Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-12-09
The Extra Baby.

A MONG all the bitter tragedies of
~ childhood there is none so terrible
as that OF being the extra baby in
the home. whom nobody wants. Yet there's
an extra baby In many a family-some one
who doesn't belong in the full sweet
sense of the word. Nothing in the whole
| wide world ever makes up for it.
You can bear 1t better when you are
older, after you've learned not to care not
to expect the sort of affection you've
longed for so passionately. though it's not
good lesson to have to learn. But the
uphappiness of little, puzzled being. try
Ing his best to understand why his sister,
or brother-or both-is loved and petted.
while he himself is always in the way, is
pitiful.
There Is never any reason for it. That
is the terrible part Of it; 1t is apparently
just curious marking of fate, which
leaves one child lonely and wistful in a
family where affection and interest are
the rule, with that one pathetic exception.
Here Is the story Of one child, who
thought. from the time she was old enough
to think. that she didn't belong to her
mother. Her father she was sure Of
everybody told her she was the image of
him." but her constant fear was that her
mother would find her out and send her
awayi
Another little child, with that horror
of the dark which amounts to positive
disease among some nervous children, cried
herself to sleep night after night, creeping
down under the covers to hide the sobS
which would come, but which she dared
not let any one hear.
And another-there are millions of like
cases-used to say "she wasn't frightened
and promise ito be good and not bother
any one If father and mother went out"
And then, after they went, she would cry
her little heart out with the fright and
loneliness of the empty house. Tiny
she was, she had learned to lie about her
fears-had learned to dread the hard, i'm
patient look that was their inevitable re-
ception. And now? She Is eighteen now,
and has never been chums with either
father or mother. ''She is so hard to con-
troll" they sigh! Would she have been IL
circumstances had been different?
There's usually enough mother love to
go around. no matter how big family of
babies are about her. It's more often the
one Of his children-perhaps because he
and the child are too much alike. Then 1t
takes all mothers tact to prevent open
rupture. which usually takes the form,
while the child is little, Of tyrannical pun
ishment.
You men and women with babies, look
to 1t that among them there's none eat
ing his baby heart out in a passionate hun
ger for the love and petting which are
his birthright. Even IL he's not SO cunning
as his chubby sister, nor so bright as his
sturdy brother, he's yours-yours TO love
and to give heritage Of only happy child
memories to-. Think Of the woman who'd
give anything to have him to love-who
would kiss dimpies into those sober cheeks.
Then realize. IL you can. that the pain
of her conscious loneliness is surpassed by
his baby protests against something he
doesn't understand.
the true sense of the word when he knows
It, and knows. too that he can bring every
trififng bruise of head or heart to you to
be kissed and made well.