yond your immediate neighborhood or not. It is a great thing to become a mother of children. To become God's vicegerent in creating and training souls that may bring gladness and regeneration to the dark places of the earth. Mothers, mothers! rate your privileges high, and live and train to a glorious fulfillment of noble purposes these gifts from God.

CHAPTER XVIII.

CARE OF THE BABY.

The More Thoughtful Treatment of Babies Than Formerly. The First Attention That Baby Needs. -Its Oil Bath.-The Care of the Eyes.-The Care of the Placentic Cord.-Baby's First Bath. -Its Covering After the Bath.-The Basket.Regularity in Nursing.-Waking at Night.— Rocking to Sleep.-Quantity of Food.-The Appointments of the Nursery.-The Mother and the Care of her own Children.-To her Children the Mother Should be the Dearest Creature in the World. The Babies Born of Love.-The Babies Born in Bitterness.—The Responsibilities and Joys of Motherhood.

"It is a mother, said the Angel, who has already given her child the welcome that makes a joyous soul. He shall not miss her smile. He is what she is. He will need love since he will give so much, and she is all compact of love. She is one of the forces of life. To be the mate of such a woman, the father of such heirs, as she will give, is a fate a man might pray God for. Love has not grown stale with

them, their children

are the very blossoms of it.

Her eyes are deeper pools of love each year."

-FRANCES HODGSON BURnett.

TIME was when the little one and its comfort was not so thought of as it is to-day. It was not considered that the little one in its tedious journey had become tired and needed rest; or that its change of abodes and climates is so marked that the transition is not an easy one. It was plunged into a full bath, or exposed to the air, was sponged over, often with soap that was not too pure, and the only resulting virtue was the full expansion of lungs, because of the lusty crying from such rough handling.

To-day many physicians advocate wrapping the new baby in cotton batting, covering it quite closely, and laying it away in a warm corner for several hours, until it becomes in a measure adjusted to the change of residence. Then, instead of a thorough washing, it is treated to an oil bath before a warm fire, with only a small part of its body exposed at one time. Good clean lard is the best emollient, as it removes most easily the vernix caseosa with which the baby is more or less covered. By some sweet oil is preferred.

After the little one has had its rest, the nurse with her basket at hand, her oil on the hearth well warmed, is ready to give it its first dressing. Use a small piece of absorbent

cotton for the sponge to oil it with.

Cover

the head well with the oil and with a soft piece of old linen rub it off, and with it will come the cheesy substance called vernix caseosa, and leave the head clean. Do this with the entire body, little by little, taking great care that all the creases, which are numerous, shall be thoroughly clean and left well oiled, that no chafing may follow. For a week your baby will need no other than the oil bath daily, and the restfulness and comfort of the little one will be expressed in sleep, sleep, SLEEP. The full bath in water should be reached by degrees only; proceeding from a partial bath with sponge, to a full sponge bath; then as the baby grows stronger, put it into the tub. Approached in this way, few babies but will take their bath with delight, and look forward to it daily.

As soon as the baby is born, even before the cord is severed, the eyes of the little one should be washed thoroughly. With a soft bit of linen and a cup of warm water previously boiled, the eyes can be readily cleansed, and thus cared for, you will rarely have any trouble with the eyes thereafter. Keep them turned from the light while dressing, and at no time let a strong light fall upon the eyes. In dressing the cord, wrap it in a bit of

absorbent cotton four inches square. Cut or tear a hole in the middle of this, draw the loop of cord through, wrap the cotton about it and turn it up and hold it in place with the band pinned only sufficiently close to hold the cord and its dressing in place. The cord will need no further attention until it has dried and dropped off, unless the band in slipping up pulls upon the dressing and irritates the little one. Dressed in this manner the navel heals smooth and clean, and will need nothing further than a dusting with calendulated boracic acid, should it not be perfectly dry when the cord drops.

An excellent blanket to receive the child from the bath is made of coarse Germantown yarn, knitted into a strip three-quarters of a yard wide, and a yard and a half in length. This is sufficiently large to wrap the baby well in until it is dry and ready to be dressed. Some prefer the receiving apron. This is made of coarse, heavy flannel, and worn by the nurse at the time of the bath. The baby is lifted from the tub, and wrapped in the apron as in the blanket.

Now the little one is ready for its first suit, as described in the chapter on baby's dress, and then to be put into its basket-bed for a long nap. The cradle-basket hardly needs