that there may never occur a vacancy about the home that some one, girl or boy, man or woman, is not able and willing to step into and fill satisfactorily. To this end, faithfully teach your little ones, girls or boys, to put their hands to any work that is necessary. “Next you will tell us to let our girls saw and split wood, milk the cows, harness and unharness the horse, etc.” Yes. Why not? They should know how to do all this, and do it well; and try it often enough to feel at ease and without fear in the effort, and that will be sufficient for the present. But suppose in a few years your daughter marries, and goes from you to some distant settlement where neighbors are scarce and “help” uncertain. Girls of wealth and refinement have done such things. Let the monotony of frontier life be occasionally enlivened by a real attack of chills and fever in which all take a part. When husband and “help,” if your daughter is so fortunate as to secure any, take their turn in _shaking_, will not the wife look back to the time when brother Will and she had their miniature saws and hatchets, and made much sport in preparing the kindlings? Won’t she see that the knowledge how to do this, which was simply amusement then, has been stored up for real service now? She little thought when grandpa taught her to milk old Brindle without fear of the gentle animal, how she would thank him for it in this far-off home. Are you sure that your little girl will never be placed in circumstances, for only a few hours perhaps, when she would be most thankful to know how to do any one of these things? Can you not imagine circumstances where it would be an incalculable blessing? We can, any number of them, not at all beyond the bounds of possibility. We have known cases where it was almost a matter of life or death, that a lady should have skill and courage to harness a horse and hasten for help. These cases may be rare; yet if they come but once in a lifetime, is not the lesson worth the learning? If you were driving a team--a very desirable accomplishment for any young lady--and the harness should break or become unfastened, ought you not, for your own safety, to know how to repair the mischief? Every girl should early learn how each part of the harness must be adjusted, else the pleasure and independence of being able to drive when older will be attended with much risk, and often with fatal consequences. Youth--early childhood--is the time to secure this knowledge, that you may be prepared to use it with confidence and self-control when needed. Even if it is never needed in later life, _knowing how_ will not injure any one. XXVIII. STEALING SERVANTS. IN _The Christian Union_ a while ago, “Laicus” gives the history of a transaction between two neighbors, in which he thinks the indignation manifested by one of the parties was uncalled for, and her objection to the proceeding of the other “but a relic of the old-time slave system.” The case given was in this wise.