The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1879-08-20


| care whether the child screams or not; often
| indeed, to them, to the old miner in the
California theater, who, when baby set up
| its pipes, called out to the orchestra to stop
| their strumming and let him hear the baby
| yell, the sound is sort of music; and like
| the man who considered being beaten at
whist the next pleasure to beating, they had
rather hear baby yell than not to have one
around at all
Those who love children are not those who
merely love the pleasure they can get from
children; those love, rot the children, but the
pleasure, and the moment il ceases to be
pleasure, then farewell to the children.
Those who really love children love all of
them, the troubling and the teasing that
they make, the washing, wiping and worry
ing; they do not tire with their fretting, they
are not disguised with their care, they are
not annoyed with their questioning they are
| not made nervous by their bawling; they
take them in their entirety; it never occurs
to them to say that these things are disagree
| able, for, in reality. the agreeable things the
| loneliness the velvet cheeks, the exquisite
| mouth with its little pearls, the perfect eyes,
| the opening soul, the charming intelligence,
| the constant sense of the creation of a new
human being going on under the eyes, the
receptivity of love, the thing of love, all so
| cord with them as to put it entirely out of
| sight and mind.
| To those who love children it does not oc-
| cur to wait before giving love in order to see
/ if they are wilful and spoiled, whether they
cry too much, whether they are going to give
| trouble or not; they only say, Here is a
child; let us love it" They are ready to get
up in the night with it, to walk the floor
with it, to tread on tiptoe if it sleeps, to
1 hon 6npf 10 ,anf n
wakes to sing to it, to talk to it, to obey all
its little tyrannies, to stay at home from
other pleasure for it and think it no sacrifice
to forget themselves in its existence-and
when it is the most trouble to be thankful
that there is baby in the house.
These are the people who love children
not merely they, i may be seen, who love
the peachy cheek which yields to their kisses
with pleasant sensation, and the fra
merely they who like the tickling that their
vacant or tired minds receive from the action
of the young expanding intellect of the tiny
creature, who are entertained by the STAN
mering of the first thoughts and the effort
after the first syllables, who are pleased in
fine weather and run away in foul. These
latter are the summer friends of the little
people, and full soon do the little people find
; it out; for as general rule, one needs no
better criterion as to who it is that loves
children than observation of the fact of whom
, it is that the children love. 1t is true that
, children will be amused and pleased for a
, while by the summer sort of friends; but let 9
tumble grief, pain, come to them, and
! the summer friend is discarded unerringly
for the one whose sympathy is steadfast, and
who does not ask whether it is good child
or a bad one, pretty or plain one, rich
or poor, clean or dirty, but only whether
it is child.
Frank, love good little boys" said {
; worthy parent, trying to do his duty to al
obstreperous young son.
; ayes, papa" came the reply of the four
! year-old, '.but Uncle So-and-So loves littl,
boys whether they are good or not"
r And that, it seems to us, is the only way
= | to love them; for it is not the way in which
= we hope we ourselves are loved, not only b,
p one another but by the Power above us2 /
: is also, indeed, the only way in which to oh
! tain lasting pleasure from the little beings
:, for it is only when we have surrendered our
: selves, without thought of what we obtain il
r return, but because we can not help it, an'
: would not help it if we could, that we fin,
:, out what they have done for US, the light an,
" Joy that they have brought into the house
), with all the labor, confusion and care tina
? they have brought there, too; for more thai
: + once has it CHANGED that into tumultuou
= and hating household the advent of littl
y child has brought peace and harmony, an
love, too, not only for itself, but for all aroun
: it, till it has made lives dear ard desirabl
:. that before it came seemed impossible to live
- for there are few such peace-makers as
= baby; none such, if we may believe the poe
= as baby's grave.