Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1858-11-19
NILS c Il l. l. i \ Y .
WHAT Is TO BE DONE WITH OUR
CHARLEY!

BY HARRIET BEECHLR STOWE,

From the Independent. November j
Yes-that is the question The fact is,
there seems to be no place in heaven above,
or earth below, exactly safe and suitable,
except the bed. While he is asleep there
our souls have rest-wo know where he is
and what he is about and sleep is gracious
state; but then he wakes up bright and ear
ly. and begins footing, pounding. hammer
ing, singing, meddling, and asking qucs-
tions; in short, overturning the peace Of So
ciety generally for about thirteen hours out
of every twentylour.
Everybody wants to know what to do
with him-everybody is quite sure that he
cant stay where they are. The cook can't
have him in the kitchen, where he infests the
pantry to get flour to make paste for his
kites or melt lard in the new saucepan. If
he goes into the wood-shed, he is sure to
pull the wood-pile down upon his head. If
he be sent up in the garret, you think for a
while that you have settled the problem, till
you find what boundless field for activity
is at once opened, amid all the packages,
boxes, bags, barrels, and cast-off rubbish
there. Old letters, newspapers, trunks of
miscellaneous contents, are all rummaged
and the very reign of chaos and old night is
instituted, He sees endless capacities in all,
and he is always hammerlng something, or
knocking something apart, or saving, or
planning, or drawing boxes and barrels in all
directions to build cities or railroad tracks,
till everybody's head aches quite down to the
lower floor, and everybody declares that
Charley must be kept out of the garret
Then you send Charley to school, and
hope you are fairly rid of him for few hours
at least. But he comes home noisier and
more breezy than ever, having learned of
some twenty other Charleys every separate
resource of keeping up Il commotion that the
superabundant vitality of each can originate.
He can dance like Jim Smith--he has learn
ed to smack his lips like Joe Brown-and
Will Briggs has shown him how to Iuew like
cat, and he enters the promises with new
war-whoop, learned from Tom Evans. He
feels large and valorous he has learned that
he is boy, and has general impression
that he is growing immensely strong and
knowing, and despises more than ever the
conventionalties of paror life ; in fact, he of
more than ever an interruption in the way is
decent folks who want to be quiet.
1t is true, that if entertaining persons will
devote themselves exclusively to him, reading
and telling stories, he may be kept quiet !;
but then this is discouraging work, for he
swallows a story as Rover doesa piece Of meat,
and looks at you for another and another,
without the slightest consideration, so that
this resource is of short duration, and then
the old question comes back; What is to be
done with him?
But after all, Charley cannot be wholly
shirked, for he is an institutional solemn
and awful fact and on the answer to the
question, What is to be done with him de-
pcnds future.
Manya hard, morose, bitter man has come
from a Charley turned off and neglected
many personal 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 him;
there are fifty 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 off at pleasure.
Mamma and sisters had better pay little
tax to Charley now, than terrible one by
and-by, There is something significant il
the old English phrase, with which oui
Scriptures render US familiar a MAN child-a
MAN child. There you have the word tha
should make you think more than twice be
fore you answer the question What shall
we do with Charley?'
For to-day he is at your teet to-day yol
can make him laugh, you can make him cry
you can persuade, coax, and turn him L
your pleasure yon can make his eyes fill
anu MS DOSOn swell Nlll IetlldlS VI EpDl
and noble deeds in short, you can mOul,
him if you will take the trouble.
But look a head some years, when tia
little voice shall ring in deep bass tones
when that little foot shall have a man
weight and tramp; when a rough beard shal
cover that little, round chin, and the wilfu
strength of manhood fiji out that little form
Then you would give worlds for the key t
his heart, to be able to turn and guide hir
to your will but if you will lose that ke
now he is little, you may search for it car'
fully, with tears, some other day, and mere
fndit
Old housekeepers have proverb, that or
hour lost in the morning is never found a
day, 1t has a significance in this case.
One thing is to be noticed about Charlie,
that, rude, and busy and noisy as he is, ar
irksome as carpet rules and parlor ways al
to him, he is still social little creature, al
wants to be where the rest of the househo
are. A room ever so well adapted for pla
cannot charm him at the hour when Il
family is in reunion ; he hears the voices
the parlor, and his play room seems desolat
1t may be warmed by furnace and Light
with gas, but it is human warmth and lig
he shivers for he yearns for the talk of t
family, which he 50 imperiectly comp
hends, and he longs to take his playthin
down and play by you, and is incessani
promis ng that of the fifty improper thir
which he is liable to do in the parlor,
will not commit one if you will let him st
there.
THIS instinct OF the little one is Natur
warning plea-God's admonition. o, h
many mother who has neglected it beca'
il was irksome TO have the child about,
longed 10 keep her son by her side, and
would not Shut out as little Arab; CT
stantly told that he is noisy, that he is av
ward and meddlesome and plague in gen
al, the boy has found at last his own com
nv in the streets, in the highways and hedg
where he runs till the day comes when
parents want their son and the sisters Il
L.aLn-r I'D then they are scared at the I