54 CHAPTER XXXIX. Nor from this deep retirement banished was Oh, let not then waste luxury impair That manly soul of toil which strings your nerves! Creep on the freeborn mind, and, working there, Of Liberty * * the swelling wish For general good erasing from the mind. THOMSON. The new part of the a sweet, low-browed, Furniture came, and positions - that is, AFTER this seasoning was at an end, and ague seemed to have worn off, or nearly so, our English friends began again to enjoy the real pleasures of a country life, and to gather round them such additional means of comfort and convenience as had been at first unprovided. dwelling was finished, and many-sided cottage it was. was placed in its appropriate appropriate according to Mrs. Sibthorpe's views, though sadly out of order in the estimation of her neighbors. A fine piano-forte was drawn from its hiding-place in a neighboring barn; books in copious measure filled every corner of the little nook called a library. A rustic arbor was constructed in the garden for Charlotte's especial use, and here A her school-books and her "baby-things" were bestowed, the arbor having been carefully thatched to protect the treasures from the weather. light open carriage and a pair of ponies were added to the establishment, and one would have thought there was little left for plain people to wish for. But alack for short-sighted humanity! Parlors, and libraries, and halls, and verandahs, require to be swept and dusted. An air of slovenliness soon spreads itself over gardens and shrubberies that are not duly cared for. Horses exact the most odious regularity in feeding and currying, and carriages give very little comfort if we must use them muddy or wash the mud off with our own hands. A late writer has advanced the appalling doctrine that there is a degree of immorality in dismembering one family for the accommodation of another, i. e., that each family, while in health, ought to have no greater amount of domestic business than can be performed by its own hands. Whether the speculations of this philosopher had not yet been communicated to the world, or whether Mr. and Mrs. Sibthorpe had not happened to meet with them, or whether, in spite of instruction, they still adhered to the old-fashioned notions of the advantages of a division of labor, I am not able to say. Certain it is that they found the want of good domestics a sad drawback on the comforts of their pleasant house and its accompaniments. The one faithful damsel still kept her place, and divided herself into as many parts as she could, but she had ague enough to lessen her efficiency not a little, and besides, the more we enlarge our bounds and increase our conveniences, the more care and labor do we render necessary. Many and desperate efforts did Mr. Sibthorpe make to supply the deficiency. Women were found who would undertake the business for good wages, but they were ignorant and must be taught, -proud and must be conciliated. Some would flounce out of doors and insist on being carried back to their homes on the discovery that they were to have a table separate from that of their employer. Others would swallow this mortification for a while, until their own purpose was answered the price of a new dress or a smart bonnet perhaps and then call up the latent dignity, and declare they "couldn't stan' it no longer." These usually took a good deal of pains to make known far and wide the ground of their dissatisfaction; and it became, after a while, almost equivalent to a loss of caste to endure indignities which so many had spurned. Then domestics were brought from the city, at enormously disproportioned expense, and these invariably became dissatisfied; -some because they were taught by busy neighbors to feel themselves in a degraded position, and others for want of pany and amusement. Poor Mr. Sibthorpe was almost in despair, but his wife took all cheerily, and learned to be so good a manager that the dis com comforts of imperfect arrangements were almost forgotten, and Mr. Sibthorpe acknowledged that a greater amount of absolute labor than he had supposed himself capable of, had really benefited his health and spirits. To till the soil is tiresome enough, but it was only pleasure to dig in the garden at his wife's solicitation. The care of horses has its disagreeables; but he could generally hire some kind of a biped who would attend to the ponies after his own fashion, and for the rest - did not the daily drive with Florella and Charlotte through the "openings" more than compensate for all the personal supervision which he himself bestowed on them? And so the time wore on, and, for people out of their element, the Sibthorpes were the happiest family I ever saw. But it so happened that Mrs. Sibthorpe, who continued her active life after her friends thought it would have been prudent to adopt a more quiet one, was taken ill, unexpectedly, and while all needful aid was distant and the roads in their worst state. The physician was six miles off, and the nurse a good deal further, and the kindness and sympathy of some women in the neighborhood were the only available resource. With these, most happily, our friend did as well, and perhaps better, than crowned heads are apt to do in similar straits; and something which it is proper to call a fine boy, was dressed and being fed and toasted when the doctor arrived. But though all was thus happily over, Mr. Sibthorpe's anxiety amounted to absolute anguish in view of the isolated position in which he fancied himself. From the fever of solicitude in which I found him the next day, I can but wonder that he had not died outright before the physician and nurse made their appearance. He walked the floor with a most perturbed step, and wiped his forehead almost as often as on that burning prairie where we first met him. He declared that nothing to be named, of earthly good, would tempt him to endure again the anxiety he had suffered; and we could not but think his feelings very natural, although to us old settlers they appeared so exaggerated. It takes time, and something else too, before those who have been accustomed to deify art can venture to place confidence in nature. And it must be allowed that few things are more depressing than the lack of proper attendance for the sick. Mrs. Sibthorpe was about very soon after, and quite absorbed in her new cares, if cares they could be called, which seemed to be mere recreation. She was one of those enviable people who accomplish a great deal without ever seeming busy; and by the habit of never really losing a minute of time, she was able to take good care of her baby with very imperfect aid, and at the same time to find leisure enough for her favorite pursuits. O! she was a jewel of a woman, that dear Mrs. Sibthorpe! With nothing of the pattern woman about her, she was |