Page:Thoughts in my Garden.djvu/149

Rh great mistake, too often made by mothers, that hours spent apart from the cares in which their families involve them are stolen hours, to which they have scarce a right. Apart from the instruction to be derived from the tending of plants, the relaxation of the mind from care past, and its recreation for care to come, renew the life of the mind, and through that the life of the body; so that more would be accomplished in the hours that are left, than if that one had not been taken from them. Do not, then, if you are a mother with many cares, deny yourself the pleasure and benefit of plants, because you think you have not time for them.

You may as well forbid your children to take advantage of the recess at school, hoping that they will learn more from studying all the time they are at school, as to deny yourself the recess from care in your long days at home, supposing that you can accomplish more by uninterrupted effort. The child can learn more when he has a proper recess during his school hours, and the mother can do more, with less effort and less fatigue, if she too has a recess from her cares. A little time spent with your plants each day, will unbend your mind from the strain perpetual care brings upon