San Andreas independent., 1858-01-09

A NEW BABY IN THE HoUsE.-We
know all about it-what all those drawers
and chests were filled with a miniature
wardrobe for Why sister Mary had such
a fashion of blushing and hiding her
pretty tasteful work at the bottom of the
basket!
Yes, we know all about it now the
mystery is explained-we've got baby !!
"a real, blinking bona .fde baby, the
intelligence of which was conveyed to me
by round-eyed, wonder-stricke urchin,
who was the baby until this morning
ooh, such very bit of squirm ~
he exclaimed, "no bigger than doll, and
and it arn't got no eyes at all"
Fast as | hurried home to welcome the
little stranger, Tommy was there before
me, and with eyes bigger than ever, was
standing at nurses knee, evidently trying
to solve the question whether baby's fists
were doubled up to hit him punch, or
to snub his own nose the wrong way of
! the world.
A bran new baby Do you know what
its advent is into the heart and home of
a happy family? The mother lying upon
that bed of suffering which reduces all
women, from the queen to the beggar, to
the same common level of humanity
the mother that we approach so reverently,
feeling that a human soul has been sent
from Heaven via her maternal bosom, and
that from her hands he who sent it will
require strict account of its guardian
ship while passing its life through this
world of chance and change
What a responsibility! [ think we are
seldom conscious of it, or, if we were, we,
know to its core every throb of the great
worlds heart, who have lived through its
storm and calm, who know how unsub-
stantial its pleasures, how poignant its
woes-I say, could we know the respon-
sibility of transplanting to its sunshine
and it's shade one single blossom from the
garden of God, we should pray to be
spared that trust we might so Intellectual
ly fulfil.
But then to see our new baby-our
beautiful mystery to see everybody
tip-toeing in-everybody but Tommy,
who, never having been accustomed to
walking on eggs, don't exactly see why
he should begin now-to see them all so
gleeful over baby, so pitiful over " Mann
ma-poor mamma +" lying there so pale
and wan-to see them joking papa, and
calling him 'sterribe fellow" at which
little Tommy is indignant, and thinks it
wouldn't be well for Mrs. Grundy to call
him such hard name What an inter-
est we take in babies in general-not that
we think that anything in that line could
hold candle with ours and what jokes
we tell about other peoples babies, until
our laughter warns the nurse, who warns
us to be more quiet or leave. To be sure
the laughter is generally confined to Tom
my and |, for mamma only smiles the
tiniest ghost of smile. Tommy makes
up for it, however, laughing so loud and
SO long, without the remotest idea where
the rough gh-and-tumble somerset can cool
his merriment, at the exhibition of which
enormity nurse gives hima different kind
of propeller, which sends him crying to
the kitchen. Mamma says Poor Tom
my!" and papa Immediately starts for
him.
In few minutes he returns with Tom
my and pair of red eyes, very manfully
asserting that papy's boy wasn't going to
have his nose put out of joint for all the
babies in the world Then mamma
smiles on papa, and papa, when he thinks
| don't see him, smiles on her, and takes
her poor bloodless hand and presses it to
his lips, places it in his bosom, till poor
me, who don't see him any how, who
wouldn't be hired to see him, and who
has lived long enough in the world to
know when not to see, choke up the
worst kind, make up for my chamber,
and have just a magnificent cry, with
nothing in the world to cry for, only be-
cause every thing is SO affecting-the
sick room in its quietude, the helpless
little thing in its cradle, and papa and
mamma over their newborn Affection
Oh, | tell you man never is man till
a bit of humanity, bone of his bone and
flesh of his flesh, lies helpless in his
arms. He never knows himself until
the dear one he has chosen out of the
world to walk with him the pilgrimage of
life, lies for the first time before him,
weak and pale, with this morsel of hu-
manity upon her bosom. The promise
they make to their own hearts, that no
wrong of their doing shall ever give
pang to that gentle spirit; that no path
of pleasure shall be bright enough to
lure their feet from the portals of home;
that no word of unkindness shall ever
give pain to the mother of their child
! But alas (there must be an end to eve-
ry thing in this world) new babies get to
be old stories; fresh promises fade in the
light of fresher pleasures, and men, being
inconstant ever, would require fresh
he1 1r- xroaL ~ bop N, ff,n