things of life. They may be
quite helpless at home and need someone else to cope with household
measures. For them it is probably impossible to settle down to a
homemaker's career and watch over somebody else's career and development
and achievement. They are fortunate if they marry the right men!

The women who I feel should undoubtedly have outside occupation,
however, are the women whose homes are taken care of by competent hands
and feet other than their own, who with ordinary capacity for management
can give the necessary orders in fifteen minutes every morning and have
the rest of the day in which to do nothing. These women might as well do
something even if they have no special gifts, for as idlers they
encumber the earth. They are not doing things at home that keep women
busy and happy.

I think any young couple is fortunate when the woman has to do
everything about the house and does it happily, but in view of all the
different angles that this problem presents, I would give no advice,
only urge young people to think over what they want out of life very
carefully when they are making the decision of how they will start their
life together.

_Gladys Hoagland Groves_

CHAPTER FIVE

_Learning to Live Together_

The wedding shuts one gate and opens another. The longings and dreamings
of courtship are at an end. The supreme intimacy of life begins.

As John and Mary move away from the altar, pronounced man and wife, they
know they are starting a great adventure. His beaming face masks a stiff
determination to keep his bride happy in spite of any worldly obstacles.
Her radiance hides a solemn inward vow to do everything humanly possible
to make smooth the way of their life together. They are right. Unless
they are very different from most people, this new joint enterprise is
going to mean more to each of them than anything else ever can.

Before them is a clear road. Not to happiness, as they may believe, but
to the opportunity for gaining happiness. The goal is not easily won,
but they can attain it without the aid of luck or rare gifts or
miracles--simply by practicing the common everyday virtues that bring
success in all human ventures.

A young couple's engagement period is like any other time of excited
anticipation, when one has received the promise of something greatly
desired, but must wait awhile before its delivery. The happiness of the
waiting period is characterized by the absence of a