Queen of the Household by Andora

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Jul 21, 1904

Queen of the Household

By Andora

I KNEW a beautiful and wealthy woman who, as a girl, had been a reigning belle. Her old friends crowded about her, but she had no time for worldly amusements. She literally never lost sight of her children. She nursed the baby and bathed it herself. She inspected every meal the older children ate, and talked and played with them constantly. Her friends protested.

“You are degenerating into a mere nurse-maid! You give yourself no chance to grow!” they said.

“God just now has given me nursing to do,” she said quietly, “and I can grow in that line.”

I lost sight of her for three years. Then her husband moved to the country, where I lived. Her children were at school, but she still kept close to them. She took drawing lessons with Mary, studied mathematics with Joe, and taught Jim history, coloring the dull dates with vivid stories of battles and heroes. Her mother-eye was on each child, and when the teacher drove one of them too hard, the child was promptly brought home and turned loose on the farm for a few months.

Her friends protested that she took no part in the modern affairs of women. She belonged to no clubs.

“I must be about my own business,” she said.

Her husband was a large cattle-grower. She knew his affairs to the least detail.

When Joe was ordained a minister she threw herself into his parish work. When Jim became a magazine editor she plunged into the works of modern writers and poetry and read scores of manuscripts for him.

She is still living, still keeping step with her boys and husband. They carry all their worries to her; they consult her in all their plans.

Her life was broadened in their lives. Her friends still complain that she does no public work.

But, “her children rise up and call her blessed.”—Andora.