The Secret of a Happy Home (1896)   By: Marion Harland (1830-1922)

Secret of a Happy Home

BY

MARION HARLAND

PUBLISHED BY THE CHRISTIAN HERALD, LOUIS KLOPSCH, Proprietor, BIBLE HOUSE, NEW YORK.

Copyright, 1896, BY LOUIS KLOPSCH.

Dedication.

To My Children, "The Blessed Three," Whose Love and Loyalty Have made mine a Happy Home And my Life Worth Living, The volume is Gratefully Dedicated.

MARION HARLAND.

The Secret of a Happy Home.

INTRODUCTORY.

An Open Secret,

CHAPTER I.

Sisterly Discourse with John's Wife Concerning John,

CHAPTER II.

The Family Purse,

CHAPTER III.

The Parable of the Rich Woman and the Farmer's Wife,

CHAPTER IV.

Little Things that are Trifles,

CHAPTER V.

A Mistake on John's Part,

CHAPTER VI.

"Chink Fillers,"

CHAPTER VII.

Must haves and May bes,

CHAPTER VIII.

What Good Will It Do?

CHAPTER IX.

Shall I Pass It On?

CHAPTER X.

"Only Her Nerves,"

CHAPTER XI.

The Rule of Two,

CHAPTER XII

The Perfect Work of Patience,

CHAPTER XIII.

According to His Folly,

CHAPTER XIV.

"Buttered Parsnips,"

CHAPTER XV.

Is Marriage Reformatory?

CHAPTER XVI.

"John's" Mother,

CHAPTER XVII.

And Other Relations in Law,

CHAPTER XVIII.

A Timid Word for the Step mother,

CHAPTER XIX.

Children as Helpers,

CHAPTER XX.

Children as Burden bearers,

CHAPTER XXI.

Our Young Person,

CHAPTER XXII.

Our Boy,

CHAPTER XXIII.

That Spoiled Child,

CHAPTER XXIV.

Getting Along in Years,

CHAPTER XXV.

Truth telling,

CHAPTER XXVI.

The Gospel of Conventionalities,

CHAPTER XXVII.

Familiar, or Intimate?

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Our Stomachs,

CHAPTER XXIX.

Cheerfulness as a Christian Duty,

CHAPTER XXX.

The Family Invalid,

CHAPTER XXXI.

A Temperance Talk,

CHAPTER XXXII.

Family Music,

CHAPTER XXXIII.

Family Religion,

CHAPTER XXXIV.

A Parting Word for Boy,

CHAPTER XXXV.

Homely, But Important,

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Four Feet Upon a Fender,

INTRODUCTORY.

AN OPEN SECRET.

Some one asked me the other day, if I were not "weary of being so often put forward to talk of 'How to Make Home Happy,' a subject upon which nothing new could be said."

My answer was then what it is now: Were I to undertake to utter one thousandth part that the importance of the theme demands, the contest would be between me and Time. I should need "all the time there is."

Henry Ward Beecher once prefaced a lecture delivered during the Civil War by saying: "The Copperhead species chancing to abound in this locality, I have been requested to select as my subject this evening something that will not be likely to lead to the mention of Slavery."

"I confess myself to be somewhat perplexed by this petition," the orator went on to say, with the twinkle in his eye we all recollect "for I have yet to learn of any subject that could not easily lead me up to the discussion of a sin against God and man which I could not exaggerate were every letter a Mt. Sinai I mean, American Slavery."

Likening the lesser to the greater, allow me to say that I cannot imagine any topic worthy the attention of God fearing, humanity loving men and women that would not be connected in some degree, near or remote, with "Home, and How to Make Home Happy."