Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1906-10-01

were going to live our lives over again
we would have to change time. In
stead of being seventy. sixty. fifty or
forty years Of age we would have TO
become ten twenty or thirty years of
age. What does that mean? Why. it
means when we call back our fathers
and mothers and sisters and brothers
and run arEund again as curly head
ed child we would have to give I'D our
wives and husbands and children and
grandchildren. Would you like to do
that Qkaao1lrSe if you were a little
girl of e.esen years of age you could
Lot haya a husband and lot of ba-
bies as you have now. OF course if
you were Il schoolboy you could not
have couple Of other schoolboys run
ming around and calling you papa"
and asking you what they should do.
Were you happier when you We're
young than you are now? l doubt it.
/ doubt if the opportunity of being or
dered around by your teachers and by
your parents and by your older broth
ers and sisters were laid alongside of
your present opportunities you would
say. Give me back my youth" l
think that you would say: Let me
stay as | am | would prefer to be a
man rather than a boy or wife and
a mother rather than little child be-
| ing put to sleep in a trundle bed"
! Would We Change Our Friends.
| We loved and still do love our ia
| Tiers and mothers and sisters and
brothers. But DO we not also love and
cling to our wives and husbands and
! children? We seem to grow a bigger
| baby about them every day. When we
90 away from home now we long to get
back, just as a little child cries for it's
! mother. How would you like to go
| back to childhood and live ten, twenty
or thirty years before you had the
| pleasures OF domestic life that you
| have now? Are you sure that you
would find a wife as we'll adapted to
you as she who is now your companion
and helper? You know how faithfully
she has chung to you. She is like sap
| ling She knows how to bend before
the angry tornadoes; but, like, the sap
ling, she never loses her anchorage.
| When the storm of anger subsidies she
rights herself and compels you to do
the same. l do not believe there is
another woman in all the world who is
more fitted to be the companion of
your life than she has been. If l were
you I would not ask to so back to
childhood and risk losing her. 1t was
hard enough in the beginning to win
her. All her school friends were amaz-
ed to see her choose you when, from
worldly standpoint, so many suitors
had laid siege to her heart and hand.
Then the babies! How could we give
them up, even for a little while?
once read of a little girl who, with her
brother, was watching a knife grinder
sharpening some scissors Her father
quite nearsighted and deaf, turned to
the boy and said: MY son, here is
some money. Ask the organ grinder
to play another tune" With that the
boy began to laugh. His sister turned
upon him a look of sharp rebuke as
she answered, Yes, father, we. will"
Then she turned and gave the organ
grinder another pair of scissors to
sharpen, and the nearsighted and deaf
father turned smilingly away, think
ing he had made his children happy,
whereas, in fact, it was the daughter
who had made the father happy. So
when we grow older our children have
a habit of covering up our weaknasses.
We DO not know why it is, but we are
growing more and more dependent up
/ on them every day. All, yes, those
5 boys and girls of ours, how much they
! are to us! The hair may be gray up,
5 on our heads, the hand maEebArf fee
2 bic, but we would not. have rayHn
, locks and stout limbs if we had tosHs
4 separated from them even for a yeaR.
: 1t We went back to childhood days,
e could we improve our lot? Could we
1 have any better children than are now
1 blessing our lives? 8.
0 But" says some one, 81 did not exz
r actly mean that. What | do mean is
f this: [ would like to live my life over
5 again just as it is. I would like to go
back into the past and be born in the
same cradle and have the same BROTH
ers and sisters. l would like again
; to go to the same schools and marry
= the same girl and have the same chill
, dren. l would like to have my life ex-
: actly reproduced as it has been in the
. past" Then, my friend, want to tell
p you that your life, if it were to be re-
~ produced just as it was, would be a
q great disappointment to you. "a
. twice told tale'' is never as interesting
- the second time as it is the first time
= it is told. Let me illustrate:
Il A Twice Told Tale.
II For many years my father led very
y, busy life. Pleasure had but little in his
. existence He went from engagement
y to engagement, from duty to duty. But
p during these years of work he kept
4. one hope ever before him. He wanted
o to 90 back and live a little While close
II to nature, as he did when boy. Oh
= said he a thousand times, IF We could
e only get a big carriage and take all tie