orchard of the house: a tree, a shrub, a flower — and at every step we take, a pleasure to be gathered... Here is a ripe tree, generous with its fruit, from which we pick some to distribute to our children and our intimates; here a wilting plant that needs our care, and we tend it; here a branch into which decay has crept, and we cut it away; and here the rose bushes and the jasmine, all laden with their bright, refreshing blossoms — we lighten their burden, adorning our homes with some and presenting the rest to our friends, and to the sick who are denied the blessing of their presence... And so the time passes swiftly by, and we return afterward into the house, having taken on a sufficient share of bodily exercise and spiritual delight.

The Harm of Card-Playing

Fortune may not favor us with a garden or an orchard around our house; and even if there is one, it may well be that our men have no inclination toward it, being enamored of card-playing and of the other

games that are of the gambling sort. These games find their market mostly at night; so the men leave their homes to go to these night resorts, and do not return until after midnight or at daybreak.

Here lies the source of the danger that threatens the existence of the family and the happiness of the woman in particular; for the competition that goes on in the commercial pleasure-houses, with all that draws our men and sons to them so strongly, is hard for us to resist. And this difficulty will grow with the days if we do not rise to resist it, to blunt its edge, and to lessen the frequenting of such places.

It is this pressing danger that led me to choose this subject and to prefer it over the other women's subjects, which I find myself obliged to set aside — such as the care of child and husband, home medicine, and the rest.

So if you find, Madam, that your husband is addicted to

gambling and the other dangerous amusements, there is no escape for you from striving to turn his thoughts away from them, and from humoring him by forming a circle of friends and acquaintances whose sincerity and good stock you do not doubt, so that you exchange evening parties in one another's homes, playing pinochle, bridge, dominoes, and the other

well-known and popular family games. The sacrifice you may perhaps make against your will at the outset of this course, from your unfamiliarity with these games or your lack of taste for them, may not unlikely restore joy to your home by cutting your husband off, once and for all, from frequenting those outside places of amusement.

Home Invitations and Parties

And if your husband is one of those who incline toward company and mixing with people, then instead of allowing him to go off alone (outside the home) with people of whose morals you know nothing, take pains to become acquainted with his friends, and with those to whom business ties him, and invite them from time to time to your home. For nothing is more conducive to joy, and to increased cheer in the house, than a friendly gathering held in our reception room, or a tea party in the hall of our home, or a luncheon or dinner around our table... And so, between the duty of receptions and invitations to our own homes, and the paying and accepting of them in the homes of others, doors of solace of every kind open before us — doors that will surely divert us from those amusements in which we have no part and no concern, except what we do not want for ourselves: the empty pocket and the depression of spirit that so often follow upon a loss.