The Tipton advertiser. [volume] (Tipton, Cedar Co., Iowa) 1856-1962, 1858-12-04
MISCELLANEOUS. 8.
.-..... . Fom the New York Independent g
WHAT is TO he DONE WITH OUR
CHARLEY! #N

-..u. .s Fom the New York Independent
WHAT Is TO he DONE WITH OuR
CHARLEY!
s BY MRS. HARRIET BEECHER srowE
| ies--that is the question:! The fact
is, there seems to be no place in heaven
above, or earth beneath, safe and suitable
except the bed. While he is asleep, then
our souls have rest--we know where be
is and what he is about, and sleep in q
gracious state; but when he wakes up
bright and early, and begins footing,
pounding, hammering, singing, meddling
and asking questions; in short, overturns
the peace of society generally, for about
thirteen hours cut of every twenty -four,
every body wants to know what to dc
with him-everybody is quite sure he
can't stay where they are. The cook
can't have him in the kitchen, where he
infests the pantry to get -four to make
paste for his kite, or melt lard in the new
sauce pan. If he goes into the wood,
shed, he is sure to pull the wood pile
down upon his head. If he be sent up
to the garret, you think for while that
you have settled the problem, till you end
what a boundless field for activity is at
once opened amid all the packages, boxes,
bags, barrels, aud cast-otf rubbish there.
Old letters, newspapers, trunks of miscel-
laneous contents, are all rummaged, and
( the very reign Of chaos and old night is
instituted. lie sees endless capacities in
all, aud he is always hammering some
thing, or knocking something apart, or
saving or pianing, or drawing barrels and
lay railroad tracks, till everybody's head
aches quite down to the lower floor, aud
everybody declares that Charley must be
kept out of the earrct.
Then you send Charley to school, and
hope you are fairly rid of him for a few
hours at least. But he comes home
noisier and more breezy than ever, hav-
ing learned of some twenty other Char,
lcys every separate resource for keeping
up a commotion that the superabundant
vitality of each can originate He can
dance like jim Spith-hc has learned
to smack his lips like Joe Brown--and
VIII Bri ggs has shown him how to new
like cat, and he eaters the premises
with new wa whoop learned from Tom
Evans. II feels large and valoIious, and
bas learned that he is boy, and has a
general impression that he is growing
immensely strong and knowing, and des-
pises more than ever the conyeniionalities
| .e Ca. i,., L.,
ever an interruption in the way of de-
cent folks who would be quiet.
1t is true, that If entertaining persons
vii! devote themselves exclusively to him,
reading aud telling stories, he may be
kept quiet; but then this is discoura@ing
work, for he swallows a story rs Rover
does piece Of meat, aud looks at you
for another and another, without the
slightest consideration, so that this re-
| source is of short duration, and then the
old question comes up again, What is to
be done with him!
But afer all, Charley cannot be wholly
shirked, for he is an institution-a
solemn and awful fact; and on the an
swer to the question, what is to be done
with him? depends future.
Many hard, morose, bitter man, has
come of a Charley turned off and neglec-
ted; many parental heart-ache has
come from Charley left to run the streets
that mamma and sisters might play on
the piano and write letters in peace. 1t
is easy to get rid Of him; there are ff-
ty ways Of doing that He is a spirit
that can be promptly laid, but if not laid
Alright will come back, by and by, a strong
man armed, when you cannot send him
of at pleasure.
Mamma and sisters had better pay q
little tax to Charley now, than a terrible
one by-aud-bv. There is something sig
nifeaut in the old English phrase, with
which our Scriptures render Us familiar,
a MAS-child. There you have the word
that should make you think more than
twice before you answer the question,
"What shall we do with Charley"
For to-day he is at your feet, to-day
you can make him laugh, you can max e
him cry, you can persuade, coax aud
turn him to your pleasure; you can make
his eyes ill and his bosom swell with re-
ciCals of good and noble deeds; in short,
you ean mold him il you will take the
trouble.
But look ahead some years, when that
little voice shall ring in deep bass tones;
when that small foot shall have man 5
weight aud tramp; when a rough beard
shall cover that little round chin, and all
the wiliful strength o. manhood FL out
that little form. Then you would give
worlds for the key to his heart, To DC able
to turn aud guide him to your will; but
il you lose that key now he is little, ycu
NAV search for il carefully, with tears,
some other day, but find it not.
/ Old housekeepers have a proverb, that
an hour lost In the morning is never
found all day. 1t has a Significance in
this case.
One thing is to be noticed about Char
lev, that, rude and busy and noisy as he
is, and irksome as carpet rules and parlor
/ ways are to him, he is still social little
creature, aud wants to be where the rest
of the household are. A room ever so
well adapted for play, cannot charm him
at the hour when the family is in reunion,
he hears the voices in the parlor ana his
plav. house seems desolate. 1t may be
warmed by a furnace and lighted with
gas. but it is human warmth and light
that he shivers for; he yearns for the
talk Of the family, which he SO imperfect
ly comprehends, and he longs to take his
plaything down and play by you, aud is
necessarily promising that of the fifty i'm
proper things which he is liable to do in
the parlor. he will not commit one If you
will let him stay there.
This instinct of the little one is Ma
1 ,.lan Code al