Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: FIFTH INFELICITY. DOMESTIC GOVERNMENT. you don't keep those children," I said to my wife, " from making such, an abominable noise while" I am in the house, I can't imagine. I should think that you 'd instruct them to be quiet and behave themselves when I am at home. They have all the day, from nine o'clock until five, in which to play and make as much noise as they please, and why you will allow them to keep it up until bedtime, I really don't understand. After I 've been employed down-town for six or eight hours, toiling for you and the children, I desire, when I return home, to enjoy rest and quiet, and not find myself, the moment I enter the house, in the midst of bedlam." " The noise they make," said my wife, looking up from her work, " can be no more annoying to you than it is to me, who have to be subjected to it all day. I 'm sure my nerves ought to be made of iron to enable me to endure it. You, in reality, experience little of its unpleasantness; but here am I, shut up, day after day, with these noisy beings, obliged oftentimes, through lack of strength to correct them, to submit to their caprices and naughtiness, while you are abroad in the open air, and free from the petty annoyances which surround me. You men, though, think a woman's life is a perfect paradise. I wish you had to live only one such day as this has been. I have been obliged to have the sole care of the children ever since mo/ning, and, between their crying and boisterous behavior, they have nearly worn me out. My head aches violently, and it does n't seem as if my fingers could take another stitch." " But why," I asked, " did you take so much upon yourself? Why did n't you let Katy have charge of the children, as usual?" "Because this is ironing-day, and Katy always has to assist the ...