A man with such a helper to cheer him on will be heartened to try again, though he had given up hope. Her courage will make him a coward in his own eyes, so he will raise his listless hands and shoulder his load anew for her dear sake. He has felt that it would be impossible for him to hold up his head again amongst his fellows, but with the knowledge that a good girl or woman loves and trusts him, despair is impossible. She believes that the one defeat has taught him to mistrust himself, and that he will seek strength from God to fight again and to conquer.
Can you not, my dear girls, imagine a man ready to face, dare, or do anything in order to prove himself worthy of such whole-hearted affection and trust?
I have been asked whether the early or later years of married life are the happier. I think, nay, I am sure the later ones ought to be, if the union was first founded on love, faith, and respect. All these feelings should grow stronger as time goes on, and, just like the fair flowers that need the gardener’s care to perfect them, they should be carefully cultivated.
We show our love far more by the little things that go to make up the sum of happiness in everyday life, than by occasional great sacrifices.
The engaged girl carefully notes the likings and dislikes of her intended husband. She ministers to the one and will not provoke a manifestation of the other. She watches for a chance of doing something for him and giving him pleasure. Does she ever leave him abruptly, or allow him to leave her without an affectionate farewell?
Ah, no! We all know that the farewells of an affianced pair are apt to be long drawn out. The girl thinks that nothing can be too good for him who is dearest of all. No effort seems too great when it is seasoned by love.
If such is the case before marriage, how much more should the practice of all sweet observances and courteous habits, care in little things to avoid giving pain and to minister pleasure, be in constant evidence after marriage!
Little things are often the means of drawing people together in the first instance. It is much easier to win affection than to keep it, and, better still, to be conscious that it has grown and strengthened through the long years of married life. And it is only in the sanctuary of their home that husband and wife learn truly to know each other, and to grow into that perfect unity so rarely attained even by those whom we call happy couples.
It so often happens that people who are most scrupulous as to their “society manners,” forget to render ordinary courtesy to their own belongings. They seem to think anything is good enough for the home circle. Can there be a greater mistake? Those who are joined to us by the dearest of ties are surely the ones to whom everything we have of the best should be scrupulously rendered.
I was charmed a while ago, when I was talking with a mother of grown-up sons about her father. I had known her from her early teens, and we have been great friends always. It was beautiful to see her face light with pleasure as she said, “I was telling him only the other day that I never receive from anyone such perfect courtesy and attention as I do from my own dear father, and now he is eighty years old. But he has always, everywhere, and to every person, been the same.” And I, who had long experienced this, could endorse her words.