LOVE LIGHTENS LABOR

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Apr 12, 1883

LOVE LIGHTENS LABOR.

A good wife rose from her bed one morn, And thought with a nervous dread Of the piles of clothes to be washed, and more Than a dozen mouths to be fed. There are meals to be got for the men in the field, And the children to fix away To school, and the milk to be skimmed and churned, And all to be done that day.

It had rained in the night, and all the wood Was as wet as it could be; And there was pudding and pies to bake, And a loaf of cake for tea. The day was hot, and her aching head Throbbed wearily as she said— "If maidens but knew what good wives know They would be in no hurry to wed."

"Jennie, what do you think I told Ben Brown?" Called the farmer from the well; And a flush crept up his bronzed brow, And his eye half bashfully fell. "It was this," he said, and coming near, He smiled, and stooping down, Kissed her cheek—"'twas this, that you were the best And the dearest wife in town!"

The farmer went back to the field, and the wife, In a smiling and absent way, Sang snatches of tender little songs She'd not sung for many a day. And the pain in her head was gone, and the clothes Were white as the foam in the sea; Her bread was light, and her butter was sweet, And as golden as it could be.

"Just think," the children all called in a breath, "Tom Wood has run off to sea! He wouldn't, I know, if he only had As happy a home as we." The night came down, and the good wife smiled To herself, as she softly said, "'Tis sweet to labor for those we love, 'Tis not strange that maids will wed!"

—Selected.