I found a few months ago, in one of our religious papers a little poem that appealed to me in its beauty and truthfulness. I cut it out and read it over many times until the words were learned. It is too true, I said to myself, but need it be so? No; it need not, if we reach out for the noblest within us and claim our privileges.

I caught up my pen and in the meter that had sung itself into my heart, I copied my own thoughts on the subject, and I will give them both to you.

THE BABY.

BY EMMA A. LENTE.

"She is a little hindering thing,"
The mother said,

"I do not have an hour of peace
Till she's in bed.

"She clings unto my hand and gown
And follows me

About the house from room to room,
Talks constantly.

"She is a bundle full of nerves,

And wilful ways.

She does not sleep full sound at night,

Scarce any, days.

"She doesn't like to hear the wind,

The dark she,fears,

And piteously she calls to me
To wipe her tears.

"She is a little hindering thing," The mother said,

"But still she is my wine of life, My daily bread.”

The children what a load of care
Their coming brings:

But oh, the grief when God doth stoop
To give them wings.

THE BABIES.

The children: what if months before

We planned their lot,
And never in the passing weeks,
Their good forgot?

What if, as little garments grew

From busy hands,

We wrought with tender patient care The soul's white bands?

And what if we both willed and prayed That baby's life

Should be a better one than ours

'Mid toil and strife?

So filled the weeks while waiting them
With full content,

That sweetness, joy and bubbling life
Were to them lent?

I'm sure this song would then be changed
And read more sweet;

We'd sing it to the dancing time
Of baby feet.

She's such a little gladsome thing
The mother'd say,

I cannot have an hour of joy
When she's away.

She is a bundle full of rest

And joyous ways;

She sleeps so sweetly round at night,
And fills my days.

She doesn't mind about the wind,
The dark ne'er fears,

She laughs and sings and cuddles down
With smiles not tears.

She's such a little helping thing

The mother'd say ;

And is my very wine of life

From day to day.

Such children: what a load of love

Their coming brings:

But oh the grief when parents fail

To give them wings.

CHAPTER IX.

PREPARATION FOR FATHERHOOD.

The Command to "Replenish the Earth."-Preparation for Motherhood More Written About than Preparation for Fatherhood.-Questions Which Would Test the Fitness of Young Men for Marriage. Parents Should Know the Character of Young Men Who Desire Their Daughters in Marriage. Many Young Men of Startling Worth.The Improving of a Good Heritage.-Effects of Bad Morals and Wayward Habits.-Effects of Tobacco and Alcoholics.-How Young Women Help to Contribute Bad Habits in Young Men.-The Years of Rooting and Weeding Necessary.-Attaining the Best.—The Father Reproduced in His Children.

"Be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth."

WEBSTER defines "Replenish": To stock abundantly, to make complete or perfect.

"It is a sad fact that many persons assume the responsibility of parents without any clear appreciation of its obligations. To provide a shelter from the storm, a proper amount of rations, and an irregular and spasmodic administration of discipline, chiefly

regulated by the nervous susceptibility of the parents, rather than by the deserts of the child, is their idea of parental duty."

Far more has been written in these latter days concerning the preparation for motherhood, than the preparation for fatherhood. One would almost conclude that no especial fitting were needed to prepare young men to become parents. Because of the lack of strong public sentiment along these lines, the many sons come to marriage with no adequate idea of the duties and responsibilities before them, with no thought or knowledge of what they have, or should have, to give to the next generation.

Suppose a set of questions something like the following were handed to young men the week before their marriage, what think you would be their answers?

Do you bring to your bride the same purity that you expect from her?

What in your life and habits have you hidden, and would you still hide from her?

What mental reservation do you make in respect to your liberties after marriage, to indulge these habits?

What companions have you, whom you would not care to bring to your home or introduce to your wife?