Thursday, September 9, 2010

The Holy Work of Home

"It's I," said Lamb a little dolefully, "that they can't be very proud of. You see I have only planned to stay home and help keep house, and of course there isn't anything very special about that."

"Isn't there?" demanded Constance. "Well, Eunice Lamb Newman, you just see all that Miss Abitha Bean has done; and all she planned was just to keep house, but she learned everything she could, and did all she could for other people. Do you suppose Dannie would ever have discovered what he could do if Miss Abitha hadn't known just how to help him? Do you suppose -" But Miss Abitha laughingly protested, and interrupted Constance's list of her accomplishments.

"But I want Lamb to realize that she can stay right here and be just as wonderful, and do just as much for the world as if she were a professor in a college," persisted the elder girl.

"Why, yes," agreed Miss Abitha, "that is what I always believed. It always seemed to me that to stay with the people you love best, and make them happy, and learn all you could about the place where your home is, its flowers and woods, its birds and stars, would give any of us our best blessings."

-- Alice Turner Curtis, Grandpa's Little Girls and Miss Abitha, 1911

1 comment:

Candy said...

That was an especially wise passage that I, too, wanted to continue pondering! A sweet book!!