"MAN AND WIFE PALS"

(relationship) By Rev. Patrick Fountaine,Little Talks About Life (excerpts)

The high calling and the one great duty of woman is to light the flame and keep burning the altar-fires of love. That is her one, I might say, her only calling,since upon that depends her own happiness of those entrusted to her care, and thus ultimately she contributes her greatest share to the happiness of the community in which she lives.

The wise woman will concentrate on her hubby's leisure. She knows what he likes,and she gives it to him. She plays with him. In a word, she is a pal to him. She, having singled him out of the entire world as worthy of her heart and hand-- he by that fact is worthy. Of course, the same duty revolves on the husband.

It is his duty as well as hers, to make matrimony one grand song of harmony. Every man should feel it to be his obligation, as it is the obligation of the wife toward husband, to enter into her pursuits and dreams. Even though a man gets all the society he wants at his work and finds other society at his club or at the corner --- he should never forget that the one who has the paramount rights, not only to his love but to his society is the mate whom he has chosen as his life-companion.

Men never seem to realize that the most painful heartache that matrimony brings to the majority of women is spiritual loneliness. Women look upon marriage as a perpetual companionship with the one they love best. The ache for such "pal-ship", if I may coin a word---they look for perpetual sunshine, and alas! discover it to be mostly moonshine.

You married your wife not to lock her up in an indolent atmosphere, but to be with you and help your life when you most need help, by word, thought, and deed,to be always your pal, your chum. To be a pal means to be sincere, to be affectionate, to be considerate, to have understanding, to overlook frailties,to give mutual aid --- in a word, to give and receive happiness.

Marriage resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated,often moving in opposite directions yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.