Don’t be afraid of a little fun at home. Don’t shut your house lest the sun should fade your carpets, and your hearts lest a hearty laugh shake down some of the musty old cobwebs there. If you want to ruin your sons, let them think that all mirth and social enjoyment must be left on the threshold without when they come home at night. Young people must have fun and relaxation somewhere. If they do not find it at their own hearthstones, it will be sought at other less profitable places. Therefore let the fire burn brightly at night, and make the homestead delightful with all those little arts that parents so perfectly understand. Don’t repress the buoyant spirits of your children; whose half an hour’s merriment round the lamp and fireside of home blots out the remembrance of many a care and annoyance during the day, and the best safeguard they can take with them into the world is the influence of a bright little domestic sanctum.—The Brown Book.