Spare Half-hours.

Otago Witness, Issue 1499, 7 August 1880, Page 26

Spare Half-hours.

By Henry Lapham,

EARLY HABITS. | !

(Written Specially for the Otago Witness).

There is an old and oft quoted adage which says: That early to bed, and early to rise, Will make a man healthy, wealthy, and wise, but, like all general assertions, it is open to serious objections. For, suppose that the time is summer and tbe night a soft, delicious, balmy evening, with a full moon shedding a flood of silver light, and some lucky fellow is walking with his chosen by his side, her taper hand resting with just the slightest pressure upon his arm, her fa^e "divinely fair " looking sweeter than ever in the soft, pale gleam—what will it matter to him or her that the hour is past the midnight chime, that he has to rise at daylight, may be, to get to his work betimes, or that papa is waiting in the chill, draughty parlour grumbling and ready to growl, and mamma is preparing a lecture? that last good-bye, that tender glance, those whispered words are all so precious, and parting is such sweet sorrow, That they could say good-night until to-morrow. Or, suppose that the season is surly winter, with a roaring wind abroad that drives the snowflakes whispering against the pane; but within there is a cheery fire: no mere fraud of a handful of black coals with sickly inter* mittent bursts of flame cooped up in a grate, but a jovial, stirring blaze in a wide hearth, whereon, but far back, lies a huge log whose bulk by-and-by will fall into glowing crimson embers—would it not be an ungrateful scorning of Nature's beat gifts to hurry away from such comfort to lie oblivious in snoring unconsciousness? How much do children love the place Where glowing embers through the room Teach light to counterfeit a gloom, while seated about the hearth they fashion from the shining coals the castles and towers, the woods and mountains of fairyland ! And long after they are fast asleep will paterfamilias sit and view the ruined " Chateaux en Bspagne "of early youth; and mater will see, through a mist of tears, the baby faoe bidden long since beneath the grass—will almost hear the lisping of a little voice that shall bleBS her ear again only in heaven. At length the clock strikes, and mater,, with a Btart, exclaims : "My dear, do you see the time ? and you look so sleepy ! Go to bed, dear ; I will Bee to the fire and the lamp." Oh ! sweet spirit of wifely devotion ! Oh, woman's tender heart, that thus will hurry a mau off to a temporary plunge bath between icy streets where the cold will make him squeeze his knees convulsively up to his chin and mutter impromptu—blessings, to be nicely warmed and made pleasant before her turn comes. Then as to early rising, it is well enough in summer when the dewdrops spangle the lawn, and the sweet birdß warble their matin song, etc., etc , to get up early and wonder aloud, for the benefit of the mater who has just dropped off in a pleasant doze; how people can manage to lie in bed, and then after a walk round the garden, and a thought that to morrow you will begin to do that digging the flower borders which has been waiting so long, to come into breakfast with a sense of having done something very meritorious and at once demand why the—dickens—the meal is not ready, over whioh the m&ter has been burning her face and warming her temper for the last half hour. In summer it is but just and right that a lord of creation should assert his supremacy thus. But in winter if a man is foolish enough to allow himself to be guided by principle and leave his bed at Borne unearthly hour, what doth it profit him ? To go and walk in the garden with that steady rain f(tiling, and the bare treeß shivering in the blast would be Bimply madness, so he make 3 for the dining-room, knocks his knees against the fender and fireirons piled In the door-way, stumble*

into tbe gloomy, chilly room with the bare table, and the chairs piled one upon another, and a choking cloud of dust arising from the housemaid's broom ; then he goes to the kitohen and stands before the miserable fire and gets almost warm, till the cook pointedly remarks, "She can't get no breakfast ready if she's not to see the fire," when he stalks off to the nursery, whera he shakes the girls and smacks the boys for being so abominably lazy. Surely this is not healthy, nor very conducive to wealth, while it is eminently unwise to get into a bad temper the first thing ia the day. How very much better is it that he should lie in his warm snug blankets, oblivious to all his •wife's hints and nudges, until that lady, who must have had quite two hours' rest between her midnight promenades with peevish No. 8, concludes she had better rise herself if anything is to be done to-day. The pater watches her between half- shut eyelids, and thinks, if it troubles him at all, that women are alwayß restless, then turns over with blanket about his ears, f&r another delicious nap. This lasts for an hour, and by that time some power — Providence, he supposed — _ has seen to the children's breakfast, to their topcoats and mufflers, and packed them off to school. Then the refreshed slumbcrer hears the bed-room door creak, and there appears, oh ! wonderful depth of woman's forgiveness, the mater, bearing a white napkined tray and thereon the daintiest of cutlets, the most fragrant of coffee, the thickest of cream, to tempt the appetite of sumnolent lord— and having eaten and drank — she brings his shaving- water, piping hot, and presently he emerges, trim and warm, and neat, just in time to give his wife a hearty kiss before he hurries off to catch the train. And the wife, I believe, though weary and worn, yet her lips and heart sweetened by that careless kiss, will be happy all day long. Now, if the pater had got up early, ten to one he would have growled instead of kissing, and would that, I ask, be either healthy or wise ?