North Branch democrat. [volume] (Tunkhannock, Pa.) 1854-1867, 1863-01-07
gelett Etory.
A Lesson To Parents.

| DuI ueslFe DOW TO narrate to you CIR
cumstance which happened in the family o.
a friend and correspondent of mine in the
city OF Boston, some ten years ago, the histo.
ry of which will commend itself to the hear,
OF every father and mother who has any
sympathy with, or affection for their chill
dren. That it is entirely true, you may be
| we'll assured. was convinced of this when
[ opened the letter from L. Fl. B., which
announced it, and in the detail of the even,
which was subsequently furnished me.
"A few weeks before he wrote he ha d bur
led his eldest son, fine, manly little fellow
OF some eight years of age, who had never
he said, known days illness until that
which finally removed him hence to be here
no more. His death occurred under crcum-
stances which were peculiarly painful to his
parents. A younger brother, a delicate,
sickly child from its birth, the next in age to
him, had been down for nearly fortnight
| with an epidemic fever. In consequence of
the nature of the disease, every precaution
had bean adopted that prudence suggested
10 guard the other members of the family
against it. But of this one, the fathers ed-
est, he said he had little to fear, 50 rugged
was he and so generally healthy. Still, how
ever he kept vigiant eye upon him, and
especially forbade his going into the pools
and docks near his school, which it was his
custom sometimes to visit for he was but a
boy, and boys will b. boys" and we ought
more frequently to think that it is their ma
ture to b.. Of all unnatural things, a re-
proach almost to childish frankness and in
nocence, save me from "boy MANI But
to the story.
One evening this unhappy father came
home, wearied with a long days hard labor,
and vexed at some little disappointments
which had soured his naturally kind dispo. j.
ton, and rendered him peculiarly susceptible
to the smallest annoyance. While he was
sitting by the fire, in this unhappy mood of
mind, his wife entered the apartment, and
said:
Henry has just come in, and he is per-
feet fright! He is covered from head to foot
with dock-mud, and is as wet as drowned
ratw
Where is he ?" asked the father sternly,
He is shivering over the kitchen fire.
lie was afraid to come up here when the
girl told him you had come home"
Tell Jane to tell him to come here this
instant !" was the brief reply to this infor-
nation.
Presently the poor boy entered, half per
ished with alright and cold. His father
glanced at his sad plight, reproached him bit
terly with his disobedience, spoke of the pun
shment which awaited him in the morning,
as the penalty for his offence; and in harsh
voice concluded with:
Now, sir, 60 to your bed %
"But, father" said the little fellow, "I
want to tell you -"
Not word, sir go to bed 70
I" only wanted to say, father, that -"
With peremptory stamp, an imperative
wave of the hand toward the door, and a
frown upon his brow, did that father, with
out other speech, again close the door of ex-
planatiou and expostulation.
When the boy had gone supperIess and sad
TO his bed, the father sat restless and uneasy
while supper was being prepared, and at tea
table ate but little. His wife saw the real
cause, for the additional cause of his emotion,
and enterposed the remark
IL think, my dear, you ought at least to
have heard what Henry had to say. My
heart ached for him when he turned away.
with his eyes full of tears. Henry is good
boy, after all, iFhe does sometimes do wrong
He is tender hearted, affectIonatc boy. He
always was"
And therewithal the water stood in the
eyes of that forgiving mother, even as it stood
in the eyes of Mercy, in "the house of the
Interpreter" as recorded by Bunyan.
After tea, the evening paper was taken up;
but there was no news and nothing of inter
est for that father in the journal of that even
ing. He sat for some time in an evidently
painful revere, and then rose and repaired to
his bed-chamber. As he passed the bedroom
where his little boy slept, he thought he wo'd
look in u, .on him before retiring to rest. He
crept to his low cot and bent over him. A
big tear had stolen down the boys cheek, and
rested upon it; but he wa sleeping cal mly
and sweetly. The father deeply regretted
his harshness as he sazed upon his son but
he felt also the sense of duty;" yet in the
night, talking the matter over with the lads
mother, he resolved and promised, instead of
Furnishing, as he had threatened, to make
amends to the boys aggrieved spirit in the
morning for the manner in which he had re-
PEELED all explanation of his offence.
But that morning never came to the poor
child in health. He awoke next morning
with raging fever on his brain, and wild
with delirum. In forty-eight hours he was
in his shrond He knew Beikhar his fa.kay