Mother's Remedies by Thomas Jefferson Ritter (positive books to read txt) 📕

texture, and porous also in order that the evaporation of perspiration and a certain ventilation of the skin may take place. Perfect simplicity, not only in material and trimming, but in the whole plan of the little garments will testify to good taste and common sense, and at the same time tend to eliminate much fretfulness and wailing.

Baby.—A sweet new blossom of humanity, fresh fallen from God's own home, to flower on earth.—Massey.

[802 MOTHERS' REMEDIES]

Boy's Garments.—Don't burden the boy with a whole array of separate garments, but give him a few good, heavy things. The lessened number will allow him freedom, and his comfort, too, is to be considered. Boy's trousers are now fully lined, and these with the right sort of underwear will give him the requisite warmth with very little unnecessary weight.

Boys.—A torn jacket is soon mended, but hard words bruise the heart of a child.—Longfellow.

Pretty Things for Baby.—Among pretty articles for baby there are tiny ribbon garters to hold up the little sleeves, in colors to match the blue of the eyes or the pink of the cheeks, and there are huge soft rosettes of ribbon and hand embroidered strings for the cap, and gold baby pins and fleecy robes and bow-decked quilts.

Baby.—A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded.—Byron.

Baby's Outing.—It is always better for a baby, no matter how young, to go out in a carriage than to be carried. Young babies are much more comfortable lying full length on a pillow placed in the carriage and properly covered than when carried in the arms.

Baby.—A lovely bud, so soft, so fair, called hence by early doom; just sent to show how sweet a flower in paradise would bloom.—Leigh Richmond.

Wild Flowers.—Children who gather wild flowers should be taught that they must not put them in their mouths. The buttercup, which is harmless enough to handle, contains an acid poison that will produce sore mouth, and taken into the stomach worse effects might result. It also contains a narcotic principle, anemonin, which has the property of diminishing the respiration and heart action.

Flowers.—It is with flowers as with moral qualities, the bright are sometimes poisonous, but I believe never the sweet.—Hare.

Reasoning versus Punishment.—There is one great point that all mothers should observe and that is not to punish children when reasoning would bring the same results. For needless correction blunts a child's sensitiveness. To state that it brutalizes him is putting it too positively, but it tends to develop indifference and hardness that one does not want a child to possess,

Discipline.—Be ever gentle with the children God has given you.—Watch over them constantly; reprove them earnestly, but not in anger.—In the forcible language of Scripture, "Be not bitter against them." "Yes, they are good boys," said a kind father. "I talk to them much, but I do not beat my children: the world will beat them." It was a beautiful thought, though not elegantly expressed.—Burritt.

Baby's Kimono.—The little flannel kimonos or wrappers, so convenient to slip on the baby before the morning bath, or if the room is at all chilly, may be made up in pretty styles, in delicate colors, bound with silk, and tied with tiny bows to match.

[NURSERY HINTS AND FIRESIDE GEMS 803]

Early Schooling.—Of ten infants destined for different vocations, I should prefer that the one who is to study through life should be the least learned at the age of twelve. —Tissot.

Baby's Fine Dresses.—If the baby's dress is not made of the finest of handkerchief linen, French nainsook or a very fine batiste is usually chosen. These are the soft materials, soft as well as sheer. They are the materials on which embroidery is done most successfully and the baby dress de luxe is always hand embroidered. It may have on it the merest touch of hand work—scarcely more than a few eyelets and a tiny blossom and stem and yet follow the prescribed lines. The little round yokes are attached to the fulled on skirt portion with the tiniest of beading or else the yoke scallops are lapped down over the fullness. The neck is edged with the little hand-made scallops.

Nicknames.—A good name will wear out; a bad one may be turned; a nickname lasts forever.—Zimmermann.

Undergarments.—In buying the little wool shirts (wool being considered the most satisfactory for infants' undergarments) never get the heaviest weights; there are four usually offered, even for winter wear. The next to the heaviest is quite warm enough for winter, and for summer the lightest weight obtainable, preferably of a mixture of silk and wool; cotton and wool should not be used. In hot weather shirts of cotton gauze or a soft porous cotton stockinet are satisfactory.

Training.—The education of our children is never out of my mind. Train them to virtue, habituate them to industry, activity, and spirit. Make them consider every vice as shameful and unmanly. Fire them with ambition to be useful. Make them disdain to be destitute of any useful knowledge.—John Adams to his wife.

Baby's Nerves.—Never try to entertain a baby too vigorously. Little babies especially, but also children somewhat older, should never be subjected to unnecessary excitement. Older people seldom realize how exceedingly undeveloped the nervous system of a little child is, and any undue shock to it is apt to cause the direst consequence. Do not take very small children to the theatre or the circus. They don't understand it, and they can't enjoy it.

Intemperance.—Violent excitement exhausts the mind, and leaves it withered and sterile.—Fenelon.

Second Teeth.—When the baby's second teeth are cut there are often injurious influences to be combated. There is more or less chance for the formation of caries or tartar; care must be taken and counsel sought, and every effort made to prevent the aggravation of the evil.

Tears.—Tears are the safety-valves of the heart when too much pressure is laid on it.—Albert Smith.

Going Barefoot.—The careful mother does not let her child run barefoot, no matter how they clamor to do it. If they wish to go shoeless, let them wear bathing sandals without stockings, is the advice of the writer, who adds, the germ of tetanus, better known as lockjaw, is frequently found in the soil and a child with even a small scratch or cut takes big risks. For girls, especially, running barefoot should be a forbidden pleasure as it makes the feet broad and flat.

[804 MOTHERS' REMEDIES] FROM JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER'S "BAREFOOT BOY."

   Blessings on thee, little man,
   Barefoot boy, with cheek of tan!
   With thy turned-up pantaloons,
   And thy merry whistled tunes;
   With thy red lip, redder still
   Kissed by strawberries on the hill;
   With the sunshine on thy face,
   Through thy torn brim's jaunty grace;
   From my heart I give thee joy,
  I was once a barefoot boy.

The Children's Sunday.—What can we do with the children on Sundays? Do not attempt to do anything unusual or make yourself miserable over their natural antics. Send them to the Sabbath School, never deny a child this privilege or be too negligent to give him the privilege, says the Woman's National Daily. A walk during the day to the park, woods or some place where the recreation is pleasant, is advisable. But do not get so modern in your views that you will permit them the riotous amusements in which they must usually indulge through the week. One cannot do wrong in impressing the sacredness of the day upon the children, for it is one of the deplorable features of modern life that the sacredness is sadly abused, and mostly by the young folk.

Idleness.—Idleness among children, as among men, is the root of all evil, and leads to no other evil more certain than ill-temper.—Hannah More.

Learning to Sew.—Every reasonable mother knows that it is wise to teach her little daughter to sew. Let her begin on the tiny garment of her doll. She will easily form the habit of mending torn places in dolly's clothes and replace absent buttons. With this experience, it will not be long before she will begin to take an interest in her own clothes, and so will not need to be warned that a button is coming off or that the hem of her skirt is coming out. But, of course, she could not begin by sewing or patching her own clothes, nor by mending intricate tears. First see that she sews on buttons correctly and then let her do some basting.

A Good Rule.—St. Edmund of Canterbury was right when he said to somebody.
"Work as though you would live forever; but live as though you would die
today."
                                                       —Henry Giles.

Double Duties.—Children should never be required to do housework to the extent a housekeeper must do it, for the strength of a growing child should be applied almost wholly to duties at school. A growing child cannot do mental and hard physical labor at the same time. Wiping dishes and assisting in the dusting do not interfere with school work, and are really good exercises. But the young girl who is compelled to rise early in the morning, prepare breakfast, assist with the family washing or ironing and prepare herself for school will lose out somewhere.

[NURSERY HINTS AND FIRESIDE GEMS 805] THE BABY-CLASS TREE.

We little folks planted a wee, wee, tree,
      The tiniest tree of all;
Right here by the school-house door it stands
With two little leaves like baby's hands,
      So crumpled and soft and small.

And I really believe it is ever so glad
     That we planted it there to grow,
And knows us and loves us and understands,
For it claps them just like two little hands,
     Whenever the west winds blow.

The Flannel Binder.—The flannel binders for baby should be cut from the softest kind of flannel and on the bias to increase their elasticity. They should be about five inches wide and twenty inches long, with the edges raw, or pinked, perhaps, but not hemmed. After the first six or eight weeks the knitted, circular band which can be bought ready made or may be crocheted at home, is substituted for the flannel binder.

LOVE.

Over and over and over
  These truths I will say and sing—
That Love is mightier far than Hate;
That a man's own Thought is a man's own Fate,
  And that life is a goodly thing.
                   —Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

Wholesome Pleasures.—Pleasures for the little ones should be wholesome and sensible, and the dangers of excitement cannot be overestimated. Their minds so ready to receive impressions should receive only the best and most beneficial, the wholesome air play in the park, or the country, not too much company, nor too much noise, nor too many toys.

FROM "THE CHILDREN'S HOUR"

Between the dark and the daylight.
   When the night is beginning to lower,
Comes a pause in the day's occupations,
   That is known as the Children's Hour.

I hear in the chamber above me,
   The patter of little feet,
The sound of a door that is opened,
   And voices soft and sweet.
                             —Longfellow.

Scrubbing Tender Faces.—Children have tender skins as a rule, and yet mothers are very apt to scrub the little faces with soap and water and send them out to play. Think of such treatment in connection with your own skin. If the children are going out at once after the washing, use warm water with plain unscented soap, then rub a little good cold cream into the skin.

[806 MOTHERS' REMEDIES] FROM LONGFELLOW'S "VILLAGE BLACKSMITH"

Toiling.—rejoicing,—sorrowing,
   Onward through life he goes;
Each morning sees some task begun,
   Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
   He has earned a night's repose.

Saving the Coverlet.—It is discouraging to the mother to find the eiderdown coverlets becoming soiled where the children rub their hands over them. This can be avoided by making a tiny sham of swiss or other similar material and basting it across the top of the coverlet. It can be pinned into place at the corners with tiny baby pins or caught with a few stitches. These shams edged with narrow lace add a really attractive