Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1886-12-24

that are wearisOme or unwelcome. Nor, II
she maintains the self-respecting rules
that society has laid down for her, is there
a more helpless creature in obtaining what
she wants You often hear it fippantly
said, that if girl loves man sLe can al
ways let him know it. There never was a
greater mistake. On the contrary. the
poor young things, when they find it out.
so far from being able to let the young
fellow know it. commence fearful
struggle to keep him from knowing 1t. l
suppose it is, so to speak, constitutional
with them, and they can't help it. l
nave seen gentle, well-bre young girl
in such agonlzed fear of discovery that she
rudely repulsed the common advances OF
pollteness on the part of the object. Wo-
men lose their heads on the subject of
love, as often. sometimes think, as their
| hearts
Why you are only buying one little wag-
on this year; thought saw you buying
Two last Christmas; one OF the little ones
has outgroWn it. reckon? What, dead!
beg your pardon. 1t was very Thought
less of me. Dead! Then he has outgrown
it. Outgrown it all-sickness. pain, dis
appointment, long weary life-all at a
single leap. But this does not comfort
you. All, no; nothing comforts US for
those we have seen slip into the dark. 1t
| will he but human III you to miss him this
| Christmas, aud to think Of the hundred
ways in which he would have had pleasure
If he had only lived. l think that IN the
death OF children there is an add6d grief
to that we feel when men and women die.
They are sp little, so helpless, one cannot
help feeling anxious about how they will
get along in the new world they have gone
to; who will take care of them, and wheth-
er they will be neglected. When the time
comes for putting the children to bed in
the evening, we cannot help thinking
about the little one that has gone from
life. and wondering as We sit by the fire.
light whether there is any one taking care
of it. We can't help feeling sure that it
wants to be with its mother; it always
used to when night came on. It always
| climbed into her lap when dark came aud
it surely wants to be back tonight. 1t
cannot be happy, for it is among strangers.
and if 1t IS unhappy, there is but one place
for it, its home. and but one bosom on
which to lay it's head, its mothers. And
so our human heart talks on in its hot
grief. 1t is great comfort to remember,
after awhile, that there is Father who
watches over it as tenderly as he has
watched over all his children, and who
will guide the little one into new and
higher life, as he will us older children
who come to Him later in life, like tired
and weary children seeking mothers
breast.
And so you didn't know what castle in
Spain WASP Why you have lived in one'
if you we're older you would have lived in a
thousand. Why everybody lives in castles
In Spain sometimes. Let me see how to
tell you about it. You know your elder
sister that young Pettengill comes to see
so often, and VINO You hate SO because
you have to go to bed early 2 Well your
sister lives in q castle in Spain. She has
had it papered aud painted, and moved to
another street to be near her dearest girl
friend 80 as to make visiting convenient,
and she has had the front yard fixed with
flowers, particularly those he likes, and
has had door plate put on the castle
door with name on it, CLARENCE
PETTENaILL, in large letters. remem
Der when your father married your mother
forty years ago, that she lived in a castle
in Spain, and to her eyes your father was
clad in shining armor and wore long
piumes in his hat, and to those same eye s
was Hero of hi b degree. Why even the
old gentleman who is writing this to you.
has lived in those castles. and as he look
back at them now with their bare walls and
broken windows and tumble down appear
ance generally, he often wonders how he
came to build them. Some times, more
especially at Christmas time he gets on
an old, and now uncertain stoed called
Memory, and rides back and looks at all
the castles he has lived 10. So beautiful
when he built them, so brightly painted
by Hope aud Pride and Ambition and all
the other celebrated artists of that day;
now so dingy and wrecked that you would
hardly know them, and some clear faded
out of sight. The castle. little one, that
1,uinr in ha a frOnt
door in big letters CARISTM S, and
from its window you see such lots of fun
that you will never have, such lots of
presents that you will never get, and such
lot of imaginlpgs that you will never
see realized. After this week is over, you
will take down the big sign over the door,
close the blinds, and stand watching with
grieved heart while you castle fades into
the air. There is nothing on earth, as
you will see when you are old, that is not
something like these castles in Spain, and
but One Thing. that is not tainted with
their evanescent life. God grant, little one,
that at the end of our lives. you and may
have chung to that one thing, and that we
may have 80 lived that the many man.
slons of our Father in a fairer world may
not be for us-castles in Spain.
2. 8oY1Y.
CLEANED FROM THE MAIL.
With the Pavanllli musicians who lately
made music for the Wilson & Rankin min
strels and the public at the Staunton Opera
House, from instruments concealed in ham