Year: 1859

lEor tne wheeling Intelligencef


SENTINIENT-NO "a.


DEDICATED TO MISS MAMIE p, OF DAYTON, OHIO.


Little children are the living flowers upon the
hills and valleys of life; and we love them us
dearly as we love the other roses and hyacinths
Alasl that they should be SO like them,
too, in their early deathI And yet they are so
short journey from Heaven, one would not
fear to leave them go back alone. We know
not if you love to see them live or care to see
them die; but we feel that if you do not open
your heart to the sweet music of their gladstone
voices and the soft sunshine oftheir happy faces,
your life, brilliant as it may be, is not so calm
and peaceful as even we would wish. Such
soul is like unto deep and poisonous well, ut
whose bottom good and refreshing waters may
be found, but into whose terrible depths neither
light nor life can enter. A love for lovely things
alone can purify the heart and dissipate the
vapors of coldness and distrust that clings
about our fountains of hope andjoy.


Many months ago VIC wrote in this same city
and in this same paper-GOd bless the little
chiLtlreni To-day we repeat the prayer, and
come from their midst, and Our heart is full of
the sweet perfume of their innocence. You
should have seen them in their joyousness and
have felt how great thing it is to be contented.
Why, their faces were as bright as the sky in
Heaven. and their voices more musical than a
score Ol OTCueSIeES IoSetHSIi ana tlelT tlny IeeE
quite as happy as their hearts. And then how
earnestly they laughed and talked and danced
and sangI There was no weary heart beneath
u winning smile, nor any Inockery III their gay
est tones In truth it was the happiest scene We
ever looked upon.


You may talk to US of their boisterousness
and Unsuitable curiosity and the thousand an.
noyances to which they may subject youl and
yet these little children are the embodyIncnt of
purity and goodness, of candor and Affection
They read the human heart as you never
read it Through "the windows of the soul"
they look into the most secret chamber of your
living self. and will tell in moment if you are
earnest and honest or false and decietful. We
would rather have the affection and confidence
of child, than the praise of wrold that only
eulogises what it dare not condemn. They are
seldom given to deciet, and their love is as far
above the painful pretensions of men and wo-
men, as is the sweet perfume of summer rose
above the cold and icy beauty of a .Iaponica.


We said that children were like unto flowers,
and we dare say that their pecularities and
similarities may be traced to any extent, if we
would but take the trouble to search them out.
Only the other day we saw "forget me not"
child, and could but remark how like to this
same flower she was. Her beautiful blue eyes
and long flaxen curls and sweet tempered face,
told of a heart as pure an angels. She said her
name was Ada, and VIC loved her more for that,
because it was sisters name, and associated
with more even, than sisters love. Obi how
such little one with her earnest words and
gentle tones wins upon the heart. She sat upon
our knee and talked to us for long while, and
when she went away, we felt that sweet "for-
get me not" had been blooming in our spirits
garden, whose perfume would lnger there Tor
many months to come.


And then there is the cold and distant child =
the Camelia. She is beautiful without perfume,
you say. Alas it may be that the sweetness
h., l,oV, bad kTy1
and trcachery Oil ifthere is anything in the
world that wrings the heart, 1t is child with
out hope. God forgive you, if your heart is not
touched at such a sight. Look into her dark,
deep eyes, and see how coldness and unkind-
ness and poverty and want may waste away the
deepest fountains of love, aud leave the soul
dcsolatc and barren and alone 1t is sad enough
when the heart of man has outrun the stream
of its trust and faith and affection-but to look
upon little child, almost fresh from the hands
of its Maker, weighed down by grief and care,
and pinched by want and pOTerty-Oh I! 1t Is the
most touching sight Of all the miseries in life.
Do not pass such an one by coldly, and without
a word of Kindness and affection. Rather take
her to your arms and press back her dark hair
and look into her weary eyes, and warm her
heart against your own, If but far o moment,
and God will bless you.


And then there are the "honey. .suckle" chill
dren. They come to you in your hours of sor-
row or Joy, anu IWluS lI4SlI lIIlIS uIuIS dOOuL
your neck and shower the blossoms Of their
kisses upon your face until you are almost
stifed with the sweet perfume Of their hearts:
On your knees they gather in every way, and
whether you be poor or rich, their love aUwes
out INCREASINGLY If you do but have proper
soil in your nature to encourage their growth.
They will know in a moment if you love them,
and the fountains of their purity and sweetness
are as endless us the waters of the sea. They
laugh with you and cry with you, and feel every
word of love and anger as keenly as any heart
could wish. Like the other "honey suckles, !"
they will open your nature to the realities of
life, and teach you that God dintended you should
love them and all His gifts without fear and
without prejudice. Let them twine their arms
about you then, and welcome their sweet per-
fume, and see that the soil of your own heartis
ever pure and fitted for their growth.


1t has been said that the perfume of flower
will sometimes bring into the heart such glinP-
ses of the past as viii linger with us for days
and nights. And so it is with children's voices
and eyes and hair and manners. Why, tho
little girl, of whom we spake before, brought
to us such sweet and holy dreams of years gone
by as have been with US ever since. 1t was as
if the past had come back again, and we remem-
bered words and looks ad tones, long since for