“I said _half_ an hour, _not three quarters_. That was every minute I could spare. Now, I shall be too late for some very important business. But you are always interfering, as if I didn’t understand my own business best!” But when the grumbler has had a good cup of coffee or tea, and the “inner man” is suitably refreshed by an abundant breakfast, he seems to be in no great haste to attend to that important business; but has leisure to look over the papers, play a moment with the children, and can really speak gently to the one so rudely censured in the morning, before his appetite was appeased. “Now, I call this real cruel, John. I must go to market right off after breakfast, because you forgot to bring home the marketing last night. And I asked you so particularly; as we have company to dinner, I have hardly time to get ready. But I might have known if I wanted anything in season, tired or sick, I must always do it myself. It is really too bad!” “My dear! if I might slip in a word, I would like to inform you that I _did_ bring home the marketing according to orders, and gave it to the cook. You will doubtless find it in the store-closet.” “O John! that’s just like you. Why couldn’t you have told me last night? It wouldn’t have hurt you to have taken that trouble, I’m sure.” “You had company, you recollect, when I came home. I had an errand to do after tea, and you were fast asleep when I returned. What chance had I to tell you?” “You couldn’t have told me quietly, even if we had company, I suppose?” “Why, child! how eager you are to find fault!” “O, yes! of course I am the only one to blame.” It is not necessary to multiply examples, though, we are sorry to say, they could be brought from every class and position. But such things are not pleasant to hear, and certainly do not look well on paper. It is to be feared that we all have some germs of this same malady,--enough, at least, to understand the symptoms, and warn us to vigorous efforts to eradicate them. If allowed to take root, they deface our own characters, and disturb, if not destroy, the comfort of home. When parents indulge in this sin of grumbling, they cannot wonder if their children follow their example, and even go beyond it. A whole family of grumblers! what can be more wretched? Another class, whose behavior at home is unexceptionable, spare their families, reserving their grumbling for business hours, giving their servants or clerks the discomfort that the first class lay by for home consumption. There is hope for those. By and by some high-spirited sufferer from their waspishness and fault-finding, having endured their wearisome grumbling till patience is no longer a virtue, may teach them a lesson, through their self-interest, that will perhaps prove effectual.