The Cass County Republican. [volume] (Dowagiac, Mich.) 18??-1880, 1858-12-09


family is in reunion: he hears the
voices in the parlor, and his play soon
seems desolate.
1t may be warmed by furnace and
lighted with gas, but it is human
warmth and light he shivers for he
yearns for the talk of the family, which
he so imperfectly eemprehends, and he
longs to take his playthings down and
play by you, and is necessarily promis-
ing that of the fifty improper things
which he is liable to do in the parlor
he will not commit one if you let him
stay here.
This instinct of the little cup to Ma
lures warning plea-God's admonition.
O, how many mother who has ne
elected it becauseit was irksome to have
the child about has longed at twenty
five to keep her son by her side and he
would not! Shut out as little Arab !,
constantly told that he is noisy, that he
is awkward and meddlesome, and a
plague in general, the boy has found
at last his own company in the streets
in the highways and hedges, where he
runs till the day comes when the
parents want their son, and the sisters
their brother, and then they are scared
at the face he brings back to them as he
comes all foul and smutty from the
companinoship to which they have
doomed him.
Depend upon it, if it is too much trou-
bic to keep your boy in your society,
there will be places found for him
warmed and lighted with no friendly
fires-where he who finds some mis-
chief still for idle hands to do, will care
for him if you do not. You may put
out a tree, and it will grow while you
sleep, but son you cannot-you must
take trouble for him, either little now
or great deal by-and-by. Let him
stay with you at least some portion of
every day bear his noise and his ig-
norant ways. Put aside your book or
work TO tell him story, or show him a
picture devise still parlor plays for
him, for he gains nothing by being al
lowed to spoil the comforts of the
whole circle. A pencil, a sheet of pa
per, and few patternsswill sometimes
keep him quiet by you for and hour,
while you are talking, or in corner he
may build block-house, annoying
nobody. If he does now and then
disturb you, and it costs you more
thought and care to regulate him there,
balance which is the greatest evil-to
be disturbed by him now, or when he
is man.
OF all You can give your Charley, if
you are a good man or woman, your pre-
sence is the best and safest thing. God
never meant him to do without you, any
more than chickens were meant to grow
without being brooded.
Then let him have some place in your
house where it shall be no sin to ham,
mer and pound, and make all the litter
his heart desires, and his various
schemes require. Even if you can i'll
afford the room, weigh well between
that safe asylum, and one which, if de-
MED, he may make for himself in the
| street.
Of all devices for Charley which we
have few shelves which he may digni-
fly with the name of a cabinet is one of
the best. He picks up shells and stones
and pebbles, all odds and ends-noth-
ing comes amiss and if you give him
pair of scissors and little gum, there
is no end of the labels he will paste On,
and the hours he may innocently spend
sorting and arranging.
A bottle of liquid gum is an invalua-
bic resource of various purposes, nor
must you mind though he varnish his
nose and fingers, and clothes (which
he will do of course) if he does nothing
worse. A cheap paint-box, and some
engravings to color, is another, and if
you will give him some real paint and
putty to paint and putty his boats and
cars, he is a made man.
All these things make trouble-to
be sure they debut Charley is to
make trouble, that is the nature of
the institution; you are only to choose
between safe and wholesome trouble
and the trouble that comes at last
like a whirlwind. God bless the little
fellow, and send us all grace to know
what to do with him.