Year: 1859




youth comes but once, we got married,
and left other couples to grow gray, il
they liked Dn the distant prospect o'
damask curtains, fine furniture, and trains
of servants. Charley did not know the
meaning Of "club house, as 70 tho
diamonds and satins the shopkeepers
flashed in my eyes, I did not give them
a thought. We had some nice books
and some choice engrayings. You might
have goDo into many a parlor on which
hundreds had been layished, and liked
ours all tho better when you came back.
Still it wanted something--thatwe both
agreed; for no house, can be said TO be
properly furnished without baby. Well.
Christmas day brought us one, weighing
the usual eight pounds, and as lively as a
cricket. Such lungs il had Charley
said it was intended for minister.


Well, now it was all right; at least il
would have been il the baby had not in
volved nurse. We had, to be sure, n
vague idea that we must have one, and
as vague an idea of what nurse WAS
We thought her good kind of creature
who understood baby dom, and never in
terfcred with any little family arrange
ments. Not bit Of it.


OF course, the first thing she did was
to make preparation to sleep in my room
Poor Charley was sent off into a desolate
spare chamber; Charley, whose shaving
operations l had watched with such in
terest; whose oravats i had tied to suit
my fancy every morning; whose hair l
had brushed up; and---well, never mind
the rest; old maids and old bachelors
will deem all this perfectly ridiculous.


1t was soon evident that this bran new
baby Of ours gave nurse an acendancy
over US. You might have seen this with
half an eye, as she folded her hands com
placently over heraapron strings, and sat
down in my little rocking by the
fire opposite the bed, and then fixed her
basilisk eyes upon me as Charley left tho
room. Poor Charley! he neither drank,
nor smoked, nor gambled; he was too
food Of home for any of these things. So
he wandered up stairs aud down; sat in
the parlor staring at the fire till he could
bear il no longer, and then stole up stairs
TO get comforted. But as often as he did
so, would you believe III that woman
watched his every movement, just as il
he were infringing some Of her rights and
immunitics. I. - ieii - .'.ls.is.


What if he did bring mo piece oI
cake in his pocketl Who likes 70 live
for ever upon gruell What if hc did
open the sunblind and let little blessed
sunlight in, when she tried 10 persuade us
into the belief that I" it would hurt ba-
by's eyesr What if he did steal one OF
her knitting needles, when she sat there,
evening after evening, knitting round, and
round that interminable old gray stocking
till my nerves were wound up to the
screaming pointl What if l did tell him
that she always set her rocking chair up
on that loose board in the floor which
sent forth that ugly squeak, and that she
always said, .'BIess meP' and yet was
sure to get on it the very next time she
sat down. What if l did tell him that
after dinner she always wanted to take
a sly nap, and would muffie The baby up
in so many blankets that it could not
cry if it wanted TO, aud would draw the
curtains closely round my bed, and tell
me "it was high time that I took nap"
Il, that could never, either by strata
gem or persuasion, lie induced TO sleep
in the day time. ,.i


And what if l did complain TO him
that she wanted TO put sticky pitch
plaster upon my neck, for a little ghost
Of cough (oocasioned by her stirring the
ashes in the CRATE too furiously), and that
when / clapped it on the bed-post instead,
she muttered spitefuly, that ga hand
some neck would not keep me ont of my
coffin r. What if / did tell him that sho
tried on my nice little lace collars when
she thought ! was asleep at night; tho
I can not bear TO have any body mussing
my things about after have laid them so
orderly in my sdrawerG And what if 1
complained that she kept pressing me so
constantly to drink detestable porter, un-
der the pretence that its second hand in
fluenee might SNAKE the baby sleepy
What if l did do all this Was he not
my husbands Didn't / tell him every
thing 7 laugh with him cry with him :
And didn't he Ike it, tooi OF course he
did. ss-lr 81 ual l-4t 4 ~ lai4i


And poor Charley! he was forlorn, too.
His cravats were tied like a fright all the
time was confined; his buttons were of
his pretty velvet vest; and he hadn't the
heart TO get his boots blacked. Poor
Charley!


Well; that nurse had the impudence
TO tell US at last that Eve acted like two
children" Childreni Wei ISL The
parents Of lhat eight pound babyl That
was the last drop in our cup. Charley
paid her off; and was so glad when she
went, that laughed till | cried. asa fss


Then we both drew long breath, and
sat down and looked at the new baby
our baby; and Charley asked me about
its little sleeping habits, and 4 told him,


- IL I....lI