Monmouth weekly herald. [volume] (Freehold, N.J.) 1854-1860, 1858-12-16
Iramilg Girtle,
What is to be Done with Our
Charley?
BY HARRIET BEBCHER STOWE.

above or earth beneath exactly safe and
suitable, except The bed. While he is
asleep. then our souls have rest-we
know where he is and what he is about,
and sleep is a gracious state bat then
he wakes up bright and early, and begins
footing, pounding hammoring. singing,
meddliug and asking questions in short,
overturning the peace Of society gen
orally for about thirteen hours out of
twentyfour.
Everybody wants to know what to do
with him-everybody is quite sure that
he can't stay where they are. The cook
can't have him in the kitchen, where he
%infe5ts the pantry to get -four to make
paste for his kites, Or melt lard in the
new sauce pan. Ii he goes into the wood
shed, he is sure to pull the wood pile
down upon his head. If he is sent up to
the garrett yon think for a while that you
have settled the problem, till you find
what a boundless field for activity is at
once opened, amid all t~hepackages, boxes,
bags, barrels, and cast-off rubbish there.
Old letters, newspapers, trunks Of mis-
%cellaneOus contents, are all rumaged, and
the very reign Of choas and old night is
instituted He sees endless capacities in
all. and he is always hammering some
thing or knocking something apart, or
saving, or drawing boxes and barrels in
+al( directions to build cities or lay rail
road tracks, till eyerybody's head aches
quite down to the lower floor, and every
body declares that Charley must be kept
out Of the garnet.
Then you send Charley to school. and
hope YOU are fairly rid of him for q few
hours at least. But be comes home noiser
and more breezy than ever, having learn
ed of some twenty other Charleys every
seperate resource for keeping up q con-
munion that the superintendent vitality
of each can originate. He can dance
like Jim Smith-he as learned to smack
his lips like Joe Brown-and Will
Briggs has shown him how TO NEW like
a cat, and he enters the premises with a
new war whoop, learned from Tom
Evans. He feels large and y~alorous he
has learned that he is a boy, and has a
general impression that ne is growing
Immensely strong and knowing, and des-
pises more than ever the convcntionalities
of palor life, in fact, he is more than ever
an interruption iii the way Of decent
folks who want to be quiet.
1t is true, hat if entertaining persons
will devote themselves exclusively to him,
reading and telling stories, he may be
kept quiet but then this is discouraging
work. tor he swallows a story as Rover
does a piece Of meat, and looks at you
for another and another Without the
slightest consideration. so nag his re-
source is of short DURATION md then the
old question back, What is t. DC
done with him
But after all, Charley cannot be wholly
shirked, for he is an institution-a sol
emu and awful fact ; and on the answer
to the question. What is to be done with
him ? depends a future.
Many a hard, morose, bitter man has
come from g Charley turned off and neg,
lected many q parental heart ache has
come from a 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 his :;
there are fifty ways Of deing that. He is
a spirit that can be promptly laid. but if
not laid Alright viii come back, by-and
by, a strong man armed, when you can
not send him off at pleasure.
Mamma and sisters had better pay q
little tax to Charley now, than a terrible
one by and.by. There is something sig
niGcant in the Old English phrase, with
which our Scriptures renders us familiar,
a MAN child-a la child. There you
have the word that should make you think
more than twice before you answer the
question What shall we do with Char
ley
For to-day he is at your feet to-day
you can make him laugh, you can make
him cry, you can persuade, coax, and turn
him to your pleasure you can make his
eyes ill and his bosom swell with r~ecitals
of good and noble deeds in short, you
can mould him if you will take the
trouble.
But look ahead some years, when that
little voice shall ring in deep base tones
when that small foot shall have a MATS
weight and tramp when rough beard
shall cover that little, round chin, and
all the willful strength Of manhood
fill out that little form. Then You would
give words for the key to his heart, to::be
able to turn and guide him to your will !;
bat if you lose that key now he is little,
you may search for it carefully, with.
tears, sone other day, and never find it.
Old houSekeepers have a proverb, that
one hour lost ia the morning is never
found all day. 1t has a significance in
this case.
One thing is to be noticed abont Char
ley, that, rude and busy and noisy as he
is, and irksome as carpet rules palor ways
are TO him, he is still a social little Great
ure, and wants to be where the Test of
the household are. A room ever so we'll
adapted for play, cannot charm him at
the hour when the family is in reunion !;
he hears the voice in the palor and his
play room seems desolate. 1t may be
warmed by a 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 compre
hends, and he longs to take his playthings
down and play by you, and is necessarily
promising that Of the fifty improper
things which he is liable to do in the par
lor, he will not commit one if you let him
stay here.