The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-10-16
THE MOTHER AND HER BABY.

THE MOTHER AND HER BABY.
Tomorrow my baby will be my baby
no longer; she is going to school. Her
world is about to widen, her life is about
TO broaden, but ], shall lose my babyl
What short six years they have beenl
They brought her and put her on the
pillow beside me; put my finger near
her hand and she grasped it. Heaven
came closer to me than I had ever dared
hope it might. The first day that sat
up nurse gave her to me and held her
in my arms. My own little baby I
wanted no past, no future; was su.
premely happy in the present.
When she lay in her crib and followed
me with her eyes! that was bliss. When
she cooed to mel When she stretched
out her little hands to mel When she
laughed as came near herl All, God is
very good to mothers, and I wondered
why such Joy should come to me. Per-
haps there was pang of sorrow as she
left off her long clothes. Yet the cum
ming little feet, the creeping figure, the
aimless steps, the final walking = these
made the change time of fulness for
the mother, and the baby was still all my
own.
She has grown in everything except in
getting along without me. Mamma has
| haop tho pivot oror,pJ xpb;oI, lor I;fo H.
revolved. She has come to me with her
pains, her disappointment, her failures
and her joys. In my ear she has whis-
pered the wonderful thoughts that child
hood lives upon. No question could
reach 80 high or pierce such depths but
that mamma could answer it. No danger
could threaten her that mammals arms
were not safe refuge from. No pain
so severe but that mamma could relieve
it.
How many hours in these six years
have we two been together? All, me! we
shall be two from this on, but we have
been but one thus far. Not any less real
to her than I am, are the hundred heroes
OF stories that have evolved for her;
they seem very real indeed, to me. If 1
| have entertained her she has no less been
my Scheherezade, and has related tales
| fully as impossible as the Arabian Nights.
OF late she has wandered further away
but never SO far but that she could run
| quickly home if her fear was aroused.
She has brought with her thoughts
gathered from other children, but they
are brought to be tried in the crucible of
mammals Judgment and wisdom. When
she keeps house" often take tea with
her, and she cannot take more pleasure
in the make believe" than 1 do.
But now she is gong to school! I
shall lose my baby; I have lost her. She
will leave the door with kisses on her lips
and my words in her ear, but she will come
home full Of school, of companions, and
teacher. She will pass into world
where am not; where I can only follow
at distance; and she will never again be
wholly mine. Oh, good teacher! she is
but one of fifty in your room, and per-
haps in your eyes, one of the least in
teresting. But, oh, she is my one eve
lamb, and heaven shines on me out of her
eyes. I must share my kingdom with
you. Your praise will count with her
greater than mine; your frown will be
more fearful than all my laundering.
She was but baby an hour ago, but
| she is one no longer. shall pick up
most of the playthings and put them
away. Tomorrow night she will look
on them with great scorn; she will be a
baby no longer, and she will have put
away her baby things
So 1 sit here plying myself, while I
press her to my heart. She is full OF the
happiest anticipations, but 1 whisper to
my aching heart-I am about to lose my
baby.-Toledo Journal.