Decorah public opinion. (Decorah, Winneshiek County [Iowa]) 1895-1928, 1896-09-01

passed away. Days or bOynood had
rome-days Of laughter and frolic,
days of sunshine and promise, days of
arrange questions and curiosity and
quick development. l suppose among
brightest was the boy. One day there
is the shout of reapers heard atield. A
boys heart always bounds at the sound
of sickle or scythe. No sooner have
the harvesters cut a swath across the
field than the lad joins them, and the
swarthy reapers feel young again as
hey look down at that lad, as bright
and beautiful as was Ruth in the har-
vest fields of Bethlehem cleaning after
the reapers. But the sun was too hot
for him. Congestion of the brain seized
on him. / see the swarthy laborers
drop their sickles; and they rush cut
to see what is the matter, and they fan
him as they try to cool his brow; but
all is Of no avail. In the instant Of
consciousness, he puts his hands
against his temples and cries out: MY
head! my headw And the father said
Garry him to his mother" just as any
father would have said; for our hand is
too rough, and our voice is too harsh,
and our foot is too loud to doctor
sick child, if there be in our home a
n stiller footstep. But all of no avail
While the reapers of Shunem were busy
in the field, there came a stronger reap
er that way, with keener scythe and for
richer harvest. He reaped only one
sheaf, but o what a golden sheaf
was that! / do not want to know
any more about that heart break
ing scene than what / see in just this
one pathetic sentence: HE sat on her
knees till noon and then died"
Though hundreds of years have
passed away since that boy skip
ped to the harvest-field and then was
brought home and died on his mothers
lap, the story still thrills us. Indeed
childhood has a charm always and
everywhere. / shall now speak to you
of childhood; it's beauty, its susceptible
/, ity to impression, its power over the
Iilepental heart, and its blissful transit
ton from earth TO heaven.
The child's beauty does not depend
upon form or feature or complexion or
apparel. That destitute one that you
saw on the street, bruised with unkind-
ness and in rags, has a charm about
her, even under her restitution You have
forgotten great many persons whom
you have met, of finely-cut features
and with erect posture and with fault
less complexion, while you will always
remember the poor girl who. on a cold.
moonlight night, as you were passing
late home, in her thin shawl and bare
foot on the pavement, put out her hand
md said please give me a penny"
All! how often we have walked on and
said: "Oh, that is nothing but street
vagabondism;" but after we got a
block or two on, we stopped and said
"Ah, that is not right" and we pass
ed up that same way and dropped p
mite into that suffering hand rs
though ii were not a matter of second
thought, so ashamed were We of cur
NCohCoo. Win Wndl
tion we all look upon a group of chill
dren on the play aground or in the
school, and we clap our hands almost
ipyoluntarily and say: How beautl-
FUR All stiffness and dignity are
gone, and your shout is heard with
theirs and you trundle their hoop, and
fly their kite, and strike their ball and
all your WEAKNESS and anxiety are
gone as when child you bounded over
the playground yourself. That father
who stands rigid and unsympathctic
amid the sportfulness of children,
ought never to have been tempted out
of crusty and unredeemable solitari-
ness. The waters leap down the rocks.
but they have not the graceful step of
childhood. The morning comes out Of
the gates Of the east, throwing its sill
yer ON the lake and its gold on she
towers and It's fire on the cloud; but it
is not so bright and beautiful as the
morning of lifel There Is no light
like that which is kindled in a child's
eye, no color like that which blooms on
a childs cheek, no music like the
sound of a child's voice. It's face In
the poorest picture redeems any i'm
perfection in art. When we are weary
with toll, their little hands pull the
burdens off our back. Oh, what dull,
stale mean world this would be with
out the sportfulness OF children. When
I find people that do not like children,
j Immediately doubt their moral and
Christian character. But when the
grace OF God comes upon child. how
unspeakably attractive. When Samuel
begins to pray. and Timothy begins to
read the Scriptures, and Joseph shows
himself invulnerable to temptation
how beautiful the scene! | know that
parents sometimes get nervous when
their children become pious. because
have the idea that good children al
ways die. The strange questions about
God and eternity and the dead, excite
apprehension in the parental mind
rather than congratulauon. Indeed,
there are some people that seem mark