The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1888-02-24
CHILD AND MOTHER.

town there stood big stone house. Ey-
erything about the place had cold, in
hospitable look. The steep hill did not
stone wall and a thorny tbieket of holly.
Even the grass seemed to grow sparingly,
and although the place was home-a
gentIenlan's residence in fact--the grass
plats were stuck all over with inhospita-
BILE signs, such as Keep off the grass, !"
and keep TO the path All possibility
of making short cuts across the yelyety
sward Just for the sake of feeling the soft,
tender yerdure under ones foot, that is
one of Mother Natures gentle ways Of
caressing forlorn and motbersick and home
sick poor bumanity-all possibility, | say,
OF making these short cuts was prevented
by ugly little thorn patches and obstacles
Of twigs so placed that even the most dar-
ing must perforce keep to the path. l
have known just such people in life with
whom have tried short cut to the heart
by ways Of nature, but who forbade me in
worldly barriers, and hung ont these net
tle-like obstacles of conventionality, and
selfishness, and hardness Of heart, warning
me to keep to the path, and in the end |
never got to their hearts at ALL
7 know rich man who is afraid to open
up these short cuts to his heart for fear
they will damage his property. He lives
in the shade and is afraid that Gods beau
tiful sunshine will fade his belongings, and
the way to his heart is so roundabout that
only the bank teller has had patience to
find it, Nobody takes it as matter of
course that he would like to be included
as prime mover in good deeds, in pleas
ant outings and in social gatherings, and
it is taken as a matter Of course that lie
enjoys being left out in his shade and
gloom, with his oue-farthiDg -dip-light of
life, and when good people come his way
they cry warningly one to the other Keep
off the grass; no ihoroughfare."
But in this house on the hill, with its
bare, bristling chimneys and smooth shaver
sward, everything was well ordered and
temple of justice rather than Of mercy.
Life was measured out evenly by the spoon
full, with no heaped, running over or gen
erous waste Servants received their
wages promptly, and nothing more; they
were reproved for any failures, reminded
of any neglects; but their successes and
good behavior were accepted as matter
Of course In this house there lived among
others mother and child. The mother
was good woman Her house was clean
and in order, and she defied any one % find
a speck Of dust anywhere The passion Of
her life was to keep things clean and in
order She had no time for sentiment, no
sympathy with sympathy; if she loved she
never gave expression to it; If she was
sorry she never said SO. and she made an
ostentation of her drndgery, and all the
world knew that little tin gods were on
the pedestals and little tin idols of small
affairs occupied those sacred shrines before
she was kind to the poor she was not kind
with them If she prayed for them or
cried over them they never knew it, and il
she kissed her child it was when the little
one was asleep. Tears and prayers and
kisses, the simple, homely testimonials of
sympathy, were the short cuts to the heart
that this mother never uncovered and over
which she kept the thiekets of sharp
speech, and hung out the sign, Keep to
the path
The child too was clean. Clean and
lonesome and companionless. The mother
kent the little one clean and comfortable,
and shaved over it in mistaken fashion,
abasing her soul before those small and
petty idols of hers, and did not know how
to clasp tho tender. throbbing child heart
next her own and go W it'll it into the tenn
pie of the living God. There was lack
of companionship ard confidence between
the two, an awful, tragic lack Wien you
remember that one was the mother and the
other her child, unfolding petal by petal
into woman
If the little one did wrong, or tore heI
clothes, or spoiled her apron, she was
scolded and made to feel that she had
sinned in great ways and was one Of the
wicked ones of the earth. By this harsh
method she was plncked out of her child
hood and treated as if she were sixty rather
than six. She was not punished in way
that a child could understand mot stood
in corner, or sent to bed, or spanked for
her baby msdemeanors, but there was ex-
acted of her dumb, seryie forbearanee,
patient, long suffering obedience, and she
was exlled into Siberian night of frozen
silence and disdain, lett to say her own
baby prayers, to dress herself, and With no
one to speak to at all. One, even woman,
might treat lelon in this way, put him
into this kind of horrible, solitary eonfine-
ment, but surely one would never punish
baby--a tender, confding little child-in
this way, hardening her heart premature
" ageing her and spelling that pure ma
terial of the soul out of which the mother
influence carves either an angel or de-
mon.
This mother exacted Of her child an in
teligent comprehensive obedience, as if
10, tros