There are homes where mothers, who once wearied easily of children's noises, sit now with aching hearts, and would give the world to have a baby to nurse, or a rollicking boy to care for.

Children are among the secrets of a happy home.
Turning to the life of the household, affectionateness is one of the secrets of happiness.

There are hundreds of homes in which there is love that would die for its dear ones; and yet hearts are starving there for love's daily bread.

There is a tendency in some homes to smother all of love's tenderness, to suppress it, to choke it back.
There are homes where the amenities of affection are unknown, and where hearts starve for daily bread.

There are husbands and wives between whom love's converse has settled into the baldest conventionalities.
There are parents who never kiss their children after they are babies, and who discourage in them as they grow up all longing for caresses.
There are homes whose daily life is marred by incessant petty strifes and discourtesies.
These are not exaggerations.