The Sweetest Thing in all the World.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 3537, 22 June 1905, Page 2

The Sweetest Thing in all the World.

NjghL Silence. A struggle for the light. And he did no't know what light was. An effort to ay. Aitd he did not know that he had a Voice'. He opened his eyea, “ and there was light,” He had never used his eyes before, but he could see with them. He parte’d his lips and hailed thi# world with a cry for help. A tony craft in sight of new shores ; he oonM not tell from what port he had cleared J he did not know where he was; h« had no reckoning, no chart, nd pilot.He did not know the language oti the inhabitants of the planet up»a which Providence had cast <Jum. Stf he saluted them in the one universal speech of God’s creatures—a cry. Everybody—every one of God’s children, undcrstand‘s that. Nobody knew front whence it came. Someone said, “He came from Heaven.” , . , Possibly he had never entertained any conception of the world into whose citizenship he was now received, but evidently he did not like it. The noises of it were harsh to his sensitive j nerves. There was a man’s voice—the doctors’s, strong and reassuring'. There was a woman’s voice, soothing and comforting—the voice of the nurse. And cue was a mother’s voice. There is none other like it. It was the first music he heard in this world. And flip cjwepfpst. By'and-bye somebody laughed sottly, and said in coaxing tones’r “ There—there —there.” His face was laid close against the the fount of life, warm and white, and tender. Nobody taught him. H« knew. Placed suddenly on the guestlist of the changing old caravansary* he knew his way at once to two places in it —his bedroom and the dining* room. Wherever he came from, he must have made a long journey, for he was very tired and hungry when he reached

here. He wanted something to eat right away. When he got it he went to sleep* Slept a great deal. When he awoke, he clamoured again, in the universal Volapuk, tor refreshments. Had it, and went to sleep again. Poor little baby! Had to go t» school the first day he got here. Hit} to begin his lessons at once. Got praised when ke learned them. Got punished when he missed them. Bit his own toes, and cried when he learned there was pain in this world. Studied the subject forty years before he learned in how many ways suffering can be self-inflicted.

Reached for the moon, and cried because he couldn’t get it. Reached for the candle, and cried because he could.

Made everybody laugh long hetore he could laugh himself, by going into a temper because his clothes didn’t fit him, or his dinner wasn’t served to the minute.

•< Just like a man,” the nurse said. Nobody in the family could tell where he got bis temper. Either he brought it with him, or found it wrapped and addressed to his room when He got here. At any rate, hs began to use it very shortly after his arrival,

Always said he lost his temper, when most certainly he had it and was using it. Played so hard some* times that 4 it made him cry. Took him a great many years t® learn that too much play is apt to make anybody cry. Bv-and-bye he learned to laugh. That came later amid some of the ! other things ; much later than crying. It is a higher accomplishment. It is much harder to learn, and much harder to do. He never cried unless he wish, and ielt just like it. But he learned to laugh many, many times when he wanted to cry. Grew so, after a while, that he could laugh with a heart so full of (ears they glistened in his eyes. Then people praised his laughter the most—“it was in his very eyes,” they said. Laughed on baby day, to see the motes dance in the sunshine.

Cried, one baby day, when he was , tired of play and wanted to be lifted in the mother arms and sung to sleep. Cried again one day when his hair was white, because he was tired ot t work and wanted to be lifted in the ■ arms of God and hushed to rest. Wished one-half his life that he was a man. Then turned around and wished all the rest of it that he was a boy. Such is life.