Iowa voter. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1867-1874, 1872-03-14
Naming the Baby.
BY RICHARD GRANT.


heen hailed with more pleasure than that
If the little queen that came to our house
one cold winter night. She was our first
baby, and of course we were allowed to
buttonhole our friends aad whisper to
them of the beautiful baby that had come
10 our home The mails were carrying to
every distant friend we had the glad It'd
;ngs. and no one could please us better
than to ask to ''see the baby"
We had forgotten everything we had
ever said about babies all looking alike,
or if we remembered it, it was to thank
unlike any other child that had ever been
born. All her aunts and unclcs had seen
and praised her, and found resemblance
in her to every member of both our fami-
lies She had her gran'ma's nose, and
her gran'pa's mouth, and uncle Toms
chin, and Aunt Mary's eyes, and SO on till
Twas afraid they would make her bare
head to have been such that she might be
like her father.
Of course all this exhibition had to be
conducted by the nurse and Aunt Mary,
for her mother was still too weak to ex-
hibit her darling; but the moment the
door closed on a retreating visitor, we
would all rush into her room, to tell her
the new wonderful thing that had just
been found in the baby, aud that had es-
capped our eyes before.
At last she was able to take the baby
herself, and you would not have blamed
me for my feeling. of pride when looked
at the mother and child. My wife had
become as much of wonder to me as
the baby was. She suddenly knew all
about babies. What was good for them
and what was not good. The little thing
would suddenly begin crying land had
never before supposed that there could be
anything bearable in a child's crying, and
Just as suddenly my wife would say,
Hurry, Dick, she wants this" or she
wants that" and, sure enough, it would
be the very thing that ,oas wanted. trled
to have her explain the process OF reason
ing that told her this, but she only laugh
ed at me, and said she would when l was
compelled to take care OF one.
AT last she had been shown to every
one we knew, or who cared to look at
her, and we were beginning to think we
would have her all to ourselves now when
Aunt Mary, who is always startling us,
suddenly reminded us of the joke that
the baby had ono name' | had not
thought of that, in fact did not suppose
she was old enough to have name. My
ideas on the subject were very vague, |
confess, but if | had been asked how old
child should be before it should have a
name, would have declined answering it.;
so while Aunt Mary was talking, | kept
very quiet, and when | was alone with
my wife ventured to ask for informa-
ton, suggesting my own idea as to age.
My wife settled the matter by saying,
what dear old goose you are, Dick, a
baby is old enough to have q name the
minute she is born" OF course that set
tied it, but as / remarked before, it was
more of wonder than ever to me, to
see how much my wife knew on this sub
iect of babies If she was old enough to
have a name, she must have one at once;
on that was determined, but my wife
had not thought of any name for her, she
said
"Then what will you do ~ said I, for 1
never would think of naming GiT.
"Perhaps," said my wife, eve had
better talk the matter over with Tom and
Mary"
81 have it," said I, "lets have nam
ing party, and have all our people here,
and we will be sure to think of nice
name amongst us all. /"
NV wife laughed at the idea, but said |
might have it if / wished, and few days
after saw all the gran pas and gran mas,
and uncles and aunts, gathered together
to choose nanre for the baby.
They had all taken her in their hands
and kissed her and she smiled on them
like little cherub. l was afraid when
Toms tobacco breath would reach her
that she would protest against it, but
somehow the sex do not object to tobacco
as much as | supposed they did At last,
after all the greetings and ordinary ques-
tionings were over, we came to the I'M
portant subject that had brought us to-
gether, with Aunt Mary's "Well, have
you got name for this child yet !" re-
minded her that we had come together
with that object, and were ready to hear
from any of them.
Gran'pa suggested that it was good
point with child to have Bible name,
and for his part he knew no name more
beautiful than esther" And Mary
didn't think " Esther" was pretty name
at all. Gran'ma thought Rachel was
pretty name, but Tim said that was an
old maids name, and l added mat
couldn't think of doing that to the paDy
Mary said Rosamond" was beauti1ui,
and "Rose" would be a delightful PEI
name among ourselves. | thought Ihat
was rather pretty myself, but Gran ma
said she wouldn't blame a girl named
"Rose' to be vain, and / thought so too
So we went on from one name to another,
everybody Directing to what every one
else proposed, till at last it was time Tor
us to part, and no name had been decided
upon. I confess l was rather dlsap,
pointed and surprised. If child is ola
enough to have name, it ought to nave
it at once: but when said this to my
wife she only laughed and said the BABY
would probably forgive US, and thougn'
if she was contented there was no ne
cessity for me to worry. And then she
said, in her quiet kind of way, ~ tmlnk |,
Ihave name for the child, Dick!
called them all back. And Mary salo
she knew we had name all the time,
but denied it, and said my wife haa nfs'
thought of it.
"No. Tom, that is not quite right. /,
thought of it the day the child was dorm.
Bless the woman! She hadn't SAID a wore
to any one about it, not even 10 me,
Well, wife, what is it ?" Don't iaugi
at me please; but when you Kissed lie
that day, Dick, and said your heart wa