St. Landry democrat., 1890-01-25
JARED PERKINS RELIC.

One of the relations on my own side
came here visitin' week before last. She
that was Arvilly Smith, or as she calls
herself now, 1.-The relic Of Jared Perkins -
She staid twelve days and thirteen
nights.
She had her young child with her-Lu-
ella Augusta Perkins.
And if Arvilly said, 'Lucilla Augusta
don't, If she said that once durin' them
twelve days and thirteen nights, she said
it five hundred times. And haint a set
tin it too high. ..
why, good land I have sometimes
thought had seen mouse hole watched
close by cat. But no place of any de-
scflption was ever watched as that mother
watched that child.
II Lucilla bit apple on one side, it was !:
''Lucilla, don't! Don't bite it in so far,
you'll break off your teeth"
Ii she drinked a glass of water, it was !:
"Lucilla, don't swaller such big mou'-
fuls of water, you'll fill your little throat
too full
Or, "Lucilla, swaller, faster or the water
will run all over your little chin"
Ii she sat down by the fire, it was:
"Lucilla Augusta, don't set so near the
hre, or you'll burn your little face |"
And If she sat away from it, it was
'Lucilla, don't set away from the fire so
far, you'll chill your little veins"
And so 1t 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 Sam
antha !"
Or, if she didn't talk, it was:
Don't keep SO still, Lucilla Augusta, or
cousin Samantha and cousin Josiah will
think you have lost your little tongue"
And so Arvilly KEEP on-a deep, anxious
expression aplowing into her face from
day to-day and little Lucilla not dastin'
TO speak word, or move move, without
lookin' to her mother. Why, I got so
wore out with it. that one day I up and
told Arvilly what l thought ont. Iarg1ed
land 1t was from deep sense of duty that
did i'll argied that it split DISPOSE
ton by keeping it riled up all the time it
learnt her to be dependent on somebody
else always. She didn't know what to do,
bein' told SO many different things to once;
and, finally, brung up a deep simeiy l |
had heard Mother Smith use, and says I,
''As it has been said, and well said, I
Watch pot never-blles,' which l 'spose |
means, if you watch kettle too clost, and |
keep movin' it back and forth, and |
pokin' at the Goals under it, it won't bile. |
There is such thing as a wise supervis- |
ION, overlookin', that don't annoy, or dis
'urb, sort o distant, and near, too, like the
warm watchfuiness of the sunlight a
Oendin' over us on summer days, soothin'
md comfortin, and yet guidin' and
ightin' our pathways. But this constant
md open tagging after child, or, as the
of hso boz |
5 enough to ruin any child whatsomever.
It jest takes away any franknass and indie
'endence of character they may have set
mt with"
"Oh, that is what want to do Iwant
Iucilla Augusta to lean onto me always. |
lon't want her ever to move off indepen-
lent of me.
And then I says to Arvilly, with sort
# deep look onto her, you'll have to in
he end!'' And then kinder looked right
trough Arviily onto great things, eternal
ruths, and consequences, and says L:
'sNo human soul can be helped only Jest
0 fur. Lonely they come into this world.
onely they'll go out of it. And all along
trough life the lonesome soul, though
urrounded by watchfu1est relatives and
riends, yet in certain sense it has got to
I've alone, dWell Dy Itself In the deep
laces where no eye can foller it, no ear
ear what it says-no one but the One who
lade that soul, made the deep places into
vhich it hides itself.
"Now, that Independent individual life
as it's rights. It must have 'em it is
sparate in'-mothers don't want to
mink so. but it is. A mother may want to
Ike the hull child, clothes and all, and
ut it right in the middle of her own !
cart J. but she can't her heart haint big
nough. Or, she may want to get right
Inside of her child's heart and fill 1t full, I
, full that nothin' else can get in, and !
ne Weighin' as she does over hundred 1
ut she can't she is too big. 4
s.The best love, the trusst and the ten {
crest, has to kinder hang round on the l
inside; it can't get inside of the beloved /
eart-and soul, it can'tl It is a lonesome
'elin' to contemplate it, but it is true.
nd SO what remains for ANYBODY to do is
ally to admit the fact. Own no that the /
tile oul haint part of our own life, but !
IS separate existence Of its own-with
8 own duties, its own pleasures, and cares
i'd rights. It has right to its own little
loughts, its own little ways, and the best :
. can do for the child is to teach it to !
and alone. and stand straight. X