Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1872-12-18
Is the Mother OF Young Family TO ke
Piiied

BY MOTHER.
| am perfectly well aware that every
many Of my friends pity me. Not all Of
them arc candid enough to tell me this in
so mAHy words---some show il in their
looks, others act il out, but few take me
by the hand and say, My dear, am
downright sorry for you"
1t has been a curious, and | confess a
somewhat amusing study for me to observe
that these good people pity me-not be-
cause they see the trials that feel, be-
cause, imagining themselves, with their
ideas and elegant surroundings, placed in
the predicament Of having SO many chill
dren, the difficulties seem appalling. They
don't stop TO think that the evil las they
look at it) has come on very gradually at
intervals Of year or two, and that by now
| have had time to get used to it, and that
all my former ambition to have elegant
dresses and to be stylish housekeeper is
laid away for a season.
Mrs. Keepenstraight says "If you
would only manage your children better
you would not have half the trouble with
them that you DO now. When a child
knows enough to cry, it knows enough to
learn somethn'. Everybody knows a child
that amt fool cries when it is born, aud
thens the time to commence to eddicate
them | say. If you had brought your
children up as | did, they never would
cried after the first week or two, and after
they had been washed and polished and
dressed the FIRST thing in the morning
there'd be no more trouble with them than
the chairs and tables.
am conscious that | lock at her in a
dreamy sort of way, as hug my baby
tighter in my arms, for | am thinking of
thr,e little graves side by side in the cold
churchyard, aud of the small square mar
ble sacred to their memory, ard that this
is all that is left of the theory of Mrs.
Keepemtsraight.
Mrs Allchapel don't see how it is that
can consent to be absent from the sane.
tuary so mpch. "Just think of it," she
says, " sometimes you don't hear gospel
sermon for six or eight consecutive Sab
baths, and that pretty lavender hat you had
last summer you didn't wear to meeting
three times, and all because you had so
many children. | should think you would
feel as though you could hot have it So"
Mrs. Evershine often comes in to see me,
because she says it does her good, and
makes her more contented to see how cheer
full am under adversely, (by this last
word she. means my children, suppose),
but she always acts as though | allowed
my darlings to make dining. table of the
parlor sofa. She glances at the chair, aud
turns up her velvet cloak and sits on the
veriest corner, bolt upright. She told q
neighbor Of mine that my house looked
neat always, but then how could it be clean
with so many children 2
Mrs. Do.it- Brown, one of your thor.
oughly neat, chidrenless, white-aproned
women, who devotes all the energies of her
capacious mind to keeping her house, her
self, her husband and moiher-in-law neat
aud clenn-never by any chance deviatiDg
from this object in life-thinks when she
remembers me If had to have those
children, if had to have the doors left
open on me every few minutes, and the
dust and dirt blown in from the street on
my brocatel furniture, and to have mud on
my kitchen floor and wet feet on my sitting
room lounge--had to have my sewing ma
chine scratched aud the chair slaves marked,
and my door-knobs CREASED, and my window
panes fingered, and the tablecloths knife
cut, and the china broken, and my glasses
cracked, and the nap worn of my carpets
| should go out of my mind or die.
know she feels in this way, for not long
since when she was fretting about her
troubles, having such inefficient help, and
the vexation Of changing servants so often
and that it took unainching vigilance to
keep everything just as clean as it could be-
and ventured to say, And if you had as
many children as have !" she turned and
looked at me with a peculiar expression OF
pity and scorn, and said, 4" | should 90 ouI
Of mind or die"
Well, but am | TO be pitied Let u.
see. Those people are lonesome, weary o.
themselves, filled with ennui. Now have
no chance to be lonely, very little time tt
tuiuh apout hyeclI, anu Us W tHH"fi why
the thing is absurd-I only know it by
word and heresay. These people feel that
they can depend absolutely on no onet
friendship, while know that | and my
children love one another. What sort O
an old age do they anticipate ? Their owl
friends dead, will the young world o
strangers care for them ? la whose fam
lies will they find home Whilst | know
that i. | bring my children up in the pre-
cepts Of the Bible which teaches them tt
respect old age and honor their parents,
shall have a comfortable and happy HON,
with my children. Yes, and am happy
ao,c-bappy, in making them comfortable
and happy, in teaching them to be truthful
and noble, and never day passes but some
thing funny the baby does, or somcthin,
queer the children say, makes me laugt
heartily.
Then don't pity me, friends. Pity th'
heathen--pity the poor homeless, mother
less ones-pity the children Of the burn
prairie, and of Chicago. All ! and pral
for them, and help them too--it will d.
you good. Bat don't waste your pity OIL
me, for | need it not.--Hearth and Home