The daily Green Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1861-1865, 1863-05-06
Your Hand.

Your Hand.
Not long ago little boy of four years.
playing about railway, slid into hole be-
tween the sleepers, and while holding on the
rail with his two little fat hands, dirt-car
came rushing along, and what did it do but
run over those two little hands and crush
them to pieces. The poor child was carried
home, and when went by the house the
doctors were cutting them oft.
What terrible loss to befall child
Look at your hands, and think what you
should do without your hands. How could
you eat, dress, wash, take, fetch, hold carry,
cut, dig, pick, write, saw, build without hands ??
No machine was ever so wonderful al the
hand. We hear great deal OF moving ard
resping machines sewing machines, apple
parers, stocking clothes wriDgers, car
pet sweepers, large, rude, clumsy, awkward
things; while the small, neat, nimble ready
hand can do the work of every one, and
hundred times better 1t costs nothing, does
not get out of joint, and never plaques you;
yet no newspaper puffs it, and nobody, that
[ know of, thinks much OF it, The great In
ventor lets us use it, and keeps it in repair for
us without our asking; and we 60 on, year
after year, in the possession OF and using an
instrument to which we owe SO much of our
comfort and everything we have to do, and
which all the ingenuity and learning and tai
ent of all the men on earth cannot replace il
we lose it.
Is it not great thing to have hand
Look at yours. Observe its motion, back
ward forward, sideways, round. The thumb
and fingers have motions of their own, quick,
delicate, obedient, and never tired. How
seldom you hear of tired fingers. There are
twenty-nine bones in your hand, put together
in way to secure the strength, activity, anC
spring. The fingers are of diferen
lengths, you see /; that helps to hold
be ter, and to steady the TOOL hoe, knife, pen
Gil, or whatever you work with.
The thumb is a pretty important fellow
it is almost as strong as all the fingers IN
deed, the fingers would be quite at los
without the tat. round, tough, elastic pad o
the thumb. Then the cushion of fat spreaC
over the fingers and palm of the hand, how
curious it is; put there lest hard work, grippin!
pulling and lifting should break, or smash, o
bruise the delicate cordage inside.
Q The nails also, what are they for but t
serve as little backbones to the tip of tn
iogers and the thumb, when they are neede
to press hard or to pick up.
No part of the body is as feeling a
t the hand. The cat and eagle have bette
: sight then man, the dog and wolf better smell
: ers; but the hand of man has the keenes
S touch. The blind, you know, read with thei
g fingers.
Q No animal is born into the world SO helT
e less as baby. 1t has no wool to cover il
S back like the lamb, no fur like pussy, I
s feathers like birdie, no scales like the fs
a nor hide like the elephant. These are a
:. born with their clothes on. But our poor lit
e baby is born naked. 1t has no means of d
!, Tense. 1t cannot run like the colt; it has [
J. wings like the bird, or horns like the unico
e or COW, or fus like the cod 1t has no hou
: over its head like the turtle, or boat like tt
: nautilus.
e Man, then, is born more helpless than Il
10 beast of the fed, the fowl of the air, or 4