Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1878-03-01
How a Man Takes Care Of His Baby.

In spite Of all the statements to the con-
trarv.. there are men who help take care OF
their children. They are the kindest and
best husbands in the world. They do not
wish to see their wives overburdened with
care and worry, and they intend to help
them great deal and actually do. Yet it
cannot be denied that their opinion con-
cerning the value of their services, and
their wives opinion on the same subject.
do net exactly coincide. One OF these
good husbands will help dress the children
for breakfast, and speak OF it with grand
" vrtuous air, while the fact is that he
only washed the face of one while his wife
washed and dressed the other three. He
helps get the children ready for church;
that is, he buttons up Dicks boots, and
helps Jenny put on her gloves after he has
.leisur,siy and comfortably dressed himself.
while his wife ties sashes, and hunts up
odd gloves, and puts on collars, and curls
one chilGTs hair, and washes another's
hands, and in the intervals ''does up'' her
own hair, and saves the baby from the ra-
zor, and Jenny7s best bonnet from the ba-
by. He stand APPARENTLY (?) in the hall as
the bells begin\ to toll, and mildly calls,
cit is getting lat,s, Maria" Which fact
Maria knows as W ell as he does, for her
hands are trembling, SO with nervousness
and haste that she can hardly put a single
pin in its right place., just as the last
strokes of the bell are sounding they hurry
of TO church. losing entirely the calming
influence which comes. from lelsurely
walk on a fine Sunday morning. Hetakes
the opportunity to remark, with just
shade of reproof in his gentle tones, II
can It understand why it takes you SO long
to get ready. 1t really does seem as II
with as much as do to help you, we need
not be obliged to hurry so at the last min
ute. 1 don't like to see you 60 up the aisle
with your face as red as a lobster's''-
which of course is very soothing to Maria's
irrltated nerves.
The father cares for the baby at night
in very much the same fashion. The mo-
ther has lifted the child into her own bed,
and back into its cradle again, in the vain
go to sleep, has brought 'drinks of water''
FOR him, rocked the cradle and sung to it's
uneasy occupant softly and sleepily for an
hour, till finally she thinks that if she is to
be in this seqai-aaoh5bious state, half out
of bed and half in, the air from the open
window is too cool for her. She knows it
she tries to shut it herself the little tyranJ
will instantly miss her presence, and be
ten times wider awake than ever, and all
the hours singing and rocking will be Ia
Dor lost. So, with much regret, she softly
asks John to get up and close the window.
He has lain remarkably still and breathed
rather heavily, and is somewhat difficult to
arouse for a man who, after, declares he was
wide awake all the tine. But. like the
good husband he is, he cheerfully closes
the window, and gets an extra blanket for
the baby, and pleasantly asks, as he settles
down into the pillows again, "What makes
the baby so uneasy tonight 20 He mani
tests strange indifference to his Wife's
reply, and in fact nothing more his heard
from him till morning, while his wife
sleepily ana painfully works away for an
hour longer. But at breakfast, with what
calm complacency does he speak of the
trouble the baby gave us last night, with an
4suss' fairly editorial in its comprehensive
ness. The next night he goes into room
by himself to sleep. He ''can't stand it
to have his rest broken so,'' but adds gen.
,erously, III take care Of him the next
n ight.7' And so he does till about twelve
o'c. took, when the baby wakes and cries.
For ten minutes he tries faithfully to get
him sleep again, and then ignominious-
ly retrta ts and calls for ''mama. Prom
article 5y Mary Black, IN ''Home and So
ciety,'' Sc vdbner for February.