Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-07-08
Tending the Baby.

tlElI WIS DclOlc anu
jumpers and nursery-maids were brought
into general use. The play things were
cheap, if not homemade, and were exceed
ingly primitive in their construction. A
cigar-box mounted on spools and drawn
with Il string, served as Il carriage, and
the doll drawn in it was made of rags and
dressed in calico. There was Il jumping
jack of cardboard, which furnished end
less entertainment, and clam-shells that
made the incest tea-cupS, and top, and Il
whistle that grandpa made out of a pop
lar stick, and score of blocks picked up
in the carpenters shop. Baby watched
the building with eager interest. crowel
when it was finished and knocked it down
with his foot with infinite glee. The peck
measure was a seat for him to sit on, or Il
little world for him to pat in disorder
and upset when the within struck him,
or "A car for him to get in. The broom
handle was IN unflilng horse that always
came to time Grandma's ball of yarn
was always in order, and when other
sources failed there was the cats tail, the
pulling of which invariably produced
music fit did not precipitatc catastrophe.
Sometimes a drawer was opened and baby
reveled in its contents, and sometimes n
button bag was a mine of treasures. There
was endless fun in getting the little
toddling, tumbling fellow up on his feet
for trot. and tin pan with an iron spoon
and a handful of beans was Il sort of para
disc and furnished delight for a millennium.
Baby grew and made fun enough for the
whole household to pay for his care ten
times over. That way of tending the baby
is now obsolete. The hall floor has been
carpeted. The primitive playthings have
been burned TO make room for Il buShel or
two of toys. A hired servant, who cares
only for her pay and carries dime novel
in her pocket to read by stealth. watches
the little fellow in an indifferent way
pushes the toys to him now and then, stuffs
him when he cries, and, when he cries
from the stutling, doses him from the bottle
she carries in her pocket. She cannot
play herself All the play has gone out
OF her. She does not quite see what babies
are born for. She looks on them all as
trials of patience; and rs sure to bring
out the bad temper in one as Il mustard
pouitice to raise Il blister. The ." dear lit
tie fellow Is the one plague of her life
and the only comfort she has is when She
has administered paregoric enough tomake
him sleep beyond danger of waking while
she chatfS the grocer's boy or CARR, on an
incipient filtration with Young sprig of IA
gardener. Baby grows >ickly and irrta-
bic and peevi>h. He is eNacting of atten-
ton and unable t. amuse himself His
manners are too demonstrative for the
diningroom and his temper too bad for the
parlor. He has bad nights. The old people
look serious and say. " He won't be raised. :"
and even mamma thinks something is
really the matter with her cherub and
wonders whether soothing syrup or the
doctor will best meet his cISe. At any
rate something must he done right away,
rs she has got Il new suit of clothes for the
little fellow, showing his sweet little white
knees, and must trot him ont 50 the neigh
bors can see what beautiful eyes and hair
he has and how the blue Jacket with silk
trimmings becomes his complexion And
baby cndurcs it all, runs the gauntlet. cs-
capeS from his enemies, and finally survives
even his school teachers, with the endless
examining, and appears with faultlcss
swallOw-tail and irreproachable kids on
his way somewhere. Some babies are
terribly tough You can no more kill
them than You can give dyspepsia to an
india-rubber doll But for every guttt-
percha baby that is proof against nurses
and doses AMI parental folly there are Il
dozen real tlesh-and-bloOd creatures who
cannot stand such treatment and fall by
the way. They make beautiful funerals:
but if there We're IN honest inquest held in
nine cases out of ten the verdict would be-
F" Died of bad tending Then this sort
of care never trains children to amuse
themselves. They have Il surfeit of TOYS
but are not taught how to get amusement
out of them. The modern baby with Il
house full of playthings has very little of
the real rollicking pleasure and fun that
the boys and girls used to get ont of single
toys a quarter of II century ago. The
trouble is not in the toys but in the tending
Then it was real; now it is make believe
Then it enticed by sympathy; now it re
pels by want of it. Then it trained to
self-care; now it develops dependence AMI
creates Il desire to be amused ami cared
for by others. Then it unsealed Il fountain
Of Joy in the heart; now it chokes the in
ward spring and breaks down vitality if
not constitution. Babies are very good
things in Il house where they are wanted
and rightly cared for.-N. 7. Graphic.
THE GROWTH OF A FEATHER-In the
skin of a bird where II new feather is to
grow, there is a little pit, and in the bot
tom of this an elevation or pyramid; ex-
tending up one side of this pyramid is a
groove or furrow. deepest at the base, and
gradually growing shallower until it dis
appears at the top; from each side of this
furrow Il great many smaller grooves ex-
tend around to the other side of the pyra-
mid, and these also decrease in depth, and
at last disappear just as they are about to
meet on the other side opposite the large
furrow. The whole furrow is covered with
skin, and the surface is made of the same
scales, or t1attened cells, that are found
over the rest of the surface Of the body but
instead of falling off when they are pushed
out by the new ones below Them they be-
come united or welded to e:,ch other, so as
to fornla horn coat over the surface of the
pyramid; with ridges on its lower or inner
surface. corresponding to the grooves on
the pyramid; and, as new cells grow at the
base, this coat or cast of the surface is
pushed upward till it breaks at its thinnest
part, which is, of course, the smooth part
without ridges opposite the large furrow:
and then, as it is pushed outward and fiat
tened, it assumes the form of Il feather, the
ridge formed in the main furrow being the
shaft, while the coats of the side grooves
form the separate barbs of the vane when
all the vane has been formed ami pushed
forward, the pyramid loses its grooves and
becomes smooth. and the wall now formed
on its surface being Of the same thickness
in all parts, does not break hut remains
tubular, and forms the quill. which is at
tached to what is left of the pyramid. A
fingcrnail. Or hair. is formed from the.
same kind of scales, in the same way. the
process differing only in those features
which give to each organ its special char
acter. Feathers, scales, hair, claws, and
nails, all are made alike from the dead
flattened cells crowded to the surface by
the process of growth. -Popular Science
Monthly.