Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1883-12-06
THE Baby Walks"

L IccClNcu Il very uDOIIduG 1GICcI
this week. 1t contained the announce
ment that ''The baby walks" 1t is
with no desire to pun that l say this
is a great step forward for the baby.
OF course this event has not been en-
tirely unexpected in our family [
have been looking every day for the
news for some time past. Our baby
has been a remarkable baby from the
very first, and q large number of his
immediate relatives have been waiting
with bated breath for the tidings that
his long journey had commenced. The
particulars of the suspicious event are
not to hand, but / can see in my minds
eye just how the wonderful occurrence
took place. The baby is out in the
country staying with his ''sisters and
his cousins and his aunts,' and [ sup
pose if they had been near enough to a
telegraph office they would have sent
me dispatch about the supreme event.
Although the baby's fat legs are ridicu-
lousy sturdy, he has had all along a
great diffidence in trusting to them.
Now, last Sunday | held and still main
tain that the baby took one distinct
step towards his devoted father. The
news was incredulously received as be-
ing too good to be true, and the whole
family, from his grandmother to the
kitchen Girl, collected around to see if
he would take another, but the little
rascal seemed to think it the biggest
kind of Joke to bring his fathers rep
utation for veracity into question by
laughing and holding onto chair, but
refusing all the while to move away
from it. 1t was all in vain that | held
out my hands and all the endearing in
| ducements [ could to get him to take
| the necessary steps to come to me. He
would keep one hand on the chair and
reach out with the other; but not until
he had clinched his pudgy hand around
my finger would he let 90 the chair.
Once | had enticed him in this manner
to quit the chair, and then suddenly
| withdrew my hands from his, leaving
him standing alone. He lowered mo-
| ment in wavering indecision and then
| instead of stepping forward sat en-
phatically down and resumed his ia
| vorite style of locomotion. He never
crept as an ordinary baby would have
done, but sort of hitched along He
would sit down, and, putting a hand
now on one side of him and again on
the other, his fat little body swaving
| this way and that would hitch along
with his little dumplings of feet ahead
| of him like q railway cowcatcher, and
| in this way he moved over the floor in
| a sitting posture at speed that was
| wonderful. Practice had made him so
perfect at this sort of movement that
| he evidently came to look on walking
| as an ornamental supertiuity. 1t was
most comical to see him forge ahead,
as the boat racers call it, with both
hands full, holding them up from the
| floor and swaying forward without any
| help from them. He occasionally took
to his feet, and with breathless haste
would work his way along the wall in
| a hand over hand fashion until getting
| too elated at his new excitement, would
upset and roll helplessly over on the
| carpet. These accidents shook his con-
tidence for the time being in the stabil-
ity of things, but happily baby 5
| memory is as short as baby, and the
| perils of pedestrianism were brayed
again and again. Often the poor little
| fellow looked like battle-scarred vet
eran after his tumbles, but it is lucky
| thing that babies are exceedingly elias
| tic, otherwise the population of this
| country would not be as great as it is
now Anyhow, another competitor has
entered into the great walking match
The baby walks. Lake Sharp IN De
| troit Free Press.