e want to another as naturally as she
breathed and with as little consciousness of the process. Her household
machinery ran no more smoothly than many another's, but Nellie met and
surmounted all obstacles with an unruffled brow. Her outward calm was the
result of some great inward peace. She simply had developed naturally from
the girl we had known before we grew up and went away to be "finished by
travel."

Nothing could go so wrongly, no nerves throb so pitilessly, that they
prevented her meeting her husband with the smile reserved for him alone.
None of the babies could call it forth. When he came home tired, Nellie
fluttered around him making him comfortable, as if life held for her no
sweeter task.

Being a woman myself, and having no husband to wait upon until it became
natural, I used to feel somewhat vexed that he never served her, instead
of receiving the best of everything so complacently. He never seemed to
realize that she might be tired or needed a change of routine. That
household revolved around him. Of course it was partly Nellie's fault that
he had fallen into the habit of receiving everything and making no return.
Fallen into it? No. With that kind of a man, an only son, and considered
by the undiscriminating to be good-looking, his wife had only to take up
his mother's unfinished work of spoiling him. It is true that these
unselfish women inculcate a system of selfishness in their families which
often works their ruin. They rob the children of their rightful virtue of
self-sacrifice.

So Nellie idolized her husband. He was her king, and the king could do no
wrong. She taught the babies a sweet system of idolatry, which so far had
been harmless. He cared very little for children; so, when yearning to
express their love for the hero of all their mother's stories, with their
little hearts almost bursting with affection, their love was most
frequently tested by being obliged to keep away from their idol in order
"not to bother him" with their kisses. Fortunately these same withheld
kisses were dear to Nellie, and she never was too busy to accept and
return them. Thus they never knew how busy she was. She was sure to be
about some sweet task for others. If she ever rested, it was with the
cosiest corner occupied by somebody else.

I wonder what will happen when, in heaven, one of these selfless mothers
is led in triumph to a solid gold throne, all lined with eider-down
cushions, where she can take the