Ladies' Column. The Mother and Her Children

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2045, 15 August 1885, Page 6 (Supplement)

Ladies' Column. The Mother and Her Children

[ am fevxily enn t "Mou < i tliat t!inn-.v«i« of mothers are so overburd°npd that th • r.c Mm' dpmand« of Hfp from ri.iv tr> day coniump nil their time and p'rnigth. But "of two rvil' choose the Ipr<*;" und vh oh would you cill the less, an nnp <lis'ied stov--- or an untai- v boy? D.rty wuido.w, or a ohM who=e nn fidenoe you have failed to pain ? Cub web 'in the oorner, or a son over whose soul a crust has formed so strong that you de?p o .ii- of melting it with your hot tears and your ftr vent prayers? I have spen a woman who was abininiply ignorant of her childien's habits of thonßht, who never felt that sha c^nld spare a haW honr to read or talk with tftpno. I hive ppen this wom&n ipend ten miuntes in ironing a sheet (thne wore six in the wavhins) one hoar in flntin<r the ruffles and arran^in^ the puffa of her little girl's " swpet white suit ; " thirty minutes in polishing tins that were already bright and clean ; forty minutes for frosting and decorating a pake for tea be eauße "company was expected." Oh, these children 1 th a ?e children 1 The restless, eager boya and girl* whom wo lo?° more than our lives ! SHall wa devote our time and strength to that which pensheth, white the rich garden of our ohild'a soul lies neglected, with foul weeds choking out all worthy and beautiful growths? Shall we exalt fhe incidentals of life to the rank of a purptse, to the shutting out of that work whose results reach beyond the stare? Fleeting, 0 mother, are the days of child hood? Speokless windows, onewy linen, the consciousness that everything about thp house is faultlessly bright and clean, will ba poor comfort in that day wherein wo shall discover that our poor boy's feet hava chosen the path that shall take him out of the way to all eternity. — Christian Observer.