think those things papa has
been saying there ought to be thought about."

"Papa," said Marianne, "I wish you would tell me exactly how you would
spend that money you gave me for house-furnishing. I should like just
your views."

"Precisely," said Jenny with eagerness; "because it is just as papa
says,--a sensible man, who has thought and had experience, can't help
having some ideas, even about women's affairs, that are worth
attending to. I think so, decidedly."

I acknowledged the compliment for my sex and myself with my best bow.

"But then, papa," said Marianne, "I can't help feeling sorry that one
can't live in such a way as to have beautiful things around one. I'm
sorry they must cost so much, and take so much care, for I am made so
that I really want them. I do so like to see pretty things! I do like
rich carpets and elegant carved furniture, and fine china and
cut-glass and silver. I can't bear mean, common-looking rooms. I
should so like to have my house look beautiful!"

"Your house ought not to look mean and common,--your house ought to
look beautiful," I replied. "It would be a sin and a shame to have it
otherwise. No house ought to be fitted up for a future home without a
strong and a leading reference to beauty in all its arrangements. If I
were a Greek, I should say that the first household libation should be
made to beauty; but, being an old-fashioned Christian, I would say
that he who prepares a home with no eye to beauty neglects the example
of the great Father who has filled our earth home with such elaborate
ornament."

"But then, papa, there's the money!" said Jenny, shaking her little
head wisely. "You men don't think of that. You want us girls, for
instance, to be patterns of economy, but we must always be wearing
fresh, nice things; you abhor soiled gloves and worn shoes; and yet
how is all this to be done without money? And it's just so in
housekeeping. You sit in your armchairs, and conjure up visions of all
sorts of impossible things to be done; but when mamma there takes out
that little account-book, and figures away on the cost of things,
where do the visions go?"

"You are mistaken, my little dear, and you talk just like a
woman,"--this was my only way of revenging myself; "that is to say,
you jump to conclusions, without sufficient knowledge. I maintain that
in house-furnishing, as well as woman-furnishing, there's nothing so
economical as beauty."

"There's one of papa's parado