Evening capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1888-1893, 1890-07-21

hAAihA NhAANA a ~ hNh'
The mother who puts the timid
child to bed, and takes away the
light, and goes down stairs, and
leaves him to his couiuriug, careless
and Indifferent and disbelieving, or
bent on overcoming the mischief
fOrcibly, is destroying something
that one would think ofsmall worth
to her-not only his nervous fiber,
but his love Of herself; and the day
will come wheB fate will have its
revenge on her in his own iuditler-
ence to her, and she will recognize
il, even if he behave in all outward
respects like a duuful son. 1t is her
part to examine the matter, to reason
with the child, to comfort hiu;, to
see how far it is possible with. him to
subdue the fear. Ii she cannot stay
with MIN herself, she can Mt least
leave the door open 50 that he may
hear the cheerful downstairs voices,
the hum of life, not to be shut into
his tomb, as the unfOrmulated
thought of his desperate little mind
makes it; she can leave a lamp on the
hearth, and Sc let there be some light
to dispel his faucies and to keep back
the dark and its unshaped visions.
She may regard it as trihing, but to
him it is tremendous: and if she is
wise either in mother love or human
kindness she will not let the imagi-
native and sensitive child suffer
more than it must, remembering .
that that temperament, if it has /.
more to enjoy through life than 9th
ers, has also much, much more to
suffer.
When q few nights have failed to /
bring calm to the little being out Of
the experience, and the last going to
bed alone is as bad as the first, and
all threats have only made the mat
ter worse, and all reasoning ha, pro-
duced no good result; when he has
tried to conquer, aud the effort has
left him trembling as violently as If
he has an ague-then il is something
not to be overcome 10y harsh or
rough or peremptory measures, and
the mother should see to it that this
child has some active physical cXcr-
rise Just before going to bed that
will make his little body glad uf
rest, aud she would best lie down be-
side him, or find some work that she T.
can do upstairs till he falls asleep,in
order to afford him the comfort of
and the sense Of her
love, and soothe his irri-
able nerves torepose instead of rous- .
ng them to action. These nerves
would never have been irritable
f she had not insisted on her
,wu way too long Ia the be-
ginning, il she had given them no
chance to get on fire, and then gouu
exciting themselves. If she had put
he child To bed alone from the very
,utset Of his career SO that it WIS
he natural order of things to him,
md he had had the habit established
If quiet sleep and absence of fear
rom the first, in ninety-ninC eases
,ut of q hundred there would mover
nave been ANY trouble Of the sort.
But il through any idiosyucrasy OF
he child, or any remiesness of her
,wu, the fear has come upon him,
lie will never in all the years re-
naming have greater love outpoured
lpon her than that child will give
ler who sees her towering over his
,llow, moving about his room, OF
cels her pressure ON the bed beside
i'm till the droVsy warmth steals
yer and wraps senses aud inag.ua-
ion and oll together and let her
ii again to the duties that are less
than care Of that cnid's
ierves, to the pleasures that are less q
,leasant than the love he gives her
n return. Harper Bazaar.