Year: 1868

BY HENRY WARD BEECHER. @
After all-what is the use? We
|set up our house and one by one the
children fly into it, like birds out of
some foreign wood into a cage
one, two, three, four, and more
With each one also cry; and that
is the keynote to which a hundred
sorrows add their voices and gradu-
ally swell into that chorus which
men call sshuman life! For each
child there is to be fringe of care
on the edge of every day. Each
child brings burdens and anxieties.
Tears in their eyes are but harhin-
gers of many more in the eyes of all
who love them! To shape them
from infancy to goodness to teach
their hands, to drill their heads, to
repair their mistakes and secure
their firm footing in an honorable
manhood, who can measure the
thought, the feeling, the endeavors :?
And then, when the long task is
done, is there no compensation Or
do they not, one by one, detatch
themselves, and like comely fruit
fall from the bough on which they
leaving it bear and empty.


That daughter-just as she began
to be full companion, to repay all
the labor of her Trainings snatch
ed away by some one who has
known her fewer weeks than her
parents have years; she goes. The
house is empty without her. Her
rooms, her drawers, her books and
school tasks, fondly preserved car
rv a sadness to the mothers heart
every time they are looked upon
The boys before you dream that
they have ceased to be boys, come
asking the fathers blessing on a
newcomer. By the time that father
and mother are conscious of age and
infirmity, the whole brood is scat
tered and gone. The old house is
solitary. 1t used to be straitened
for room when all the children were
at home; but now there is room to
much. It used to be unquiet and
noisy, but now one might doze all
day, for all the noise that is made
Only the fire swapping out suddenly
OR the drowsy old clock ticking be-
hind the door, er a kitten mewing
to get in, or to get out, or squeak
ing mouse Or rat, make audible
noise. When children are all at
home a man is like Norway spruce
whose well grown branches, begin
ming from the level of the ground
rise up in a perfect pyramid, shap
ing the tree to exquisite proportions
But each child married. is bough
Topped off, leaving wide space, un-
til the parent trunk is finally trim
med up like shaft, and all the ver-
dure left clings about the top.


In European communities. the
children often marry and settle
down around their childhood home.
But this is rare in America. The end
less circulation that is going on
sweeps away the children and to be
married is almost synonymous with
going far away from home.


All this, Mr.. Bonner, describes my
state Of mind last week. 1t is very
different now. Word has come that
the grang children are coming home
Coming home? What! both the
children and their mother? for {
good long visit? Bless their little
hearts, let them come. There's
nothing in this house to good fol
them. Now, then, we shall have s
household once more. Children are
the flowers which God sends dowr
from heaven to enliven and cheer
this life. What was I saying, a lit
tie back, about the care an anxiety
and pain, and trouble, of bringing
them up? Stuff-mere stuff, Mr.
Bonner, I assure you. Don't be
lieve word Of it. was surely ir
a dream. It was a half nightmare
1 am awake now; and do assure yol
that he who is fit to have and rea


children, will see ten, yes, hun


dred joys to every sorrow; and th'
sunshine of their smiles will turn in


to rainbows every tear which the,


shed or cause to be shed.


If there is anything in this worlt


that pays as it goes along it is tax
ing care of children. Raising flow


ers is all very well. But flower


have in them no mischief, they be


have to well, they lack human ma


ture, they need the iridescent quail
: ties Of disposition that flash from


every surface of child's life


Children a trouble9 Do they pout
{ fret? !? disobey and go wrong Don
you wish your asters and honeysuck
les would show as much life Wha


would you give to have singin


vine, or flower that could learn t.
say it's prayers


Why, trouble in the nursery is
parents pastime If one don't be


lieve it let him be left for awhil
without children. He will soon b
glad to hear that the grand childre
are coming home!


Well we must be ready for ther
Let the drawers be filed with cand


Get out the crib, and put up the dea
| little narrow bed again


/ Hunt up the dolls, the wagon:
! the playhouse, the picture book
g the strings. Where are the ia


chairs for the table, and the littl


cups, and knives and forks for


child's hand? 1t looks like livin
again.


Now we shall be walked up in tn
, morning by chubby rogue climbin


up ON the bed playing tricks wit
my eyes and nose! Then will com
the trooping down to breakfast, an
all the table antics. Then we wi


all go up to family prayers-an
5 what time will those childre
III