slurs, little discourtesies, bad
temper, that create most of the discord and unhappiness in the family.
How much it would add to the glory of the homes of the world if that
might be said of every one which Rogers said of Lord Holland's sunshiny
face: "He always comes to breakfast like a man upon whom some sudden
good fortune has fallen"!

The value of pleasant words every day, as you go along, is well depicted
by Aunt Jerusha in what she said to our genial friend of "Zion's
Herald":--

"If folks could have their funerals when they are alive and well and
struggling along, what a help it would be"! she sighed, upon returning
from a funeral, wondering how poor Mrs. Brown would have felt if she
could have heard what the minister said. "Poor soul, she never dreamed
they set so much by her!

"Mis' Brown got discouraged. Ye see, Deacon Brown, he'd got a way of
blaming everything on to her. I don't suppose the deacon meant
it,--'twas just his way,--but it's awful wearing. When things wore out
or broke, he acted just as if Mis' Brown did it herself on purpose; and
they all caught it, like the measles or the whooping-cough.

"And the minister a-telling how the deacon brought his young wife here
when 't wa'n't nothing but a wilderness, and how patiently she bore
hardship, and what a good wife she'd been! Now the minister wouldn't
have known anything about that if the deacon hadn't told him. Dear!
Dear! If he'd only told Mis' Brown herself what he thought, I do believe
he might have saved the funeral.

"And when the minister said how the children would miss their mother,
seemed as though they couldn't stand it, poor things!

"Well, I guess it is true enough,--Mis' Brown was always doing for some
of them. When they was singing about sweet rest in heaven, I couldn't
help thinking that that was something Mis' Brown would have to get used
to, for she never had none of it here.

"She'd have been awful pleased with the flowers. They was pretty, and no
mistake. Ye see, the deacon wa'n't never willing for her to have a
flower-bed. He said 't was enough prettier sight to see good cabbages
a-growing; but Mis' Brown always kind of hankered after sweet-smelling
things, like roses and such.

"What did you say, Levi? 'Most time for supper? Well, land's sake, so it
is! I must have got to meditating. I've been a-thinking, Levi, you
needn't tell the minister anything about me. If the pancakes and pumpkin
pies are good, you just say so as