The Hillsdale standard. [volume] (Hillsdale, Mich.) 1851-1909, 1864-11-15

From the Independent.

Isn't it nice thing to be grand
mother? TO have six little feet coming
to meet you when you get home to be
rejuyenated with kisses; and have little
legs and arms coiling round you like
clinging vines, aud swaying youto and
fro like. rollicking winds, while merry
laughter and Glamor for precedence
breaks forth like dashing, jubilant toun-
tains. c,sdt to t,om .sslod og5 ytnsvI
Isn't it happy thing to boa grand
mother-to have young hands laid in
your lap when they are weary, and
young ears listening for .ssipg song of
sixpence," and little legs astride your
knee, galloping to the time Of gaoirt
fs...o .o...,il Ride jack horse % hsi9sioit
e 49, To Barbury cross,r oGf taY /
To see what Charlie can buy
~ a4Dou5 A'penny brown loaf, 'D- ~
sohio OH Asweet sugar Cake, Inoi iiiiii
II And halfpenny apple-pie."0 oi
Did not our grandmother sing that
same for us fifty years ago? Are0we
oneId day older just ndw than We were
then? ?f4s .ieil9li.ge $50 >. .l1rm on
Then to havethe little pink toes come
out rofthe stockings, and put up at us
temptingly, for 7iod sl'4 zf
pirwan9t Hintra minta. cuta corn 0f~
Apple seed and apple thorn, l,fs "a
Wire briar. Undertook, eiF :.
Five gray geese in flock"
and so on to the end Of that delecta BILE
story. -...r .,n ,..e-a r
Isn't it joyful to be a grandmother I?
To sit in your sons or daughters best
parlor, filling the great arm chair in the
centre, which has been set for you by
such kindly hands; looking into the
four foot mirror on the wall, to see
yourself, in the midst, Of a cluster of
young life-fresh as, the apple blooms
that, surround the central stem. To see
yourself-gray hairs, wrinkles, shadow
and all but what of it? You see, too,
where the shine of your May-day locks
have gone to, as you stroke back Fan
MES "bonnie brown hair )" and the ro-
ses which you delighted in at fifteen
have only transferred themselves to her
plumpy checks. Lizzie has the laugh
ing blue of your eyes; while Charlie, as
he mounts the chair back and comes
rollicking down over your shouldersin
your lap, smashing your head gear and
tearing away pins and tastenihgs, makes
you wonder how you can have one nerve
of power left, with which to catch such
bundle of frolic, and save it from an
initiation. He is your own again.
Isn't it a paternal thing to be grand
mother? TO see all of yourself dupli-
Gated and Implicated, over and over; to
find every missing energy, every ripple
of n laugh, every flash of feeling, every
atom Of the 1 don't care, every infini-
tessimal pill Of mischief and mirth,
which made merry childhood's days to
you-living, glowing, growing and
swelling into life beyond, and worth
living for in half dozen others.
And do we grudge our darlings these
treasures, once all ours? Not whit
more than we would grudge the can
dies and sweet-meats that we have no
taste for, now that the uphill of life is
done with, and we are travelling down
toward its sunset rest.
Isn't it a holy thing to be grand
mother? To bring the wisdom of life
time, like rich, ripe fruit, for the hands
of those welove.; to turn the young feet
from danger, and fix the young eyes up
on the beautiful; to watch, to guide, to
sing sweet lullabiesi to pride and folly ;
to snatch the temptations Of passion
from unwary fingers, to teach the young
hands to be useful, the young hear, to
be brave, and the soul to be pure and
trust in God.
Oh, it is good to be grandmother,
to card, and spin and weave all that is
left that is good of the old garment of
our own lives into the new fabric which
shall he clothed; and adorn many 9TH
ers who shrll stand in our places when
we shall be no more. But woe unto her
who makes shoddy other work,
: