Norwich bulletin., 1910-02-12
written for The Bulletin

Most of the people 1 love best are
children--or have been. Even those
who are passing the threescore and
ten have kept the childlike heart. Now
1.-THE kingdom of heaven is of the
chiIdlike of those who are easy to
please. who love and who give pleas
ure.' 1t is only as we ourselves be-
gin to grow older that the digniffed
and stately grown-ups, whose dignity
and statelinesS used to make US quake
in our shoes, are seen to be the veriest
children of all. It is marvellous, when
we think about it, how immature most
grown men and women are, how sell
dom they think things out and way
through to the finish, how crude their
opinions, how Inadequate their judg-
ment, how harsh their censure of their
fellow men. Give me the genuine chill
dren, old or young. those of the child
like heart.
Said a thoughtful woman to me,
years ago: Yes, I am earnestly try
ing to train up my children in the
way they should go; but, the truth is,
they are really educating me- Hers
was the loveliest group of children /
have ever known, and the most spon-
taneously obedient. Evidently obedi-
ence was expected, though it rarely
had to be enforced. This mother pos
sesSed the secret of securing obedience
in its essence, so to speak. Would
that every mother might catch the key
note of her wise and tender and ten
derby loving, yet firm control One
day, IN my presence, some one said to
her: ut is a comfort to see one
mother who is not continually strug-
Cling with her children. Yours seem
to wish to do precisely what you wish
them to. How do you manage it ~
For an instant the mother looked puZ-
zled, then answered simply: II hard
ly know myself. Perhaps it is because
they trust me-
She loved them with her whole
heart. There was no question about
this, and no question that they knew
it. In a broad, simple, sWeetly human
way, she lived for her children. Yet
she was more than a mere mother,
she was a woman, a human being, with
underworld interests and genial re-
sources. Tactful enough not to ennbar-
rass them by untimely hugs and kisses
she never Stinted them in endearing
words and caresses; neither did she
ever for moment allow any one of
them to feel overlooked. or forgotten,
or in the way. In very truth they
were her hearts beioveds. all of them,
and she never let them Lose sight of
this fundamental truth of their rela-
saying it. Indeed, it was no natural,
and so naturally obvious, that it did
not call for much speaking.
Then, too, she was never too busy
to listen. She would lay down her
pen or her needle, or whatever she
was doing, in order to bestow her full
attention and sympathy upon their
childish complaints or sorrows their
triumphs or delights. She was never
too hurried nor too distracted to give
heed; and never brushed aside their
small affairs as things of no moment
Remembering her own childhood, she
knew that what may be the merest
ant-hills to grown-ups are mountains
to the little ones; delectable noun
tains possibly, now and then; but far
oftener, hardScrabbIe mountains of
difficulty and impending disaster. No
mother ever loved her children more
deeply, more devotedly. nor. it seemed
to me, more wisely.
For one thing, she was tenderly con-