The Baltimore County union. [volume] (Towsontown, Md.) 1865-1909, 1868-09-05
The Grand Children Are Coming.
By HENRY WARD BEECHER.


After all, what is the use? We set up our house,
and one by one the children fly into it, like birds
out of some foreign wood into a cage-one, two,
| three, four, and more. With each one comes also
q cry and that is the keynote to which hun
dred sorrows add their voices, ard gradually swell
into that strange chorus which men call human
life For each child there is to bea fringe of care
on the edge Of ever day. Each child brings bur-
dens and anxieties. Tears in their eyes are buJ
harbDgers of many more in the eyes Of all who
love them To shape them from infancy to good
ness TO teach their hands, to drill their heads, 10
repair their mistakes and secure firm footing in
| an honorable manhood, who can measure the
thought the feeling, the endeavor? And then
when the long task is done, is there no compen-
saton Or do they not one by one, detach them
selves and like comely fruit, fGl from the bough,
| on which they grow, leaving it bare and empty
That daughter-just as she began to De iull
companion, to repay all the labor OF her training
is snatched away by some one who has known
her fewer weeks han the parents have ears she
goes. The house is empty of her. Her rooms,
her drawers her book and schoo-tasks fondly
preserved, carry saduess TO a mothers heart eve
ry time they are looked upon. The boys, almost
before you dream that they have ceased TO be
boys come asking the iather's blessing
conner. By the time ihatiather and mother
conscious Of age and infrmity, the whole brood
is scattered and gone. Tue house is solitary 1t
used to be aighteued for room when the chill
dren were at home, but now there is room too
much. 1t used 10 be noisy, but now one might
doae all day, for all the noise Only the fire
snapping out suddenly, or the drowsy old clock
ticking behind the door, or IA kitten mewng to
get in, or to get out, or squeaking rat or mouse
make audible noise. When the children are
| all home, man is like Norway spruce, whose
well-grown branches beginning from the level of
thp ric m in a fprfe mi elar,
the tree to exquisite proportions. But each child
married is a bough Topped of' leaving wide
space, until the parent trunk is finally trimmed
up like shaft and all the verdure left clinging
about the top.
In European communities, the children often
marry and settle down Ground their childhood
home. But this is rare in America. The endless
circulation that is going on sweeps away the
children; and to be married is almost sl nCny-
nous with going tar away from home
All this, Mr.. Bonner, describes my state OF
mind last week. 1t is very different now. VOID
has come that the grand children are coming
home. Coming home? What both the chill
dren? and their mother for good long visit -?
Bless their little hearts, let them come There's
nothing in this house TOO good for them. Now,
then, we shall have household once more. Chill !
dren are the flowers which God sends down from
Heaven TO enliven and cheer this life What was
ty, and pain and trouble, of bringing them up?
Stuf-mere stuff, Mr.. Bonner, assure you
Don't believe "A word of it, was surely in IL
dream. 1t was a half nightmare am awake
now, and do assure you that he whois fit to have
and rear children, will see ten, yes, hundred !
joys TO every sorrow, and the sunshine OF their
smiles will turn into ranbows every tear they |
shed or cause to be shed.
If there is anything in this world that pays as
- II. - So af.lsl
ing flowers is all very well. But flowers have in |
them no mischief they behave too we'll, the, lack
human nature, they need the irridescen qualities |
OF disposition that fash from the surface OF every
child's life. Children trouble? Do they puut |
fret? disobey and 90 wrong? Don't you, with
your asters and honeysuckles What would you
give to havea singing vine, or flower that could
learn TO say its prayers
Why, trouble in the nursery is parents pas
time. If one don believe it, let him be ielt for
awhile without children. He will soon he glad
Well, we must get ready tor them Let the
drawers be filled with candy. Get out the crib,
and put up the dear little narrow bed again.
Hunt up the dolls, the wagons, the play house.
TIE strings. Where are the :alI chairs for the
table aud the little cups, and knives and forks
for shi!ds i'd s epd Il loeks lik@s Ks Lying again
a chubby ro2 ne climbing up on the bed, and play
ing tricks with my eyes and nose ! Then will
come the trooping down to breakfast, and all the
table antics Then will go up TO family
prayers, and what time those children will make
of it, Children are not natural worshippers
But how patient will we be! Nothing shall fret
u.s. Already we are more robust, and shall let
out the buckle of our girde one or two holes. In
short, the grand children are coming; and in
bringing themselves back to us, they bring back
the childhood of their parents, too, and bring us
back 10 ourselves !-Ne,o York Ledger.