St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1897-03-20


are to do as they please when there's
nobody about but me. and so suffer
myself imposed on and feel like an in
iured person. l believe l will 60 to the
missionary society myself next time.
But after all. there is no use in posing
az a domestic martyr or q patriarchal
packhorse about these things. for do
like to have the little chaps around me.
especially little girls. Children are
blessing to the household. They take
away our selfishness and purify our
feelings. Their joy add glee and sport
I've happiness carries the old people
back to their early life. when the days
were all sunshine. It is a sad sympathy
we feel when We see them 50 happy now
and forcsee the troubles that await
them. Poor Tom Hood! How sad he was
when he penned those touching lines:
II remember. I remember
The fir trees dark and high:
used to think their slender tops
Were close against the sky.
It was q childish ignorance.
But now Ills little JOY
70 know I'm farther on from Heaven
Than when / was boy
There is no happiness like q child's.
If could would exchange NIL that
have realized since l was 10 years old
for that l had before. Those Is years
are about one-third Of the average life
and the memories of them are more
precious than oil the rest. If a child is
blessed with loving, indulgent parents
those years arc an unbroken season of
unalloyed enjoyment. Sometimes see
my wife looking sadly and dreamily into
the glowing embers and know she is
thinking gaboutherchildreno OF her child.
hood and recalling the joys Of her youth
when she had = mother and could lay
her head upon her lap and feel the soft
carcsses of her gentle hand. What a
weight Of care and anxiety presses con-
tinually upon the heart OF mo.her.
How often do her prayers ascend TO
Heaven in the dark watches of the
night-prayers for their health, their
welfare, their good conduct, their sal
vation.
But with all the cares, anxieties and
foreboding, children ore our greatest
blessing and the family the greatest
bulwark of good society and good gov
erument. It is the law of our being
that man and woman should mate and
marry and rear children. and there is
no substitute for tho marriage relation.
I hardly knew the value of child until
. few weeks ago q dear little grand
child got sick-very sick, and for days
and nights was very near the gates OF
heaven. She suffered and we watched
and suffered with her. Her little lips
and throat were swollen and inf1amed
with diptherctic sores. Her lungs rat-
tied with pneumonia. How ehe rlead-
ed with US for help-for relief-pleaded
with eyes and hands, and We could do
nothing but caress her and weep. I
would have given . million dollars
yes, ten million, II had ito re-
lieve that child and save her from suf-
fering. Prayers or medicine or good
nursing or something saved her, and we
sre all grateful. What is the value Of
. child, anyhow? II one was up
at auction what would tho mother
give7 How Insignificant il prop
erty or gold or silver when COM
pared with il. What are we all work
ing for but children, their happiness
and prosperity? Daniel Webster. the
greatest man this country has ever pro-
duced. said: "a good father will shrink
from no toll. no sacrifice to raise his
children to better condition than his
own" II I was . Judge and . father
was brought before me for stealing or
even for robbing, would seek 70 know
the hidden motives that prompted him
to the crime. Many . man steals or
cheats to get something for his children.
and the world il outraged and calls him
. thief and the law sends him to the
chain gang.
But after all, it i the mother who
screens them. protects them and wraps
them in her bosom. thought my wife
was tired and would like to rest in her
old age. but the maternal instinct still
possesses her, and she seems as much
concerned about the grandchildren as
she ever did about her own. In fact.
she Il less exscting. and more indulgent.
The little boy we have with us h q
young cyclone and keeps the home In
N uproar. When = getoutxage6 with his
tumultuous racket and threaten him
with punishmeut my wife takes his
part and says he = nothing but . baby.
Yea. four-y6arold baby who slams
the door like ~ athlets % 'times an
hcur and dont mind anybody. and I
sopM requisite hin b y hour = ! Aad