The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-11-20
THE CROP LAID BY.
BY BILL ARP.

for, though they don't know it, and if they
did they wouldn't acknowledge it. 1t is
emphatieally the great business of the sub
lunary life We look on with amazement
at the busy crowds in great city that are
ever going to and fro like fddler's elbow,
and the most of them are working and
struggling to please and maintain children.
1t is the excuse for all the mad rush that
hurries mankind through the world. 1t is
the apology for nearly all the stealing and
cheating and lying in the land.
Not long ago one of my neighbors sold
me Poland China sow for fifteen dollars,
and she ate up five dollars worth Of chickens
the very next day l got her, and when l
asked him why he didn't tell me she was
.chicken-eater, he smiled and said he
thought that l would find it out sooner or
later His girls came to meeting next Sun
day with brand-new bonnets on that were
bought with that money, and so l forgave
him. He cheated me to please them.
Sometimes when I ruminate upon the mean
ness of mankind wish that children would
never get grown, for they don't get mean
or foolish until they do.
Solomon says that "children are the chief
end of man and the glory of his declining
years. and l am prepared to add that rals-
ING ten or dozen of them from the cradle
to counting time is about the busiest thing
in this life and the most responsible in the
life to come.
But the crop is laid by. Weare nearly
through, thank the good Lord for His
mercies, and | wouldn't 60 through it
again for world full of gold.
The last tender shoot is out of the grass
no more nursing and trotting and toting
around-no more washing and dressing and
undressing and putting to bed. No more
tip-toeing around when they are asleep, or
playing horse and bear and monkey when
they are awake. No more baby songs and
paragoric, or teething, or collie, or catnip tea.
Never again will they be crawling over a
tired paternal, or riding on his back, or trot-
ting on his weary knees as he sings the
same old songs he has sung thousand
times before. Our last and youngest of
dozen has passed the Rubicon-bless her
little heart-I almost wish she never would
grow any more, or get any older, for she is
the comfort of our declining years. She
can now wash and dress and undress and
saw her own prayers and put her little self
to bed. She can sing her own songs and
she waits on us like a fairy, and fills the
house with sunlight
The crop is laid by. In the heyday OF
our youthful vigor kind Providence en-
ables us to bear up splendidly under these
burdens, but an old man can't. An old
bachelor had better not begin. 1t is fraud
upon his young wife, for it leaves her all
the burdens. If there is any peril in life
that is like lingering suicide, it is for an
old widower who has raised one crop OF
children to marry young wife and 60 to
cronpi6e again. 1t is against the order of
nature, and he will hardly get to Heaven,
for paradise was not made for fools.
When a man begins to get along in years
he GRADUALLY changes from being king In
his family to patriarch. Heis more ten
der and kind to his offspring, and instead of
ruling them, the first thing he knows they
are ruling him. It's the frst-born children
Who oct the most licking, and this is right
and according to nature They are the
trainers of the younger ones, both by pre-
cent and example They are to lead the
wav and must be made to lead it right
They get the most favor, too, and enjoy the
most privileges. They go when the parents
On They wear no secondhand clothes
fTbev have the birth-right and must keep
mn and hand down the good name of the
family But one by one they grow up and
marry. and leave us fGf other loves tnat are
stronger than ours. How sadly, silently
;ealous we are of those loves How hard
- he reeonciIed How our hearts do recoil
with a stronger affection towards those who
ore still our own, all our own, and cling to
ms for love and support. | said to good
old mother not long ago: "Well, | hear
that Anna is to be married soon. Eyes,
s;r said she, smiling sorrowfully. Il
don,t know what | will do My last
daughter is going to leave me. I've nursed
and watched and petted her all her life,
and / kind O thought she was mine and
would always be mine, but she has run off
sfter- n Teller she is no kin to in the world,
and who never did do thing for her but
give her ring and book and little
French candy now and then. 1t does look
mighty strange, and 1 couldn't understand |
# at all tiff / hadn't done the very
same thing myself in the long ago." And
she kept knitting away with a smile and |
tear upon her motherly face.
Raising children is mighty big thing,
and it takes two to make it success.
Every child ought to have father and
,,,,tbar-s father to govern with vigor and /
a mother to love with tenderness A man
is the head of the house about some things,
and about some other things he is only next
to head, if he amt foot. A man can punish
his children, Of course, when they deserve
it. but it is always advisable TO make
reasonable explanation to the good mother
who bore them, for they are her children
sure enough, and she knows it. There
never was but one case Of doubt as to who 1
was the mother of child, and King Solo
mon J 'as %, settled that in short order The pain