Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1878-12-18
Thrco Chapters in a Boys Life.

Tirco Chapters in Boys Life.
CHAPTER l." IT'S A RoY.n
His advent is heralded in the brief bat
strong sentence just quoted No matter
what hopes have been INDUCED in concern
ing girl babies. there is something in the
pithy announcement, 1T S hov," which
dispels all fanciful dreams and sets every
body squarely on prone basis. His very
voice, as it utters u defiant warwhoop to
the grand army of humanity, tells the
story to experienced years. The visions
of a dainty girl darling very soon vanish
before this positive piece of prose, who
kicks his sturdy heels through the delicate
pink socks intended for his sister, and who
grows red as Il turkey cocks head at
Thanksgiving time when he is expected
to show off to q good advantage before
callers. He persists in an abnormal de-
velopment of nose and Il pulfness about the
eyes, along with several other little tricks
known only to Interested parties. Parents
and nurses become reconciled and accept
nm on trust, seeing no other alternative.
lie emergcs from his puffy and rosy obsli-
macy into rolY poly, wide awake thing of
beauty, which is II JOY fully one-half of the
time. There is n process from infancy to
little boyhood, a sweet time, when the man
child is half baby half angel In the clear
depths OF his innocent eyes is II world Of
trust aud hope and love. His white brow
is fair as freshly opened lily, and his lips
us sweet us hermosa roses. He is most
bewitching at this age, for the pecuiar-
ties which mark the cnftnt terrible are as
yet undevelopcd. He is an armful of love
and beauty and promise and dread and
hope. Love him while yet there ism guile
on the tender lips, no sin in the unwritten
soul, no faint, no touch of the worlds
breath upon Gods unfinished work
CHAPTER IL" GIT UP, OLD HoRsEY "
Mercy, what II noise Look at that
chair, with II 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 Gruphic torn to scraps and stuffed in
the cuspadOre with my screw driver that
| io0U ' WoCh "So' w lldU Is lc i0ln1 Will
the cat? and, dear me, if he hasn't thrown
grandma's spectacle5 into the CRATE.
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 Launigan is in II towering rage,
and says, Phat's the use Shawn to kape
canc wild such n young divil forninft YEP
Miss Frigidity Fussbunch calls, and is hor-
rified by being requested to he II horse
and let Harry ride straddlc to Boston, She
is questioned, also, on many delicate
points. He gets very close and asks what
that white stuff on her face is, and what
makes her wear such II funny little hat
A few years of this juvenile terror and
then appears another stage Of the boy. He
gets fever only appcased by marbles. Ii
is useless to head off this phase; if it is
shut off in one direction it breaks out more
violently in another. 1t goes through Il
period of six or seven Years and costs
mnch in anxiety, broken window panes
and mortified pride. He is afflicted with
rats, pigeons and boyish complaints, which
are harmless, but annoying. He brings in
sX dirty steel traps to Imuse'his sick sis
ter, who grows worse under it, and in his
solitude 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 II IA
vorable light, but fails to convince his plr-
ents that it was only because Bill Wilson
dropped his slate on Abe uenncgan's toes
and made me laugh. He carvcs his awk-
ward initials on old Mrs. Williams cellar
door and she threatens his arrest lie goes
TO see Humpty Dumpty, and comes home
and throws real brickbats at his aunt, and
Bridget is met with Il battering blow from
his head when she is bringing in the coal.
He makes life IL burden and home Il snare
and II deluson. He tears the comfortcrs
in more ways than one and Sits the pillow
eases to match them. Gradually he leaves
off his hurly-burly life and imperceptibly
gdes into
CHAPTER III" WHERE S MY BLUE IIEPn
Where is the backing brush? am going
to II little surprise party and won't be
home till eleven. Is my percalc shirt
done up nice? | wish you'd make my col
lars stii1er. | don't thank some one for
throwing my coat down and getting il
wrinkled ali 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 period; not rat trap
cumbers the back yard. The woolshed
theatricals are all ended; the stills are put
away; kites forgotten; window glass is in
perfect safety. The dust has filled up the
rude initials in Mrs. Williams cellar door,
and there is an uninviting 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 a heavy pain in mothers
heart ms she thinks that she will never
need her much any more. The innocent
eyes have deeper meaning in them now
They have taken into their depths the re-
Election Of a face younger than mothers,
and life begins to look real to them.
The world is fnl of homes where these
pictures will be recognized and hung up
as family portraits s-homes where there
are no sounds fyoung voices now. They
grow away into the great world so soon.
and we put away the nameless feeling Of
desolaton as we do the cast off toys of our
childhood; and when the evening Of life
approaches the heart goes back along the
track of time, and is once more with the
children in the dear long Cincinnati
SATURDAY Nighh