The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-11-20

and trouble and nursing and night watch:
| ing have all been hers The washing and
dressing and mending and patching, tieing
up fingers and toes and sympathizing with
all their great big little troubles. 1t all
falls to her while the father is attending to
his farm or his store or his Office, or may
be his club and his billiard table. I've
seen the old hen scratch and work and worry
all the day for her tiny brood, and I've
seen the old rooster step around and look
on with paternal pride and do nothing.
Ever and anon he would find worm or
bug and call them to come and get it, and
just before they got there he ate it himself.
When a woman says ''this is my chile" it
carries more weight and more meaning
than when man says it; and l have po
respect for law that will give man sne
preference just because he is m,H. s
Our crop is laid by-and pes tne aro, :. !
new lot of little chaps cirsdianne
for grandchildren hare come " 'isiO 10
and make for US a genuine thanksgiving
nav in onr coantry house. What bur-
ios9ua 4 : in childhood's joy for the grand
narenss to live in crowded city penned
no with brick walls with few sickly flow
ers in the front window and back yard to
play in about as big as wagon sheet.
The old folks should live in the country
where there is latitude and longitude, and
fields and branches, and hills and valleys,
and cattle and hogs, and rabbits and dogs,
and pure air, and wild flowers and fruits,
and everything to make them free and
happy. When our grandchildren come
to see us they feel like they have escaped
from prison-they feel like school-boys
when recess comes, they want to rock some
body or fight yaller jackets nest. They
hardly took time to kiss and say howdy
and shuck off their Sunday clothes before
they were off, dabbling in the branch, rock
ing the ducks, fighting the ganders, fishing
for minnows, catching frogs, rolling an
old hogshead down the hill, breaking the
bull calf, and every little while coming to
grandma for some more gingerbread.
Here they go and there they go, while their
poor grandma jumps up every few minutes
to see if they haven't got killed or drowned,
or turned over the hen-house. She had
liked to have taken fit this morning as
she looked out of the window and saw
them coming down the big road with the
bull calf pulling wagon on gum log wheels:
One was pulling 'haw' and another gee,
and four were riding and all were yelling,
and they made such racket the calf run
away with the whole concern, and never
stopped till he got in the branch and landed
their gable ends in the water. Blessings
on the children and the children's children
How do love to have them around and
see them frolic, and ever and anon hear
one squall with cut finger or stump'd
toe, or the bark knocked off his hide some
where A child without a grandpa to
humor and.a grandma to comfort can never
have its share Of happiness in this world.
Blessings on the good old people, too-the
venerable grandparents of the land-the
people with good old honest ways and sim
pie habits and limited desires, who indulge
in no folly and banker after no big thing.
but live along calm and serene, coveting
nothing but the happiness of their children
and their children's children.