Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1843-01-06
GETTING CHILDREN OUT OF THE
NtN " .Ta WAY

GETTING CHILDREN OUT OF THE
WAY.
Possibly there may be son mother frank
enough to say, "My children must go to
school; it is sack a relief to have them out
Qfthe ray" So a mother thought, who
took her little girl from the nursery, and babe
her scarce older brother lead her with him
to SCHOOL. There she sat upon the hard
bench, her tiny feet swinging above the floor,
tilhthe feebly strung muscles were weary
and in pain, She looked, in her wondering
innocence, upon the ways of naughty chill
dren, and imbibed more Of the evil, than the
goodness which rebuked it. She opened her
ears wide 1T the sound of improper words,
and adopted their use without knowing their
meaning. So she, who was sent from home
because of the noise of her lively play, or
the interruptions of her curious questioning,
brought a deeper care, becoming a subject
of moral discipline.
She was once proceeding homeward, more
demurely than when she first attended school,
for the consciousness of wrong conduct had
found its way to her heart, and quelled its
buoyant happiness. 1t was touching TO see
a little one so sad. Her brother left her for
a moment to slide down an ice-covered hill.
He charged her to wait for him in the spot
where he placed her. But soon she attemp-
ted TO run to him. A pair of gay horses
threw her down, and a loaded sleigh passing
over her, literally divided her breast. She
was taken up breathless, a crushed and bro
ken flower. She waS out of the cay.
A mother in one of our smaller country
towns, had a large family of daughters. She
thought it would be a relief to her, if but
one of them were ont Of the rag. So she
selected the widest, to be sent to a boarding
school. She had been accustomed to rural
sports and employments, and free exercise
about her fathers grounds. The impure
atmosphere of a crowded city in summer
the close stoves in winter, the comparative
and enervating stiffness of the whole wear.
induced a change of habits, and declension
OF health. Long sitting at the piano, aud
the rigid compression of corsets, troubled the
seat of life. When she returned home on
vacations, it was exultingly remarked by the
parents, how lady-like she had grown, and
how much more delicate than her rudy sis
tiers. Indeed, she was pale as a lily, and in
active to a remarkable degree. 1t was not
long ere the spinal disease revealed itself:
and muscular energy, and pure animal spir-
Its were lost. She indeed existed, but the
wreck of her former self. Debility and con-
finement cut her off from society, and from
the Joys of life. She was ont of the oay.
There is yet another form of putting chill
dren out of the way, which, though by no
means common in our country, is still visible,
with certain notifications, in fashionable
lille. 1t consists in consigning their infancy
too exclusively to the charge of hirelings,
and to the bounds of the nursery. A young
mother complained that her children were
so numerous, and so near Of an age, that she
had neither repose nor comfort. She found
1t impossible to nurse them. Her husband
also thought it would hurt her form. and
make her old before her time. BY this phi
losophy, she reserved to herself all the suE-
fering of introducing infancy into the world,
and excluded that heartfelt and hallowed
intercourse, which gives to pain can over
payment of delight"
She placed her nursery in the highest sto-
ry OF her lofty house, that she need not be
disturbed by its noise. She said she went
there "as often as possible, though it was
excessively fatigueing to climb those endless
stairs" But she always procured an ample
number of nurses, without reference to ex-
pense, and was satisfied that she had the
most excellent care. One day she was in
formed that her youngest was sick. She
went to it, but thought the nurse was unne-
c~essarily alarmed. She staid with it as long
as was in her power, considering she was
engaged to a ball that evening. After she
was entirely dressed, she took pains to come
up again and inquire after it. The nurse
told her it was no better. She was sure the
nurse was unreasonably timid. 1t had but a
slight cough. Still she did not remain at
D the ball as late as usual, or dance with her
usual spirit. She said to her husband, that
such was her anxiety for the little one, that
she should not have gone at all, had she not
felt under the strongest obligations to attend
the first entertainment of her particular
friend. At her return, she fastened to the
nursery. The hopeless stage of Group had
seized the agonized victim. Another also
betrayed the same fatal indications. The
skill of the physician, and the frantic grief
OF the mother, were alike vain. With the
fearful suddenness which often marks The
termination Of the diseases of infancy. two
beautiful beings soon lay like sculptured
marble. With the assiduons care of the
mother, the result might have been the same,