Feliciana sentinel. [volume] (St. Francisville, La.) 1877-1892, 1892-04-30
BRINGING UP CHILDREN. e
! Wiss sfSthsr's 6pinisa ~ jaa,es sal


Every young mother starts on her
Natural career with full set of theories
ehe wears thetd like arfnor and it often
fairly clanks as she tIioves, sha It is
armor ef proof-that is, it is proof
against every weapon save the keen
lance Of experience.
One twenty-year-old Wiseacre has n
theory that babies are dver-fed (so they
are, more tkan half tile tilSt) and she
allows her poor little lamb only i've
minutes FOR it's meals aud wonders that
it does not grow fat like Mrs Sniith's
baby. Another has theory that tile
little bodies are kept too warm and her
baby shivers under a thin blanket with
Its poor little pink toes all cnrlee; up
and turning purple With the cold, q
third bdlieves that warmth Is the 6ne
thing needful, and her child swclters
in heavy fannels through the hottest
weather.
never shall forget how = certain
sert fatiioas pliysiciaii caihe to sec nie
one very hot day in August and found
my baby wearing a flannel petticoat,
and, moreover, wrapped in O flannel
blanket:
what have you got this child so
s,vathed up for?' demanded DR.. William
of the nurse. ''Flannel on a day like
thieP The. child should have rotbing
on but slip. l wish had nothing oil
but slip!'
] started in mother-life with as flne a
set of theories AS most people and I
have been shedding them ever since.
WHei3 I ]ddk at rayi eldest 5aIgftet rnd
remember the things did to her
marvel that she is alive and well. How
I, 80
aloft' must have shuddcred when he
saw that poor baby taking her noon
tide hap dit 6f dccts In her carriage oil
winter long!
All my friends stood round in atti-
tudes of horror and detection. but pur-
sued my way with the intrepid imbe-
cility Of youth. Wrapped in great
Hriilt With just snotigh space left for
the pure air to enter. sheltered from
the wind by a thick hedge, that little
carriage stood out day by day. from Oc-
tober till May, with Brownie. the faith
full st. Bernard, lying hcHide 1t,
Brownie never said what he Thought;
hut lie probably felt that Was iiot ta
be trusted with the child. When it
stormed of course the carriage was
brought in and trundled in the house,
which the house being small and many
cornercd, was not convenient. And
well the child lived and it would per-
haps be hard to find a more healthy
girl than she is to-day, hut whenever
she has d touch OF the neuralgia, which
is her one ailment. l think of the little
carriage behind the hedge and beat my
breast and say: "Si jeunncsse sardt''
by the time my second baby came l
had learned II little more; by the time
the third appeared knew enough to
regard the first as n brand snatched
from the burning, and to become restive
when any one hroac)1ed new theory.
When my seventh baby smiled in nv
face she found me with hardly theory
left but ready to give my whole self to
the lovely work of keeping her we'll
and happy. l did not take her up when
ever she cried; neither did let her cry
herself and me into fits, because had a
theory that ba bies must not he taken
up. ! fed her when she was hungry,
even if-oh. treason. it was fifteen min
utcs before the proper time. l did not
weigh her every week or every month:
in fact. 1 did not care in the least what
she weighed so long as her flesh was
firm and hard and her color good. I
took her out in good weather and kept
her at home when thought the wind
too sharp. And she is as robust and
as her eldest sister. and
do not believe she will have neuralgia
when she grows up.-Laura f. Rich
ards, in Chicago News.