The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-12-04

Ono of the relations on my own side
cane here Il visitin' week before last.
She that was Arvilly Smith, or as she
calls herself now, "the relic of Jared
l.rrkins.H
She staid twelve days and thirteen
nighcs.
She had her Young child with her
Lucilla Augusta Perkins.
And if Arvilly said, "Lucilla Au-
gusta, DON'T" if she said that once du-
rim them twelve days and thirteen
nights, she said it five hundred times.
And haint settin' it too high.
Why, good land! I have sometimes
thought I had seen a mouse-hole
watched close by q cat. But no place
OF any description was ever watched as
thai mother watched that child.
If Lucilla bit apple on one side, it
was:
"Lucilla, don't! Don't bite it in so
far, you'll break off your teeth"
If she drinked glass Of water, it
was:
"Lucilla, don't swaller such big
mou'fuls of water, you'll fill your lit
tie throat too full"
Or, "Lucilla, swaller faster, or the
water will run all over your little
chin"
If she sat down by the fire, it was:
"Lucilla Augusta, don't set so near
the fire, or you'll burn your little face "
And if she set away from it, it was {:
"Lucilla, don't set away from the
fire so far, you'll chill your little veins"
And so it went on. If she talked
with me and Josiah, it was:
Don't talk so much, Lucilla, you'll
wear out cousin Josiah and cousin
Samantha n'
Or if she didn't talk, it was:
"Don't keep so still, Lucilla Angus
ia. or cousin Samantha and cousin Jo-
siah will think you have lost your lit
tie tongue"
And so ArvilIy KEEP OLA deep, anx-
ious expression a-plowin' into her face
from day to day; and little Lucilla not
dastin' to speak word. or move
move, without lookin' to her mother.
Why, got so wore out with it, that
one day up and told Arvilly what
thought ont. I argied land it was
from deep sense of duty that 1 did iD
Il argied that it split u disposition by
keepin' it riled up all the time; 1t
!. arnt her to be dependent on some
body else always. She didn't know
what to do, bein' told SO many differ
ent things to once; and, finally, l
brung up deep simely I had heard
Mother Smith use, and, says !, "As it
has been said, and well said, Watch
pot never biles,' which I 'spose means,
if you watch a kettle too clost, and
keep a novin' it back and forth, and
pokin' at the Goals under it, it wont
bile. There is such thing as wise
supervision, a overlookin,' that don't
annoy, or disturb, sort o distant, and
near, too, like the warm watchfulness
of the sunlight a-bendin' over us an
summer days, soothin' and comfortin,'
and yet guidin' and lightin' our path
ways. But this constant and open tag
GIN after child, or, as the poet would
say, This taggin' and naggin' is
enough to ruin any child whatsomever.
1t Jest takes away any frankness and
Independence character they may
have set out with"
80, that is what I want to do! |
want Lucilla Augusta tv lean onto me
always. Idon't want her ever to move
off independent of me-"
And then / says to Arvilly, with a
sort of a deep look onto her, "Iou'll
have to in the end" And then I kim
der looked right through Arvilly onto
great things, eternal truths, and coDse-
quences, and says 1:
"No human soul can be helped only
jest SO fur. Lonely they come into
this world, lonely they'll go out of it.
And all along through life the lone
some soul, though surrounded by
watchfulest relatives and friends, yet
in a certain sense it has got to live
alone, dwell by itself in the deep places
where no eye can follcr it, no ear hear
what it says-no one but the One who
made that soul, made the deep places
into which it hides itself.
"Now, that independent individual
life has its rights. 1t must have 'em !;
tits separate bein'-mothers don't
want to think so. but it is. A mother