new family? Who else can be wronged by distrust and suspicion ? Providentially, too, the hours haste fleet-footed when new joys, new hopes and new occasions for united effort shall come to the elder and the younger matrons in the arrival of the babies. Little hands soft as crumpled rose leaves have a magical spell to draw close together true womanly hearts. I have said that the young wife has a certain independence of her mother during the first year of marriage. After the babies come this independence is greatly modified, and mothers find their visits very welcome and much in demand. Sometimes the old-fashioned mother shakes her head and faintly protests, or strongly, according to her temperament, against modern methods in the nursery. Being sensible she does no more than protest; she does not interfere. The babies seem very wonderful to her and she enjoys them with a rapture not exceeded by that of their parents. One is told that grandmothers spoil grandchildren and are opposed to discipline and foolishly indulgent because they have not the direct responsibility of mothers. It depends a good deal on the individual grandmother. Elderly women often have theories to which they cling. Usually age has mellowed and grown tolerant and learned that many trifling derelictions would better be passed over without notice, and that the best thing that can be done for childhood is to keep it healthy and make it happy. When two grandmothers of the same child clasp hands over its little crib, a sweet and enduring friendship is often cemented between them. Thanksgiving and Christmas, wedding days and birthdays, are occasions that should never be neglected in the larger life of the family. Even though the married children go far from the early home, they should make an effort to get together at stated intervals. Little cousins ought to know one another and be acquainted as brothers and sisters are. When long trips across the continent involve too great an expense for frequent visits, there is always the letter box on the street corner or the rural free delivery, and the post may be trusted to carry love messages safely from Maine to California, or around the circuit of the globe. How the mother at home watches for tidings from her married children, and how she grieves when for weeks and months she never receives a word and feels that she has dropped out of the daily lives of those for whom she toiled and saved years ago. Do you owe your mother a letter or a visit or a gift, you who are far away from her now? Do not let the sun go down until you pay that debt of love. To me there is no more pathetic sight than that of a mother neglected or lonely in her old age. Even though the mother be still in her prime of strength and cheerfulness, her cup will be fuller of joy if her married children show her that they love and need her still. Do not forget that although we may have many friends, we can have but one mother, and that no friend can be quite so intimate as she. When it comes to pass late in life that a woman's house is left unto her desolate, her husband gone, her children scattered, there is often a wish on the part of the children that their mother should give up her home and live with one of them, or spend her time by turns in their homes. On the surface this plan has advantages. Mother will be saved labour and expense. The children and the grandchildren will be delighted to have her company. She will be in each household a privileged guest. Eleanor may entertain her for a year and William have her for another, and Emily receive her for a third. Her last years of life will be made easy and comfortable. Put to the proof, Eleanor's husband may not be altogether satisfied to have the privacy of his married life invaded, and his ways may jar on Eleanor's mother. William's wife, admirably practical, may try to shape the life of William's mother according to notions of her own, while the young people under Emily's roof may not be considerate or unselfish and may let their grandmother see that her thoughts and ideas are not theirs. Keep your home, dear mother, if you possibly can, and let your children come to you. The plainest shelter that belongs to you is a better choice than the most luxurious resting place in a home that is not yours. In your own house or your own small apartment you are free to do as you please, and this you will never be if you dwell in another household, Ring, tender bells of Easter! ORE and more we are drifting into the general current which makes Lent a welcome feature in our busy life. Falling as it does in that part of the calendar which has been signalized by an intense and absorbing activity it gives us an opportunity to stop and think, to lay aside some of our social excitements, and to cultivate the inner life. Whether or not we call ourof a particular denomination selves by the name |