The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-12-28

process from infancy to little boyhood,
a sweet time, when the man-child is
half a baby, half angel. In the clear
depth of his innocent eyes is a world of
trust and hope and love. His white
brow is fair as freshly-opened lily,
and his lips as sweet as hermosa roses.
He is most witching at this age, for the
peculiarities which mark the the entGnt
terrible are yet undeveloped. He is an
armful of love and beauty and promise
and dread and hope. Love him while
yet there is no guile of tender lips, no
sin in the unwritten soul, no touch of
the worlds breath upon Gods finished
work
CHAPTER Il" GIT UP, OLD HORsEY!''
Mercy, what noise! Look at that
chair, with string tied on the arms
and made fast to the writing desk and
flower stand, all to be driven tandem
by that young imp in kilt skirt and
fancy hat and shoes? Who upset that
work basket? and, good gracious, what
work has been made with my wool and
thread! There's the last paper torn
to scraps and stuffed in the cuspidore
with my screw driver that lost a week
ago. What is he doing with the cat?
and, dear me, if he hasn't thrown
grandma's spectacles into the CRATER
Where's Harry? Run to the kitchen
and see. All the eggs are broken in
the basket of folded clothes, and the
milk for pudding has been fed to the
cat and dog Bridget Lannigan is in a
towering rage, and says, "Phat's the
use of Shawn to kape clane wild such
a young divil fornist ye?n Miss Frigid-
ity Fussbunch calls, and is Mortified by
being requested to "be horse and let
Harry ride straddle to Boston," She
is questioned, also, on many delicate
points. He gets very close to her and
asks what that white stuff on her face
is, and what makes her wear such a
funny little hat.
A few years of this juvenile terror
and then appears another stage of the
boy. He gets fever only appeased by
marbles. 1t is useless to head off this
phase; if it is shut off in one direction
it breaks out more violently in some
, other. 1t goes through periodof six
or seven years and costs much in
, anxiety, broken window-panes and NOR
titled pride. He is afflicted with rats,
pigeons and other boyiSh complaints,
which are harmless but annoying. He
brings in six dirty steeltraps to amuse
his sick sister, who grows worse under
it, and in his solicitude he straps his
legs fast to six feet of stills and stoops
! to enter the door of her room, to the
horror and dismay of his mother. He
brings little notes home from school,
which he tries to explain in a favorable
light, but fails to convince his parents
that it was "Only because Bill Wilson
dropped his slate on Abe Hennegan' 5
toes and made me laugh He carves
his awkward initials on old Mrs Will
Jams cellar door and she threatens his
arrest. He goes to see "Humpty
Dumpty" and comes home and throws
real brickbats at his aunt, and Bridget
is met with a battering blow from his
head when she is bringing in the coal.
He makes life burden and home a
snare and delusion. He tears the
, comforts in more ways than one and
Sits the pillOw-cases to match them.
Gradually he leaves off his hurly- burly
life and imperceptibly glides into
CHAPTER III. -'' WHERE'S MY BLUE
TIE?"
"Where is the backing brush? | am
going to a little surprise, and won't be
home till eleven. Is my percale shirt
done up nice? | wish yOu'd make my
collars sitter. | don't thank some one
for throwing my coat down and getting
it wrlnkled all up. How do you like
this hat? Think it looks better than my
soft one?" You will find the pigeon
boxes all deserted about this periods
not rat-trap cumbers the back yard.
The woodshed theatricals are all ended,
the stills are put away; kites forgotten
and window-glass in perfect safety.
The dust has filled up the rude initials
in Mrs. Williams cellar-door, and there
is an unlimited quiet all around the
house. Chairs stay in their places and
pantaloons will no longer bear cutting
over for the boy. He gets them now
out of new stuff, and mothers . cut
will not satisfy him. He is not in the
way now, and there is heavy pain in
mothers heart as she thinks that he
will never need her much any more.
The innocent eyes have deeper mean
ing in them now. They have taken in
to their depths the reflection of face
younger than mothers, and life begins
to look real to them.
The world is full of homes where
these pictures will be recognized and
hung up as family portraits homes
where there are no sounds of young
voices now. They grow away into the
great world 50 soon, and we put away
the namelesS feelino of deSolatiOn as
we do the cast-off toys of their child
hood; and when the evening of life APP
proaches the heart goes back along the
track of time and is once more with
the children in the dear old long ago
SATURDAY Night.
Sheridan at Winchester.