It is not in human nature for a man who has been hard at work all day to return to his home toiled and weary, or with his mind agitated after being filled with many things, and to regard with complacency little matters which go awry, but which at another time would not trouble him.  The hard-working man is too apt to regard as lazy those who work less than himself, and he therefore looks upon the slightest unreadiness or want of preparation in his wife as neglect.  Hence a woman, if she be wise, will be constantly prepared for the return of her husband.  He, after all, is the bread-winner; and all that he requires is an attention less by far than we should ordinarily pay to a guest.  In the good old Scotch song, which thrills our heart every time it is sung, and makes us remember, however skeptical we may have grown, the true worth and divinity of love, the wife’s greatest pleasure is that of looking forward to the return of her husband.  She puts on-her best clothes and her sweetest smile; she clothes her face with that fondness which only a wife’s look can express; she makes her children look neat and pretty—­“gi’es little Kate her cotton gown, and Jock his Sunday coat” because the husband is returning.  There is not a prettier picture throughout the whole range of literature.  How her love breathes forth—­

    “Sae sweet his voice, sae smooth his tongue;
      His breath like caller air;
    His very foot has music in ’t
      As he comes up the stair.”

And the love which thus colors with its radiant tints the common things of this life, which makes poverty beautiful, and the cottage richer than the palace, will be sure to teach the heart which possesses it how to manage the husband.

In “managing a man”—­an important lesson, which some women are very anxious to impress upon others—­immense tact and delicacy are wanted, but are very seldom found.  Wives should remember that they had better, very much better, never try to manage, than try and not succeed.  And yet all men like to be managed, and require management.  No one can pretend to be the be-all and end-all in a house.  It is from his wife that the husband should learn the true value of things—­his own dignity, his position, and even his secondary position by her side as manageress.  But, if she be wise, she will not make this too apparent.  Directly the voice gets too loud, the tone too commanding, and the manner too fussy, the unhappy man begins to suspect that he is being “managed,” and in nine cases out of ten sinks into utter imbecility, or breaks away like an obstinate pig.  Both these symptoms are bad, and perhaps the first is the worst.  No true woman can love and reverence a man who is morally and intellectually lower than herself, and who has driveled down into a mere assenting puppet.  On the other hand, the pig-headed husband is very troublesome.  He requires the greatest care; for whatever his wife says he will refuse to do; nay, although it may be