The weekly democratic statesman. [volume] (Austin, Tex.) 1871-1883, 1879-08-14
Dream Children.

Ga the eve of S., Valentines / was
biddsn 10 pleasant party, and as /
cana cut Of the room IN which we laid
q cur coats and cloaks to descend to
he drawing room, the friend with me
s 0pped and said, as We heard the gay
nu mer OF the guests below, I'D you
heart l. is the cooling OF The pairing
birds" He has a nimb.e fancy, and
smil, d when the first erJon whom
met upon descending was q grand
mother. told her what my friend
had said, and asked her IL she we're one
OF the pairing birds. NJ" she ans
wereu; Il sm paired. But 1t is our
aue there is nOyouog and no old. The
only condition is love" This dear
grandmother then pointed cut her
grandchildren, ycuag men and women,
whom | saw in various parts of the
rooms dancing and talking snd walk
ng, with youth and beauty ami m 4nl-
ness and sweetness in their mein and
manners.
lis happiness that l shall never
know!' | saiu, as | watched them.
And when the grsninIo' Ter asked me
what | meant, as il sue hall suspected
o. some preposterous dream OF suing
for a srandmoiheI's favor. l answered
only that could never live over my
o Sn life in children Of my own and In
their children-''as you do at this mo-
IN, Mt, gracious III lcAm." | think she
locked a. me with kind of tender
pity, and then she glanced again at
the pretty groups, and owned to me,
as her darlings Il ated sway upon the
music, for SO the dancing always seems
20 me-ihat her rt ected enjoyment of
life through her chiidren's children was
hardly less than it had been in expert
cree. Indeed" she said, l sm not
sure that IL is not the choicest part Of
experience, for in my girls and boys |
live many lives, and 1t is they who
make me young at thTeescole."
As stood with the happy grand
mother, whose chief y was her chi!-
dren and grandchildren, | saw grave
and rquA lady near US wuh Sd sweet
and benignant look that l asked my
neighbor who she was. saw that
wistful, sympathetic light was in her
eyes as she looked at the grave face and
told me that it was her friend Rachel
| This | knew was the name OF lady
| who had lately come to town and whom
had not Glanced TO meet but AT
whom | looked with Interest, for /
knew her story. She was early and
happily married, but one after another
her children had died, and all of the
tepdeiest age. Some fate seemed 10 be
set fast against those innocent young
lives, and while still in the nursery they
died. So the young mother was total
| IL beieft. Still sac felt herself to be q
mother, but her sweet family were
dream-children only. Their nursery
remained unchanged. The toys, the
little table and chairs, the torn picture
books-they were left as the la, t of the
lost darlings had left them, AMI the last
had died thirty years before l saw the
mother.
She, mean bile, had passed from the
young wife to the mat: ION, and tie
brown hair with which the baby fn-
gers had played was gray now, and
covered with cap. There was no
morbid or querulous complaint in her
manner or in her life; no cynicIsm or
false gsyety. To most persons she
would seem merely a grave and tran
quiz lady, who had had probably some
sorrow. But those dead children
moulded her whole character. A sad
gentleness, and endless self sacrifice,
a sweetness OF charity that shamed ca-
lumpy and inspired generous judgment,
made her life, as l had always heard,
one Of the noblest il fuencts. She bore
with her and uiffused an lnexpressib!e
human tenderness. All the source OF
It was that unchanged iurscry and the
children who prat,led and played there
o1g Ggo--the children who are CHI J.
dren on'y forever.
AS looked at her tranquil face and
thou Int of these things, | wonder, d
il sometimes she were not almost will
ing that they should not have grown to
be men and women, for could not
but feel that their influence upon her
life m ght have been less pure and en-
noblipg. Thst is not for Rachael TO
gay, ut f.f us to feel. Perhaps among
the fathers and mothers whom we
know, there are many who scarcely feel
| IlAL IL ndl UGH OObI III AhOuA ohA
their children il tho:e children han
never grown to be men and women. II,
instead of this wastelu', indoleLt, seif-
isb, irritsbe young man, whose feet
are sliding down the slippery way, and
who is as useless human being as
breathes, the father and mother saw
forever the figure of little child, ir-
Docent and happy and hopeful. possibly
saint and hero IN oae, fitting the house
by day with eager cries and laughter,
ard by night calmly folded to sleep iu
their arms, although it were Only
memory and vision, might it not be
better 10 them than the reality
Watching tina. cad maternal face at the
Valentine party, / would gladly have
reminded Rachael that, because she
had lost her children, che had them
forever. Had they lived, they would
have ceased TO be children, and the
memory of them would have been always
ebscured by tie men and women into
when they grew.