Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1905-09-02

brought her to pay, Alan and !
and learned the truth, the whole
unvarnished truth, of the matte
namely, that she did not meal
to love that baby no one shoul,
make her. She had loved babie
enough, Robert and Alan ant
me. She was not going to low
any more.
It hurt-it hurt to love littl,
babies, the little helpless, cling
ing things, to be necessary t.
thier very existence, to b
their whole horizon, and then, az
time went on, to have them grow
and expand and change, under
ones very eyes, into great tower
ing, and self-sufficient men and
women, to have to adjust your
love to every step of the change.
to broaden it out, to clip every
twig of selfishness, until finally
you must love as God loves, il
you love at all. Not being God,
it hurt-it hurt. She was not
going to do it any more-not if
she had a hundred grandchildren
was she going to do it.
She was going to- wait until
the little thing had grown up
had done its broadening and its
changing had settled down into
its other relations in life, and she
knew just how necessary she was
going to be to it. Then she
would love it, but not until then.
She was going to be good to it
oh dear me! yes! She was
going to knit things for it, was
going to cover it from it's head to
its heels with her handiwork,
was going to give it library
she had just heard of a grand
mother who had given a new
born baby a library that it
could grow up to and enjoy
and porringers and a bank ac-
count. There was nothing she
was not going to.do for it, except
to love it until it was grown that
she would not do.
Gasping, choking and sobbing,
working her thin, little hands
Historically in and out of each
other, the truth came out. If
our good Bishop had sworn, or
the church furnace had turned
into a volcano and blown up the
pews and the altar, I could not
have been more aghast than at
such sentiments from mother.
4
1t was Alan who was not
aghast, Alan who understood.
Never having been a mother, I
do not see how he came to do it,
but he did. Alan is wonderfully
nice when he is nice. He must
have been an inordinately so this
time, for mother rose, that very
afternoon, from her bed of pros
5ration-moral prostration-with
resolute, hinder me-not-ye-
nuch-loved- saints sort of express
sion on her countenance; gowned
herself daintily, and dined with
IS, as usual, in the candle light.
The next day she left on the
evening train for Roberts. Alan
put her into a stateroom, all by
herself, with a bunch of roses as
zig as herself. Alan is not rich,
'ut men do extravagent things
or their sWeethearts.
A day or two, and letters from
Ter began to come. Extracts
rom them tell best the story of |
he next few weeks:
"Poor Patty, she is so tried |
With her nurse: not the trained |
has gone-but the
me Mrs. McNaughton recon-
nended so highly. She lived |
With her twenty years, and, upon
ny word, think she had better
% back and live with her again.
elderly stupidity is so -get-at-
BILE.
patty told her the other
lornlng to test the baby's bath
With the thermometer, and if she
ldn t hold it in till it got up to
he requisite number of degrees
nd then whip it out without
rating to see how much higher
would go if she gave it a
nance. 1t is Of the Lord S
1ercy the poor little thing was
OF scalded. Patty bathes heri
erself now. I warm the tow
Is"
y
Patty was so done up this
lornlng--poor child, she doesn't
leep as she should-that I made
er stay in bed, had her break
list sent up, and bathed the baby
lyself. She loves her bath, tie
ear little thing-she wouldn't