The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1921-02-18
ONLY A LITTLE CHILD.

supreme faith and the implicit con-
idence, unstained by the slightest
semblance of stimulation. 1t clings
like the vine to the sturdy oak, and
when the thread that binds is clipped,
it is like the cutting from the very
roots the heart strings and the life
of the tree.
There are many gems in the path
of life that we may pass in idle
pleasure, and many jeweled crowns
or boarded treasures of the miser.
but none of these can equal the love
of a little child. Not until the ten
der and slender and delicate threads
of our curious lives are snapped
asunder can we truly and really ap-
preciate this love, So curiously are
we builded. And the pity is that it
is true.
Somehow the death Of a little
child always did touch me more ten
derly than that of a grown up man
or woman. The supreme faith, the
absolute confidence, the great trust,
not knowing what it all meant, but
lust trusting and believing, depend
ent. And when it touches your own
household and cuts aloose the strong
ties that bind, so much keener is the
feeling. And yet are we not told
that if you want to enter in the man.
sions above, you must become even
as a little child, and that Of such is
the kingdom of heaven. That is
what it means. Faith, trust, conf
dence.
must write this story. l can't
help it. / trust that no one OF the
many thousand readers Of The Her.
aid and News will think it arliss. Or
Forty years ago the Monday just
gone, February IA, 1881, and it was
Monday and bright and balmy day.
I made the first step toward the
building of home of my own. A
long time ago, some one will say
Looking forward forty years, 1t is a
long time, but looking backward to
that day it seems but yesteryear.
The future looked bright and we
were happy. Each decade since that
day, however, has made its mark Dy
leaving a vacant chair in the ,me.
First, in 1889, bright and beauti-
full little girl Of seven years. Then
in 1902 a manly boy OF seventeen.
In 1911 the mother of the home, and
q more devoted mother never lived.
Now. in 1921, almost to the very ami
yersary of the fourth decade, dear
little Carlton, who with her mother
after the sad death of her father only
two years ago, had come to make her
home with me, is suddenly taken
away. =.
Only little child of five and half
summers, but somehow in the brief
time that she had been part OF the
home circle her little life had been
entwined so closely with mine that 1t
is like the pulling out the very roots
of the tree to have her go. No one
hut me knew how dear she was to
r.,. because I can not gush. Then
I ksev she loved me. When her
mother would go away on bret
visit she was always ready and anx-
ious to come back to Newberry with
tPapa Aull." You could not help
loving such child. If you did you
would be unnatural. Full of life, the
picture of health, never still, in ac-
tion all the time. In the evening
when I would come home and take up
my typewriter she with the two
American boys would be around, and
sometimes would annoy just little
by their inability to be still, but
always found time to furnish them
with pencils and paper and they
would write while 1 wrote and read
the papers while I read. And the lit
tie life became part of my own more
than ever and the life strings strong
er. Why should she be taken when
she was such a comfort to me and to
her mother? I don't know. l can
not understand. May be her mission
was finished. / know that her LIE
was worth while, and that she en-
riched the lives of others by having
lived and having come into their
lives, though she was only little
child. Then she was the only child
of her mother and the two were just
like one. 1t is hard to bear. But
then is it not written, whom he