Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1873-03-26
or Dream Children.

As | stood with the grandmother, whose
chief JOY was her children and grandchil-
ken. saw grave aud tranquil lady
near us with s. benigoant a look that |
asked my neigl Dor who she was. saw
that wistiul ifmpathetic light was 10 her
eyes as she looked at the grave Ease and
told me that i was her friend Rachel
This knew was the name Of a lady who
bad lately come to town, and whom | had
not chanced to meet, but at whom | look cd
with interest, for knew her story. She
was early and happily married but one
after another her children had died, and all
at the tendsrest ego. Same fate seemed to
be set fast against those innocent young
lives, and while still iu the nursery they
died. SO the young mother was totally be-.
reft Still she felt herself to be mother
but her sweet family we're dream.children
only. Their nursery remained unchanged.
The toys, the little tables and chairs, the
torn picture-books-they we're left as the
last Of the lost darliugs had left them, aud
the last had died thirty years before saw
the mother
She, meanwhile, had passed on from a
young wife to the matrou, and the dark
hair with which the baby fingers had play.
ed was gray now, and covered with cap.
There was no morbid or querulous com.
plants in her manner or in her life; no
eynicism nor false gayety. To most per-
soDs she would seem merely ly grave and
tranquil lady who had seen some sorrow.
But these dead children had moulded her
whole character. A sad gentleness, an
endless self-sacrihce, sweetness Of charity
that shamed calumny aud inspired generous
judgment, made her life, as / had always
heard, one of the noblest Of influences. She
bore with her and diiiused au inexpressj.
BILE human tenderness. And the source of
it was that unchanged nursery and the
children who prattled and played there
long ago-the children who are children
only forever.
As | looked at her tranquil face and
thought Of these things, wondered if some
times she were not almost willing that they
should not have grown to be men aud wo-
men, for could not but feel that their in
fuence upon her life might have been less
pure and ennobling. That is not for Rachel
to say, but for us TO feel. Perhaps among
the fathers and mothers whom we know
there are many who scarcely feel that it
had been better both for them and their
children if those children had never grown
to be men and women. If, instead OF this
wasteful, iudolent young man, whose feet
are sliding down the slippery way, aud who
is as useless human being as breathes the
father and mother saw forever the figure OF
a little child, innocent and happy and hope
ful, possible saint and hero in one, filling
the house by day with eager cries and
laughter, and by night calmly folded to
sleep in their arms, although it were only
memory and vision, might il not be better
to them than the reality?
Watching that sad maternal face at the
Valentine party, | would gladly have re-
minded Rachel that, because she had lost
her children, sic had them forever. Had
they lived, they would have ceased to be
children, and the memory Of them would
have been always obscured by the men and
women into which they grew. That boy, dear
madame, with the lovely brow aud the
gentle eye, who, as you looked at him, was
TO be sidney a Bayard without fear or
reproach' who was to command the applause
oi Senators, or "shape the whisper of
throne the sweet faced darling who was
TO purify his hme' and whom the world
should love ana venerate-behold he Is
there forever aud that promise is un-
touched Nay dear lady in yourself 1t Is
fulfilled Because he can never be what
you dreamed, because he-is but beautiful
and Immortal PROMISE it is you who fulfill
1t and justify your own faith. All that
might have been small and poor in him as
he grew has persisted unknown and un-
suspected All that has been good In him
has matured IN you.
II had sad this to Rachel, do not
euPP"sS 'uu' ouS MOulu nafe acqulescel