You make a
settlement upon the boy with a chuckle,--as if you were treating
yourself to a mint-julep, instead of conveying away a few thousands of
seven per cents.
----Then the boy develops astonishingly. What a head,--what a
foot,--what a voice! And he is so quiet withal,--never known to cry,
except under such provocation as would draw tears from a heart of
adamant; in short, for the first six months he is never anything but
gentle, patient, earnest, loving, intellectual, and magnanimous. You are
half afraid that some of the physicians will be reporting the case, as
one of the most remarkable instances of perfect moral and physical
development on record.
But the years roll on, in the which your extravagant fancies die into
the earnest maturity of a father's love. You struggle gayly with the
cares that life brings to your door. You feel the strength of three
beings in your single arm; and feel your heart warming toward God and
man with the added warmth of two other loving and trustful beings.
How eagerly you watch the first tottering step of that boy; how you riot
in the joy and pride that swell in that mother's eyes, as they follow
his feeble, staggering motions! Can God bless his creatures more than
he has blessed that dear Madge and you? Has Heaven even richer joys than
live in that home of yours?
By-and-by he speaks; and minds tie together by language, as the hearts
have long tied by looks.
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