Ideal Home Life - online book

A valuable and well-organized system for home education(homeschooling) 3 to 12 years.

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MAKING OUR HOME BEAUTIFUL            207
and sounds of a strange place. When your friend is once established in the guest chamber, remember that it becomes her castle, and is as much her own as if she was at home; so do not be running in and out too familiarly without an invita­tion. Let her feel that when you go there the order of things is reversed, and that then you are the guest and she is the hostess.
Do What Pleases the Guest
Let the pleasures which you choose for her entertainment be of a kind which you are sure she will enjoy. It is no kind­ness to insist on taking a nervous, timid girl on a fast drive, or out rowing if she is afraid of the water, under the impression that visitors must be taken somewhere, when all the time she is wishing she was on solid ground.
Do not invite people unaccustomed to walking to go on long tramps in the woods, and imagine that because it is easy and pleasant for you it must be so for them, nor take those who are longing for music to see pictures instead, while you are boring the picture-lovers, who may care nothing for music, with concerts. A little ingenuity and observation will give you enough knowledge of your friend's real taste to prevent you from making these mistakes; and, indeed, there will be little danger of your doing this if you keep in mind that the kindest thing you can do is to let guests enjoy themselves in their own way, instead of insisting that they shall enjoy them­selves in yours. If they are fond of books, let them read in peace. I once heard a lady, who thinks herself hospitable, say to a young friend who was looking over a book which lay on the table, "If you want to read that book I will lend it to you to take home, but while you are here I want you to visit with me."
Do Not Be Ever Watchful
Let your friends alone, now and then, and do not make them feel that you are constantly watching over them. Some people, in trying to be polite, keep their guests in continual unrest. The moment one is comfortably seated, they insist that she shall get up and take a chair which they consider more
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