Aug. 1, 1901. 



AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL 



489 



I ^ The Home Circle. ^ | 



Conducted by Frof. ft. J. Cook, Glaremont, Calif. 



THE BABY. 



What is the little one thinking about ;. 



Very wonderful thinjrs, no doubt. 



Yet he laughs and cries, and eats and drinks. 



And ohuekles and crows, and nods and winks 



As if his head were so full of kinks 



And curious riddles as any sphinx ! 



Warped by colic and wet by tears. 



Punctured by pins, and tortured by fears, 



Our little nephew will lose two years ; 



And he'll never know 



Where the summers go. 



He needn't laugh for he'll find it so ! 



This is from the genial pen of that wholesome writer. Dr. 

 .T. G. Uolland. I would have his books grace the table of all 

 our home circles. "Boy Path" and his other stories are 

 always inspiring, and inspire our young people to pure 

 thought and purpose. The poem from which the above is 

 taken is so full of humor, of unflagging interest, of real phi- 

 losophy, that all our children and young people may well read 

 — the children portions of it, and the older ones all of it. 

 Like .lob, it discusses the problem of evil, and will help to get 

 a philosophy of life and thought that can not come too early 

 into the heart and life. 



I hope all our mothers will see that "Bitter Sweet" is 

 among the volumes that the children prize as among their 

 best belongings. Then side by side have " Kathrlna " and 

 "Timothy Titcomb's Letters to Young People" — all by the 

 same author. All are good to read with the children ; all will 

 develop in pure wholesome lines; all will invigorate, and give 

 a start-oil from a right, true foundation. 



But we have almost forgotten the baby. Luther said he 

 loved and felt awed before the baby. For in every bahy is the 

 promise of so much of good or evil. Every infant is poten- 

 tially so pure, true and noble, or so base, depraved, and 

 ignoble, that no wonder we are alert at the very cradle to 

 start the little craft in best courses.that baby, mind and soul, 

 may all trend towards the fairest port. The poem further 

 traces the little craft — 



Out from the shore of the great unknown, I 



Blind and wailing, and alone. 



Into the light of day. 



Out from the shore of the unknown sea. 



Tossing in pitiful agony. 



Of the unknown sea that reels and rolls. 



Specked with the barks of little souls — 

 , Barks that were launched on the other side, 



And slipped from heaven on an ebbing tide. 



And how beautiful this reference to the mother : 



What does he think when her i(Uick embrace 

 Presses his hand and buries his face, 

 Deep where the heart-throbs sink and swell. 

 With a tenderness she can never tell. 

 Though she murmurs the words 

 Of all the birds- 

 Words she has learned to murmur well. 



We have seen that influences towards truth-telling, self- 

 control, unselfishness — the blessed trio of human virtues — 

 must push for a hearing at the very cradle. The sad experi- 

 ence of the last few days of heated summer weather, in 

 thousands of our American homes — experiences which force 

 their unwelcome presence — to darken the lives and hearts of 

 bereaved parents over and over with the years, shows that the 

 slender, delicate little bodies, even more than the mind 

 and soul, need a first thought in these early, fragile months. 

 So many of the little souls that fleck the sea of infancy floun- 

 der and are lost to all infiuenee and usefulness in the world. 



The baby is full of most sensitive nerves. Every one of 

 these seems to reach to the surface, each seems tied to the 

 other. If one is pinched, all cringe. So ready and active is 

 this sympathy, that a toothprick or a lunch which the digested 

 machinery fails to reach, brings the si asm, or the fatal bowel 

 complaint. Almost before we know it the little craft sinks 

 beneath the waters, and we are loft hopeless to mourn our 

 terrible loss. 



The very functional sympathy just referred to makes 

 infancy the critical stage of life, and explains the mortality 

 which is so startling at this period. Paul's words are now 

 emphatically and peculiarly true. If one member suffers, all 

 the members sufl'er with it. A fall from a chair, which one 

 older would scarce notice, brings the spasm, and, mayhaps, 

 death : the cutting tooth, which with years would scarce 

 prove a pinprick, now blocks the stomach and brings the 

 fatal bowel complaint. A change of food that later would 

 come with relish, now smothers digestion and blows out the 

 life-light. The excitement of too many attentions from 

 admiring friends, which with more of age would be all invig- 

 orating and life-giving, now wearies till the energies flag, and 

 the bodily functions, tired out, cease their action. 



We must ever remember that infancy is the critical age ; 

 that the very sympathy between the organs is a menace to 

 life itself. Teething, which comes at its worst phase at about 

 the first year-mark, is ever to be dreaded. The heat of sum- 

 mer is full of menace. Change of place and companions at 

 this susceptible age is too stimulating, and fraught with dan- 

 ger. Change of food is often the very last straw, and the 

 back severs. Comnine all these, and what wonder that the 

 fragile little craft goes to the bottom '? 



It may be wise to leave home in summer. This is vaca- 

 tion time. But if a baby adorns our home and gladdens our 

 arms, we better think twice, especially if at about the year, 

 date when the great molar is trying to push through. Then 

 if we must go, we must seek a cooler place, a quiet nook, and 

 plan that there be no change in the food. Often the plunge is 

 from country to city, to the dear old home friends, who rightly 

 appreciate the little waif as a very treasure, and thus keep it 

 waked and going till excitement and ex'naustion have done 

 their work. Usually the food is changed perforce, and with 

 the heat, excitement, change, enfon/ed by the offending molar, 

 the foe is too numerous and strong, and the struggle very 

 brief. The wise, thoughtful parents will see that the little 

 jewel which gives charm to the home and life is too rare and 

 precious to permit even vacation pleasure and change to bring 

 threatening dangers. They will forego even the visit to the 

 old home for baby's sake. They will plan with all the astute- 

 ness of love to minimize the dangers that menace infancy, and 

 will gladly forego the change or visit — even the rare, gracious 

 pleasure of re-living the gladsome life of the old home, for 

 the sake of the life and health of the blessed baby. 



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