkins.

There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow,
There are heaps of dust-but we loved them so!
There are trinkets and tresses of hair.

There are fragments of songs that nobody sings;
There's a part of an infant's prayer;
There are broken vows and pieces of rings,
There's a lute unswept, and a harp without
strings,

And the garments she used to wear.

Upon his breast, and listen whilst the fairy tale he tells

Of the Elfin Queen who holds her court amid the flower-bells.

Now youths and maidens, one and all in sweet home-tasks engage,

Smiled on approvingly by those who own a riper age;

No harm can injure those who safe at the homeanchor ride;

There are hands that are waved when the fairy No worldly pleasures yield to peace that gilds

shore

By the mirage is lifted in air,

the home fireside.

And we sometimes hear through the turbulent Our own fireside, our bright fireside, there's

If you have gentle words and looks, my friends, Away from all doors and the winds that blow,

To spare for me- if you have tears to shed That I have suffered-keep them not, I pray, Until I hear not, see not, being dead.

If you have flowers to give-fair lily buds, White roses, daisies (meadow stars that be My own dear namesakes)-let them smile and make

The air, while yet I breathe it, sweet for me. For loving looks, though fraught with tender

Giving dear grandma the headache so.

We will have it warm, we will have it bright-
Eyes dim with years need unclouded light;
Of access easy to all, but where

The household rush shall not jar her chair.
We would let her choose where the spot shall be,
But too unselfish and meek is she;

I really believe she would choose bare floor,
And crowd herself back by the cellar door.

No, no, Miss Grandma, 'twill never do
To leave your comforts and rights to you;
Your chair shall be covered and soft; your fect
Shall rest on a “cricket," all bright and neat.
You shall sit, and out of the window gaze,
Or on us as we work by the hearth-fire's blaze;
You shall work or be idle, do just as you will-
Hold baby, or not, when he's gentle and still.
The place in this house that is snuggest and best
Is the place we have chosen for dear grandma's

rest.

"Why?" Grandma dear, don't you ask us why:

Look at our mother with tearful eye,
Smiling upon you in love untold,

And gratitude not to be purchased with gold.

Where had we been, I would like to know,

Who dreams not of a single meal, and prays but If grandmother had not so long agofor a thaw.

Pile on more logs; the brighter that our cheery hearth doth glow,

The more our hearts shall warm to those who no such blessings know

When grandpa was far on the stormy main-
So faithfully tended our mother dear
Feeble and lonely and often in pain,
Through years of hardship and little cheer?

You dear old diamond! We understand

As hearth and home, and kith and kin, and love The knots and kinks in this little hand: of humankind,

Indoors and outdoors, and early and late,

Poor wanderers, who on this earth no jot of joy You toiled for the sake of your toiling mate— can find.

Poor we may be, yet not so poor but that a

penny fee

We have for such; and know, O Lord, we lend it unto Thee;

For the sake of the children you loved so wellAnd now, like a queen, you shall with them dwell.

We all are your subjects, with reverent love, Delighted to serve you our homage to prove :

Who aideth not his brother when he knocketh Your corner the throne-room, your chair is the at the door

EDITOR'S PORTFOLIO.

HOLYOKE, MASS., AND NEW YORK CITY, JANUARY 9, 1886.

All communications for the Editorial Department should be addressed to the Editor of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, Holyoke, Mass.

Postage stamps must accompany all contributions sent for editorial consideration, when the writers desire the return of their MSS., if not accepted.

This issue of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING is copyrighted, but our exchanges are invited to copy from its columns-due credit being given-as they may desire, save the contributions of MISS MARIA PARLOA, all rights in these being especially

reserved to the writer.

The special papers which appear in GOOD HOUSEKEEPING will be written expressly for its pages by our selected contributors, and,-with rare exceptions,the entire Table of Contents will be served up from our own larder. Whenever we borrow from a neighbor a bit of this or a bite of that, we shall say where such bit or bite came from, and to whom it belongs.

TO ALL NEWSDEALERS.

Retail Newsdealers can send their orders for GooD HOUSEKEEPING to the News Companies from which they procure their regular supplies and have them filled. It will be furnished regularly by the following companies: American News Co., International News Co., National News Co., New York News Co., New York; American News Co., Denver, Kansas City, Omaha and St. Paul; Brooklyn News Co., and Williamsburg News Co., Brooklyn; Baltimore News Co., Baltimore; Central News Co., Philadelphia; Cincinnati News Co., Cin

groans a third.
enough for her to work when she can't help herself."

"Let her take her comfort while she may. Time

Now all these excuses, even the second, are alike in this respect, that they assume domestic work to be an evil. You would call your daughter early to go on a pleasure excursion, though she had studied never so late. You would take infinite pains to teach her some art or accomplishment that you believed would add to her happiness; you would grudge her no share in your occupations which you believed would make her happier. Both by precept and example you teach that there is no pleasure in the work which is the business of your life. But your little child does not think so. Whether boy or girl, it simply rejoices in helping you; it loves to be with you; it is glad to share your occupations. Your smile of approbation is a rich reward for toil; the belief that it is of use makes drudgery delight. All this love, this chivalry, this cheerful self-abnegation-oh mother! do you realize what you are doing when you forbid such impulses as these their beautiful development? Will you not perceive that, should you meet these lovely impulses half way, and, holding them in sacred honor, set yourself earnestly to train them to perfect efficiency, you would be doing the very noblest and grandest work ever allotted to woman? Not

Western News Co., Chicago; Pittsburg News Co., Pittsburg; Washington News Co., Washington, D. C.; Newark News Co., Newark; St. Louis News Co., St. Louis; New Orleans News Co., New Orleans; San Francisco News Co., San Francisco; Rhode Island News Co., Providence; Albany News Co., Albany; Northern News Co., Troy; Detroit News Co., Detroit; Montreal News Co., Montreal; Toronto News Co., Toronto and Clifton, Canada.

THE CO-OPERATION OF CHILDREN.

Many are the theories propounded for the relief of the overburdened housekeeper,-ever more overburdened as the art of living becomes ever more complex. One of the most alluring of these theories is Co-operative Housekeeping; promising relief from incessant care, and from the growing perplexity of the servant problem. Amidst the discussions of this plan, its advantages and disadvantages, a certain form of co-operation seems to have been quite overlooked, although it is within every one's reach, and requires no elaborate preparation to make it effective, the co-operation of children in their mother's work. Every mother knows how eager to "help" is the very little child; but few are the mothers who have not sighed, “Ah, well, by the time you are old enough to be of use you won't be so anxious to help." And in fact this prescience is but too sadly true.

Now, in all sympathy with the overburdened mother, I would ask, is the fault not yours that your older children are of so little use? How did it come to pass that the loving, eager, helpful little child, so ready to bear burdens beyond its strength, and to undergo real hardship for the glad privilege of "helping mamma," has become the indifferent, listless daughter, unlovingly resenting each imposition of household duty, deeming it almost an impertinence that she should be asked to share her mother's cares, an indignity that she should be supposed competent to do so? Must there not have been some fault in the training, when so radical a change takes place in so short a time?

"But my daughter has so much to do," sighs one overburdened mother. "What with school and practising she never has a moment, and it would be cruel to call her early in the morning when she has been over her books all the evening before."

“And I am so busy," moans another. "I really cannot bother with teaching my daughter to work. It is much easier to do it all myself, and it is hard enough at the best."

making life a nobler, higher thing for your children; training souls made in God's image to take delight in that which delights Him,the service of others. By making them competent to the easy performance of common duties, you are not only raising them above the petty trials and the vexatious failures of the inexperienced housekeeper; you are training them in the highest virtues of which human nature is capable,-loyal recognition of past kindness, glad acceptance of obligation, chivalrous tenderness toward the weaknesses, careful observances of the necessities of those who are nearest them.

From this high point of view it might be argued that boys as well as girls should share in household training. And why not? Is not the very little boy as eager to be helpful as his little sister? Will your son be less respectful to his mother when he has learned something of what her care of him has cost her? Will he be less tender of her when he has come to know the weariness of some of her labors? Will he hold her in slighter esteem when experience has taught him how much of the sweetness and the brightness of home he owes to efforts of hers of which he would never have dreamed if he had not shared them? Will he be less manly when he has relieved her of a heavy burden, or spared her an hour of drudgery toil? There are many domestic services which can be most efficiently rendered by boys; not merely the hewing of wood and the drawing of water, but the sweeping of rooms, (and any one who has contrasted a boy's first handling of the broom with girls' initial attempts will have felt convinced that nature intended him, not her, to be the sweeper), and even the more refined occupation of the care of house plants and the arranging of bouquets,—occupations in which many boys take genuine delight; in fact, there is hardly a limit to the avocations which a cheerful, bright boy may share with his mother.

Such housekeeping as this would be co-operative in the very truest and highest sense.

MILLIONS OF COPIES.

A friend of the editor of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING, who has always resided at the North, but who is now making a winter of it in traveling through the South, trying very hard to enjoy himself and to

southern experiences "among folks" and this is his conclusion: "It is my impression that there ought to be about a million subscribers to GOOD HOUSEKEEPING in the South, and-not to make any unkind intimation-two millions at the North." We had only put our figures at One Million Copies for The Homes of the World, but if Three Million Copies are needed for our own United North and South, we must make new figures at once, as all parts of the world are joining the procession and filling the mail bags with their orders for Good HousekeepING, and a large majority of these are accompanied by a P. S., giving direction to "be sure to send back numbers."

MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

BUT LET US MEASURE WITH CONSISTENCY. GOOD HOUSEKEEPING is conducted in the interest of "The Higher Life of The Household," but we make no pretensions of attempting to do all that this implies "without money and without price." And the readiness and generosity with which those who tarry in the Homes of the World have responded to our announcement and continuance of publication, give us abundant assurance of the correctness of our position in this respect. But there are one or two features becoming prominently unpleasant of late, in this connection, which justice to ourselves will not allow of being longer passed by unnoticed. Were the instances of which we propose to give an illustration or two, rare ones, of course they would make no occasion for comment, but unfortunately they are many in number and so many that neither our patience or our pocket have room to contain them.

The following letters tell the story briefly yet, we think, intelligently:

Dec. 10, 1885. MESSRS. CLARK W. BRYAN & Co., HOLYOKE, MASS., GENTLEMEN:-We will be glad to have you send a copy of GOOD HOUSEKEEPING for the coming year to one of our editors, Mrs. street, and we will reciprocate.

Very truly yours,

The "exchange " which this publication already carries three copies of GooD HOUSEKEEPING, sent in accordance with similar applications and this last request looks to us, really and truly, like "too much pork for a shilling." The next application is equally modest, but is put up, however, in another form of modesty MESSRS. CLARK W. BRYAN & CO.,

GENTLEMEN:-I should be happy to send you another copy of the for a copy of your valuable paper to my home. If agreeable, please send a back copy or so to Mrs. and notify me where you want extra copy of

The

Very truly yours,

sent.

is a most excellent journal, doing good work in its field of labor, but a second copy of it would only count one more on our heap of exchanges and that kind of counting, as Rip Van Winkle says, "don't count." That is to say, it counts the wrong way in our bank account, and we haven't a friend in the world to whom we would dare send a copy of

for a

Now a little "reciprocity" is a good thing, a very good thing, indeed, but it is apt to "catch on the center" of reciprocal motion too easily to be mutually beneficial. Were these three letters the only ones of their kind there would be no occasion for these remarks, and our good nature would dictate a compliance with the separate requests, but unfortunately, they are examples only of a formidable pile of similar ones, lying before us as we "take our pen in hand" to perform the unpleasant duty of endeavoring to prevent the pile from growing higher by sitting down on it in this epistolary fashion.

66

It "cheers but not inebriates us to know that every one of the 'men folks' want GOOD HOUSEKEEPING sent regularly to their wives, and we would gladly so send and take our pay in the Higher Life of the Household sure to follow, if we could safely stand the strain of circumstance, but we have never yet known the business of publishing papers for "the good of the cause" alone, to develop into a healthy state of affairs, either morally or financially speaking, and life is too short for us to spend too many of its days in experimental efforts only. Therefore, friends and brethren, wẻ have decided not to experiment too promiscuously at present, so if you please we will now attend to business as business should be attended to.

LIBRARY LEAFLETS.

DECORATIVE AND FANCY ARTICLES.

In these days of domestic art work and of æsthetic gratification, a work that gives directions for making three hundred decorative and fancy articles for presents, fairs, etc., and nearly one hundred decorative designs, is indispensable in every household. The query of what to make for a present is heard not only just before Christmas, but all the year round, whenever the family birthdays occur, or at the birthday anniversaries of friends and relatives, or when young friends are to be married, or at the recurrence of wedding anniversaries. Lucretia P. Hale and Margaret E. White answer these questions in the work at hand. Directions are given for making the different styles of aprons and bags, for making mantel curtains, mirror draperies, portières, screens, pillows, table covers, bell-pulls, pillow shams, fender stools, scarfs, chair-back covers, rugs. All the lawn tennis accessories are made subjects for work, library furniture and belongings, sachets, traveling conveniences, work table articles, domestic articles of many sorts, articles of distinctive personal use, wall pockets for a great variety of uses, and so many other articles that they cannot even be referred to. There is a chapter of suggestions appropriate to fairs, and others to weddings and to Christmas. A work of this kind is

highly serviceable to young women, and older ones would often need to make drafts upon its information and suggestions. No one, capable of utilizing these, can fail to speak of the book in terms of high praise. Boston: S. W. Tilton & Co.

SANITARY SUGGESTIONS.

At no previous period of the world's history has there been concentrated on the prevention of disease so much careful study and painstaking investigation as the present time. To briefly present the most approved agents for the prevention of infectious diseases, point out the necessity for their use and explain their application so that any one of ordinary intelligence may be able to efficiently use them in the household, is the object of this little pamphlet of 58 pages, prepared by Dr. B. W. Palmer. Sold by J. T. Webber & Co., pharmacists, Springfield, Mass. Price 25 cents.

THE KITCHEN.

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6

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WHY DO MOTHERS

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