WAS it Benjamin Franklin who said, "Have a place for everything, and everything in its place"? Anyway it is excellent advice to follow. But nowhere are the good results of a careful following of this principle more manifest than in the home.
"Well," says Madam Heedless, "for my part, I have no time to spare in putting every single thing in its particular place. The fact is, I think it's wrong to be so precise. Mrs. Slovenly and I were talking the matter over just the other day; and we decided that time was quite too precious and too short to spend in a vain attempt to keep everything just so. There's Mrs. Orderly—I wouldn't be so foolish as she is for anything!"
Now while Madam Heedless was still in the midst of her discourse wherein she was descanting on the follies of Mrs. Orderly, Johnnie Heedless came in, calling loudly for his slate and books, because the school-bell was ringing.
"Why, where did you put them, Johnnie?" asked Mama Heedless in a tone of annoyance, for she knew from past experience that it would probably be some time before the books and slate would materialize.
"I'm sure I don't know," whined Johnnie. "Jack called me to see his kite yesterday after school, and I just laid them down somewhere, I suppose."
"I'm sure I don't see where that child learned to be so careless and thoughtless," sighed Madam Heedless complacently, while certain lines from one of the old poets kept running thru my head, about the ability "to see ourselves as ithers see us." In this particular instance it took Johnnie Heedless, with the help of his mother and sister, fully fifteen minutes to find out that the books had lain out of doors all night in a heavy shower and were ruined.
The next day Madam Heedless spent half an hour trying to find her scissors and thimble; while Mr. Heedless was obliged to call the entire family together to engage in a fruitless search for his hammer and gimlet. All this trouble might easily have been avoided by the exercise of a little order and neatness; and the last I heard of this truly unfortunate family they had not yet changed either their habits or their name, for their neighbors still called them the "Heedless family."
"For my part," exclaims Mrs. Prim, "I have no patience with such slackness. I can tell you plainly that my husband and children know better than to misplace a single thing in my house!" and Mrs. Prim's black eyes snapped ominously. I expected to hear from you, Mrs. Prim; but we must remember that it is quite possible to overdo even a good thing sometimes. Why, your little Mary and Willie, and even your husband, almost tremble for fear of bringing a speck of mud or dust into your immaculate kitchen. (They rarely dare to penetrate as far as the parlor.) Now, Mrs. Prim, your rooms look very nice, indeed almost elegant, but truly they do not look very homelike. I hope you will not feel hurt if I say that your family is to be pitied as much as that of Madam Heedless.
"Well, well," you sigh. "How am I going to be able to draw the line just right between Mrs. Prim and Madam Heedless, so as to avoid the errors of both?"
An important question, indeed, you have asked. Now, while we must remember that order is heaven's first law, we should not forget that it should be one of our first duties to make our homes comfortable and homelike. We should never sacrifice convenience to elegance. When any single room in the house begins to acquire a stiff, majestic appearance, be sure something is wrong. Our homes are made to live in, and the furniture is to be devoted to the use and comfort of the family. The other day Mrs. Prim actually scolded her little boy for sitting on the new sofa. Undoubtedly the child thought that sofas were made to sit upon. But his mother seemed to think that this particular one was made only to look at. Now Mrs. Prim might have a picture of the couch painted to hang upon the wall, but it seems to me that the original was made to use.
But while this is true, let the children be taught to take an interest in keeping the furniture and belongings bright, fresh, and clean. Because there is, or should be, nothing in the house too good, too fine, or too expensive for the full and free use of the entire family, it does not follow that the children shall be taught to have no sense of propriety, or that baby shall be allowed to drum on the keys of Mabel's new piano, when her little fingers are sticky with molasses, or that Willie may be given free access to the family sitting-room with his new set of tools.
Very young children may easily be taught that they must not demolish, mar, or ruin, the furniture. Some foolish mothers allow their little ones to do this until they are almost as destructive to the good order and tidy appearance of the house, as if it had been in the track of a cyclone. Wo be to the poor hostess whose duty it becomes to entertain such a mother and child as this. It is often the work of an hour or two to set things to rights after the departure of the guest; while the housewife carries in her heart a feeling that a grave wrong has been done her, and one that she was utterly powerless to prevent without violating a nice sense of courtesy due to her guest.
And so, Madam Heedless and Mrs. Slovenly, if you have no care to protect your own homes from disorder and damage, at least you ought not to inflict your presence upon your neighbor, until you are unselfish enough to see that your little ones conduct themselves in a proper manner.