Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1858-11-11
WHlTBIOBED DONE WITHOUR CHARLEY!
BY HARRIET BEECHER STOWE.

seem to be no place in heaven above or earth
beneath, exactly safe and suitable, except the
bed. While ne is asleep then our souls have
rest-we know where he is and what he is about
and sleeps gracious state; but then he wakes
up bright and early, and begins footing, pout-
ing, hammering, singing, meddling and asking
questions; in short, overiurning the peace of So
ciety generally for about thirteen hours out of
every twenty-four.
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 infests the pantry to get flour
to make paste for his kites or melt lard in the
new sauce pan. Ifhe goes into the wood-shed,
he is sure to pull the wood pile down upon his
head If he be sent up into the garret, you
think for while that you have settled the prob
len, till you find what boundless field for ac-
tiyity is at once opened, amid all the packages,
boxes, bags, barrels, and cast off rubbish there.
Old letters, newspapers, trunks of miscellane-
GUS 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
hammering something or knocking something
apart, or saving, or planning, or drawing boxes
and barrels in all directions to build cities or
lay railroad tracks, till every ybody's head aches
quite down to the lower floor, and everybody
declares that Charles 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 tweaty other
Charleys every separate resource for keeping up
cOmmotlon that the superabundaDt vitality of
each can originate. He can dance like Jim
Smith-he has learned to smack his lips like Joe
Brown-and VIII Briggs has shown him how
to new like cat, and he enters the premises
with new war-whoop, learned from Tom EY-
ans He feels large and yalorous; he has learn
ed that he is boy, and has general impress
sion that he is growing immensely strong and
knowing, and despises more than ever the con-
ventionaities of parlor life; in fact, he is more
than ever an interruption in the way of 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
q story as Rover does a piece Of n6nt, and
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 back: What is to be done with
himl
But, after all, Charley cannot be wholly
shirked, for he is an institution solemn and
awful fact; and on the answer to the question,
What is to be done with him! depends 4 fl-
ture.
M1ny hard, morose, bitter man has come
from Charley turned off and neglected; 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
| 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, strong man armed.
when you can not send him off at pleasure.
Mamma and sisters had better pay a little
tax to Charley now, than q terrible one by and
| by. There is something significant in the old
English phrase, with which our Scriptures rem
der familiar, MAN chid-a MAN child
There you have the word that should make you
think more than twice before you answer the
question :-"What shall we do with Charley7"
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 pleas
ure; you make his eyes fill and his bosom
swell with recitals of good and noble deeds; in
short you can mould him, if you will take the
trouble.
But look ahead some years, when the little
voice shall ring in deep bass tones; when that
| small foot shall have a mans weight and
| tramp; when a rough beard shall cover that
little, round chin, and the willfuI strength of
manhood fill out that little form. Then YOU
would give worlds for the KEY to his heart, to
be able to turn and guide him to your will; but,
| if you will lose that key now he is little, you
may search for it carefully, with tears, some
other day, and aecer find it.
Old housekeepers have proverb, that one
hour lost in the morning is never found all day
| Ii has q significance in this case
One thing is to be noticed about Charley,
that, rude, and busy, and noisy as he is, and
| irksome as carpet rules and parlor ways are to
him, he is still a social little cleature, and
wants to be where the rest of the household
are. A room eyerso well adapted for play can
not charm him at the hour when the family is
in re union; he hears the voices in the parlo-,
| and his play room seems desolate 1t NAV be
warmed by furnace and lighted with gas, but
it is human warmth and light he shivers for he
yeaTns for the talk of the family, which he so
imperfeety comprehends, aud he longs to take
his playthings down and play by you, and is
necessarily promising that of the fifty impro-
| per things which he is liable to in the parlor,
he will not commit one ifyou will let him stay
there.
The instinct ofthe little one is Natures warn
ing plea-God's admonition. o, how many a
mother who las neglected it because it was irk-
some 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 con-
stantly told that he was noisy, that he was awk-
ward and meddlesome, and plague in general,
the boy has found at last his own company in
the streets, in the highways and hedges, where
| he runs until 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 eompGnionship of which they have
doomed him. Depend upon it, lift is too much
trouble to keep your boy in your society, there
will be places found for him-warmed and
lighted with no friendly fres-where he who
finds some mischief still for some idle hands to
do, will care for him, if you do not. You may
put out tree and it will grow while you sleep,
but a son you cannOt-you must take trouble
for him, either little now or a great deal by
and-by.
Let him stay with you at least some portion
of every day /; bear his noise and his ignorant
ways Put aside your book or work to tell him
a story, or show him picture devise still par
lor plays for him, for he gains nothing by being
allowed to spoil the comfort ofthe whole circle.
A pencil, sheet of paper, and few patterns
will sometimes keep him quiet by you an hour,
while you are talking, or in corner he may