SCHOOL JOURNAL AND FAMILY VISITOR.

VOLUME III.

JULY, 1861.

NUMBER VIII.

WHAT SHALL WE EAT?—No. I.

Brightly shone the morning sun o'er the old red farmhouse in the valley by the mill. The house, though old, was substantial, and its out-houses and other belongings evinced wealth and comfort. A new barn was in process of erection back of the house and a little to the left, where the hill sheltered it from the bleak west winds. "Father" had made all his calculations to set it just across the way, where it would have quite spoiled the view of the beautiful stream, the broad rich fields, and the distant village, that lay like a picture in front of the old house. But Lizzie came home from the Seminary, and plead so hard that the site might be changed, her father could not resist her. So on this bright June morning she looked forth upon as fair a prospect as ever gladdened a New England home. The lilacs and the old locust trees in the yard were in full bloom, and from the hill-side to the right, just across the stream, the wind brought the sweet fragrance of the apple blossoms.

"Lizzie," calls her mother from the kitchen, and in a moment she is busy preparing the edibles of a farmhouse breakfast table. "Put on the cold meat and beans, Lizzie, and don't let this ham burn, while I go and strain the milk." Presently mother returns and resumes her place at the stove, saying," Bring the eggs, Lizzie; then get the apple sauce and the fried cakes, and see if the Johnny cakes' are most done, and bring up the butter."

Little Charley, the youngest of eight, a puny, sickly child of eighteen months, who has followed mother and sis ter from kitchen to pantry, and pantry to cellar, and back

again, whining and begging for attention, now roars lustily and Lizzie, in the kindness of her heart, stops to pick up, and soothe the little fellow, and at the same time, says, "I wish you'd go out with Charley, mother. It is so beauti ful, a little walk would make you feel young again. I can finish the breakfast." "O, no, you can't! The potatoes need to be mashed now, and the table is'nt more 'n half set. If we both hurry, we shall be behind time."

"Mother, why must we have so much for breakfast? At the Seminary we had only coffee or chocolate, and bread and butter, and crackers or rolls. I'm sure I felt better than I do when I eat of such a variety. Besides, I think almost every one at the table eats too much. It fairly makes me sick, to see that Mr. Morse who works on the barn, gorge down his food." "I think you are right, Lizzie, but I don't see any way to effect a change. The men would look blank enough, to see such a table as you had at the Seminary, and Father wouldn't like it at all. I know he'd be ashamed, for he prides himself on setting a good table. But I remember when I visited sister Ellen in Boston last summer, I couldn't but think theirs a more rational way of living than ours. The table was always neat and plentifully supplied, but they seemed to eat to live, instead of living to eat. Ellen, who is six years my senior, certainly looked five years younger, and her three city-bred children looked healthier and happier than any of ours."

Lizzie looked at the pale, careworn face of her dear mother, thought of the thousand such breakfasts she had prepared with one or two little ones clinging to her garments, and did not wonder that aunt Ellen looked fairer and younger. Meantime breakfast was hurried on the table, "the men" called, the younger children hastily washed and combed, and all sat down. "Father" asked the blessing, the good things were distributed with little ceremony, and nearly all commenced eating as though the great business of life was before them.

"More of the beans, Mr. Morse ?" said Mr. Hurney, af ter he had disposed of two plates full, which two plates had followed one well filled with ham, eggs and potatoes. "A very few. I'm most ashamed, but, as I tell my wife, I wish she'd come and learn of Mrs. Hurney how to cook." "I should like to have your wife call, certainly," said Mrs. Hurney," though I have no idea I could teach her anything. Is she pretty well now?" "Oh, no! she's miserable like, can just drag round she says. Another cup, if you please, Mrs. Hurney. I don't feel well this morning, have a terrible headache. A little more apple sauce and another doughnut. I guess your good coffee 'll cure it. Somehow I feel sick half the time.. I had an awful spell a vomiting, last night.

Lizzie thought, no wonder that he had awful spells, or that his wife was "miserable like," or his family povertystricken.

M. E. L.

DO THEY TEACH FOR MONEY. · Messrs. Editors :-Your correspondent, "E. C. 2d," in his criticisms upon my article in the May No. of the Journal, reminds me of Whately's logical fallacy, the ignoratio elenchi, or the species called "shifting ground." He comes to the defence of the self-educated teacher and with much earnestness and propriety advocates his cause. He claims for him "who educates himself by his own money, carned by his own brain," much credit. He is quite sure that earning this money by teaching, and spending it in learning something more, is not only commendable but highly beneficial, as a means of imparting both professional knowledge and practical ability. And still further, my friend has discovered the important fact that this perseverance in seeking wisdom for himself, evinces that genuine earnestness which is one of the most important elements in the true teacher's character.

Now this is all very well; is the simple truth on this subject. If" E. C. 2d" has erred in anything, it is in not

placing emphasis enough on the importance of that selfreliance and efficiency which are gained by earnest selfapplication. Poverty has done more to develop practical human ability, than all other agencies. In all departments of life, our ablest men and women have been made so by the stern discipline of "straightened circumstances." And that teacher who has fitted himself for his important sphere of action by study and teaching, is undoubtedly more efficient than he would be, if trained in any other school. How pleasant it is for opponents to agree on a point of such vital importance! But be not deceived, kind reader. There is sophistry in this reasoning. "E. C. 2d" has "shifted his ground," and spent all his strength, to prove what I never denied, viz: that the teacher may properly be employed in practical school keeping, while he is perfecting himself in his professional knowledge. By reference to my article on this subject, it will be ob served that I commenced by this quotation from Porter's life of Gen. Jackson.-" In the vocation of teaching, he earned the money which supported him while he studied. Law." It was not the student of Teaching that I complained of because I found him in the school-room, but the student of Law, who is there, not because he loves the business and designs to pursue it, but because he wants the money with which to support himself while he studies another profession in which all his interest is absorbed. I was speaking of the Lawyer and the Physician, he only of the Teacher. I complain that the position of teacher is assumed by men who belong to another sphere, and who have little or no interest in their business; he is pleading the cause of the student who is struggling to fit himself for the profession of teaching and has a deep interest in all that pertains to his calling. do "great injustice to the teacher?" commendation and if struggling with dificulties, he has my hearty sympathy. But the students of law and medicine who are in the business of teaching only to caru

How, then, can I He has my highest

money for a selfish and foreign purpose, and who really feel no interest in the school, are but "drones and leeches hanging about our profession," and we cannot expect that it will assume the importance and dignity of other professions, until it shall be equally guarded from such intrusions. How ridiculous it would be to advocate the propriety of admitting the school master to the bar and to the practice of medicine, when it was understood that he comes there merely as a school master, and only for the selfish purpose of earning a little money to pay his expenses at a Normal School. It is absurd to suppose that such a person, under such circumstances, has enough professional knowledge to save him from the charge of "intruder, quack and reckless trifler with human life and happiness." Let teachers be educated for their profession, and admitted to it only when they are fitted for their dif ficult and responsible positions, and we should soon have a corresponding change in all that pertains to our educational system, more interest, better school houses, greater wages, and vastly better schools. I hope this time, to be understood, and that my opponent will again "shift his ground," if he proposes to administer another dose of logic.

H.

"WHICH?"—The lady principal of a school, in her advertisement mentioned her female assistant, and the "rep. utation for teaching which she bears;" but the printer— careless fellow-left out the 'which,' so the advertisement. went forth, commending the lady's " reputation for teaching she bears."

RELIGION.-The moral virtues, without religion, are but cold, lifeless and insipid; it is only religion which opens the mind to great conceptions, fills it with the most sublime ideas, and warms the soul with more than sensual pleasures. Addison.

RELIGION. Religion is the best armor in the world, but the worst cloak.-Newton.