Richmond daily times. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1853, 1853-05-14
THE DAILY TIMES
From Chambers Journal.

guished circles, but for the irritation which ha
arisen, l am sorry to say, through the startD;
up of competitory baby in another family. Tn,
! Corbets are not our relations, but only connex
ions through some ancient intermarryings. Never
| theless, ever since any of US remember, they
| were intimately associated with the Balderstone
till few years ago. when at length dryness tool
| place, in consequence of something which M
person on either side could explain to the com
prehension of any third party, and of which
for my own part, have not the fantest under
standing beyond its being something which all
true Balderstones were bound to resent. Well
| the Corbets and we were not on good terms We
were civil when we met but we did not seek to
| meet. Our mutual friends knew that it was not
proper TO invite us to the same dinner parties.
believe the gentlemen generally behaved when
they did meet, good humouredly enough; but the
ladies', on their accidentally encounterng each
other, were distressingly polite. Thus matters
went on for several years; and, perhaps, if no
thing had occurred to fan the flame of discord,
they might have, ere long, been softened, and a
reconciliation might have taken place. But grieve
to say, since the birth of compettory baby in
the Corbet family, things have become far worse
than they ever were before.
Very unfortunately, the Balderstone baby and
the Corbet baby came into this world of jars
within week of each other. When Mrs. James
Corbet was announced by the newspapers, in
their usual intelligent manner, as 'sof daugh-
ter" three days after Susannah Balderstone had
proclaimed that man-child was born to her, it
seemed as if a gauntlet had been thrown down
by the Corbets to the Balderstones, which the
latter must take up. We were not at first much
excited, for we felt a serene superiority in the
sex of our baby. But very few weeks had elapsed
are our jealous feelings were fully aroused. Al
though no Corbet craft ever entered the port of a
Balderstone, any more than any Balderstone bark
took harbour with Corbet, there were few
neutral vessels, in the form of old ladies, which
kept continually passing and repassing between
the two contending powers By these gentle
women there were given such minute and ample
accounts of the two babies to the respective par
ties, that the feeling of rivalry could not have
been more excited though the infants had been
brought into one place, and fairly pitted against
each other. do not know exactly how it may
have been with the Corbets, but must in
candour confess that, within six months, there
was hardly a Balderstone who would have
felt sorry if Providence had been pleased to re-
mand the infant Corbet out of this unfortunate
world.
1t began with reports of the bulk of the Cor
bet baby. Ours was not big child-a circum.
stance which in itself we felt to be of no account
perhaps rather to be rejoiced in. But when
we were told that the little Corbet was of extra
ordinary size and strength, we began to feel un-
comfortable. The first sting was implanted, and
we never afterwards could be said to be at ease.
Of course we did not own to any sense of the
Corbet baby having an advantage in this respec, t
but tried to make head against it by reference to
the greater liveliness of our child, and few ge-
neral illusions to the proverbial smallness of all
highly precious things. But still we could have
wished that the tangible instead of the abstract
superiority had been on our side. Before the
twelvemonth was out, we experienced partial
and temporary relief from the humiliation, by our
little fellow getting upon his feet, and toddling
from chair to chair in the parour, while no report
of similar feats came from the Corbet Camp
Here, we all felt, was decided proof of the ad
vantage which an infant had in not being of any
thing like monstrous size or weight. The Cor
bet baby will not walk for months to come, and
when it does, its body being too heavy
for its limbs, it will become deformed. Where
will the boast of the Corbets be then? Here, on
the other hand, is baby of moderate, natural
size, and behold, such is it's strength and spirit,
it walks fully three months before the average
time, and is in no danger of bending its limbs !!
The Balderstone baby is the baby after all Let
the reader imagine our mortifcation-theugh at
first softened by a little increduility-on our
being informed, fortnight after, that little
Georgina Corbet had suddenly taken to rum
ming about, and seemed even more decidedly
at ease in her new circumstances than our darling
Tosy Mosy
All through the latter part of this first twelve
month, there had been sundry skirmshings about
the dentition of the respective infants. 1t never
could be clearly ascertained which had the first
TOOTH | always felt that our pretensions to the
honour rested on less substantial proof than
was to be desired. There had been careless.
ness on our nurses part in observing the fact
When first discovered the tooth appeared as if
it had been out for at least a couple of days.
hila tho 70 IN nd IN
the Corbet infant had been announced to the
whole sanhedrim of aunts and grandmammas
concerned in that case, and much had been the
Growing thereupon. Notwithstanding resolutions
of better care in future, and guerdon of half
crown held out by Grandmamma Balderstone
for early intelligence, the childs teeth aUoud slip
into existence in this insidious manner-it hap
pened several times-and thus we were baked
of several triumphs on which we had every rea-
son to calculate. The utmost we could do was
to boast of the fact, as sign of the health and
vigour of our baby; while, on the other hand,
there was no wonder that the cutting of the
Corbet infants teeth was in all cases observed to
an hour, seeing that the little creature had so
much affection in that branch of her organiza-
ton. On the whole, we got through the teethng
with fair degree of credit.
The tug of war, while these merely physical
Developments were going on, was, though keen,
nothing, compared to what it became when the
intelligence and morale of the two children be-
gan to appear. We were quite taken by sur
prise when neutral friend, calling upon us one
day, mentioned that the Corbet infant already
could distinguish every one of the family when
the name was mentioned, and had even, on one
or two occasions, let fall the words papa and
mamma, although it could not yet be induced
to pronounce them at command. 1t seemed as if
the rival family had stolen march upon u.s.
We took all the blame, however, upon ourselves,
for we felt convinced that our baby would have
been distinguishing faces. and addressing papa
and mamma, too, if we had only taken pains to
instruct him. A vigorous educational effort was
therefore resolved upon. Long however, before
any decided consequences had been observed,
IL, a.e tLA.