Charles City intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Floyd County, Iowa) 1864-1866, 1866-03-22
Mistellanp.
Little Girls.

| cannot well imagine a home more
incomplete than that one where there
is no little girl to stand in the void of
the domestic circle which boys can
never fill, aud to draw all hearts with.
in the magic ring Of her presence
There is something about the little
girls which is especially lovable even
their wilful, naughty ways seem ut.
tcrly void Of evil when they are so
soon followed by the sweet peuiteuce
that overfows in such gracious show
ers. Yonr boys are great noble fellows,
generous, loving, and full of good i'm
pulses but they are noisy and demon
strative, and dearly as you love them,
you are glad their place is out of doors
bnt Jennie, with her light step, is al
ways beside you she brings the slip
pers for papa, and with her pretty
dimpled fingers unfolds the paper for
him to read she puts on thimble
no bigger than a fairy's, and with
some very mysterious combination of
(" doll rags" fills up small rocker by
mamma. with wonderful assump.
tion of womanly dignity. And who
shall tell how the little thread of
speech that flows with such sweet,
silvery lightness from those innocent
lips, twines itself around the mothers,
heart never To rnst. not even when
the near little face is hid among the
daisies, as SO many mothers know
But Jennie grows to be woman,
and there is a long and shining track
from the halflalched door of child.
hood till the girl blooms into the ina
ture woman. There are the brothers
who always lower their voices when
they talk tn their sister, and tell of
the sports, in which she takes almost
as much interest as they do, while in
turn she Instincts them in all the lit
tie minor details of home life, of which
they would grow up ignorant il not
TOR her. Aud what a shield she is uD-
on the dawning manhood wherein so
many temptations lie. Always her
sweet presence to guard aud inspire
them, a check upon profanity. a living
sermon on Immortality How fra
grant the cup of tea she hands them
at the evening meal /; how CHEEKY her
voice as she relates the little incidents
OF the day.-No silly talk Of incipient
beaux, or love of young men" met
in the promenade. A girl like that
has no empty space in her head for
such thoughts to run riot. aud you
don't find her spending the evening in
the dim parlor with "a questionable
young man for her company.
When her lover comes, he must say
what he has to say in the family sit
ting.room with father and mother, or,
il ashamed to. there is no room for
him there. Jennie's young heart has
not been filled by the pernicious nom
sense which results in so many unhap-
py marriages OF hasty divorces. Dear
girl, she thinks all the time Of what a
good home she has. what dear broth
ers, aud on hended knees Graves the
blessings Of Heaven to rest ON them.
but she does not know how far-very
far, for time and eternity-her o.sn
pure example goes. how it will radi.
ate as blessing into other homes
where sisters memory will be the
consecrated ground of the past.
Cherish, then, the little girls, dim,
Piled darlings, who tear their aprons
and cut the tablecloths, and eat the
sugar, and are themselves the suga,
and salt of life /! Let them dress and
undress their doll babies to theil