The Plymouth Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1869-1941, 1870-01-20
Some of the Uses Of Children.

and the hearts growing old has often 6
good deal to say to the body's growing OLD
before its time. I've seen men old al
thirty, and men youngat sixty. Children
bring man back to his early days; they
make man to be boy and woman tC
be girl once again. / saw our doctor
the other day playing cricket with his lit
tie boy, six years old; he had five stones
set one atop of another for wickets, and
his crooked walking stick for bat; and
the young chap was working all his might
to bowl him out. The doctors whole
heart was in the game, and he laughed fit
to split his sides: and all this while there
was grand cricket match worth seeing
going on in the next field Why wasn't
the doctor therefor he had been great
| cricketer when he was young? Because
youth is our fresh time, and what
brings us back to youth brings us
back to the old fresh thoughts and
feelings; and this was just the way the
doctor used to play with his brother when
they were children-long, long before he
thought of giving any body physic, and
when he took precious little of it himself.
The child was drawing away the doctors
mind from his cares-and, poor man he
had plenty of them at the time-and stir
ring up his spirits. Depend upon it, his
blood cOursed more quickly through his
veins after that game of cricket than it
did before.
Children give us healthy springs and
motives for work A child makes the
parents feel that they are looked forward
to as prOviders-of course, under God
for He is the great provider for ALL 1t
makes man feel himself to be somebody
when he gathers the children round him
and looks at them, and says to himself,
They're all looking to their mother and
me; I'll buckle to like man, and they
shan't want if l can get"
Is it not something to feel ones self
valued and loved; to fee, "Well, how
ever little l may be made of in the world,
] know place where Pm put at high
figure?" No man should be ticketed up
bargain in his own house; bargains don't
pay anywhere, least of all at home. There
was Mrs. White, a neighbor of mine in
former times, and she used often to say, Il
like my husband always to come to a ris.
ing market-the price of him is always
going up. | am always raising it and
Pm teaching the children to raise it; and
the good mans feeling himself more
precious to us all every day. 'Tis fine
thing, and better than any drink in the
world to cheer man up, to have the testi-
mOny of ones conscience as to having
done ones duty; and when Joseph sees
the children all decent and dressed in his
earnings, and fat npOn them, depend upon
it he's happy; if he weren't happy he
wouldn't call me mother in the way he
does"
But" says Mr.. Jakes, "hold on a mo-
ment; the young ones will grow up, and
then they'll care no more for their parents
than calf does for cow"
l was coming to that point. Who is
that old lady living with you, Mr.. Jakes :?
| think heard the saddler saying he was
stuf1ing cushion for your spring cart, to
take her to church on Sundays.
ooh. my old mother you mean; and
good old creature she is. She was good
mother to me. / only wish l had my
father along with her"
Exactly sO-exactly so; you were their
calf, Mr. Jakes; and Pm saved any further
dwelling upon this point, for you're as
good an instance as desire for the use of
child after it's grown up. Many a pa
rent owes all her comfort and happiness
in after life to the care and provision of
her children; and it is Gods will that
children should help their poor, helpless
parents. If children don't put themselves
to the uses God intended them for, then
that's their fault, but the use remains the
same for all that.
And even dead child has its uses.
There is nothing lost in this great crea-
tiOn. There are in Gods providences
uses for the dead as well as for the living
We may not see them, or we may mistake
them, but they no less truly exist. Dead
children have their own deep use for U.S.
We have seen that there is blessing in
having a nursery in the house is there to
be no blessing in having nursery in the
heart?
When the little body is taken out of the
nursery of the hOuse-the bright life
gone, the warm flesh cold, the laugh all
stilled-then it is taken into the nursery
of the heart, to be bright and warm there
as long as that heart beats-tO laugh and
sing in the secret sunny chambers where
death cannot reach it-where it can live
on just as it used to do in nursery days of
old There are nurseries in which there
is no nurse; and happy is that parent
who, when child is taken, furnishes a
nursery instead of setting apart grave
yard in her heart.
There are some, perhaps, who will look
on this as sentiment, and nothing more
but /, for one, know that it has its living
use. have nursery in my own heart and
there are six little ones there, and L find
their use to me. AS the world would say,
"I have no child now;" but myself say
that have six-six here, far in herein
my heart.
And this is why go from time to time
to the neighboring town, and bring home
sick child with me to nurse until it is
well again. Those children cannot recover
without change Of air and scene, and
without good nursing. The hospital can
do something for them, but not all and
enjoy finishing what it begins. The little
ones would not let me rest, even if. were
inclined SO to do. They are ever talking
to me and saying, Father, be kind TO all
little children, for His sake who is always
kind to us; and for our sakes too" Some
times they say, "whO acas kind" and
then remember the many blessings they
had when they were alive and some
times they say, "whO ts kind ;" and then
| see them all so bright and joyous, and
think how well they are taken care of
and how can | but bless others, for His
sake who blessed and blesses mine We
have many happy days in our house
which no one knows anything Of Wher
the sick ones come, | talk To the little
ones within, and they seem to say
Father, let them have our bed and oul
playthings" And when they go away
they seem to say, Father, give then
flowers to take back to the crowded town
and give them kiss, for we children low,
kisses ;" and do all that the little ones
within ask; and a great deal more too
Isn't a dead child of use when it can thl
make man a blessing to others 7-BritisI
Workman.
Almost Buried Alive.
We to-day met with Mr.. William Day
a resident of Springfield, ILL.,, who is re
turning from the California and Idah,
mining country, where he has been fo