Part 4

St. Augustine said finely: "A marriage without children is the world without the sun." _Luther_

NOVEMBER THIRTIETH

The child, the seed, the grain of corn, The acorn on the hill, Each for some separate end is born In season fit, and still Each must in strength arise to work the Almighty will. _Robert Louis Stevenson_

*DECEMBER*

DECEMBER FIRST

As children play, without to-morrow, Without Yesterday. _Agnes Robinson_

DECEMBER SECOND

Shall those smiles be called Feelers of love, put forth as if to explore This untried world? _Wordsworth_

DECEMBER THIRD

When children are playing alone on the green, In comes the playmate that never was seen. _Robert Louis Stevenson_

DECEMBER FOURTH

Respect childhood and do not hastily judge of it, either for good or evil. _Rosseau_

DECEMBER FIFTH

What does little baby say, In her bed at peep of day? Baby says, like little birdie, Let me rise and fly away.

Baby sleep a little longer, Till the little limbs are stronger, If she sleeps a little longer Baby too, shall fly away. _Tennyson_

DECEMBER SIXTH

"Mother," asked a child, "since nothing is ever lost, where do all our thoughts go?"

"To God," answered the mother, "who remembers them forever."

"Forever!" said the child. He bent his head and, drawing closer to his mother, murmured, "I am frightened!"

Which of us has not felt the same? _Selected_

DECEMBER SEVENTH

Happy little children, seek your shady places, Lark songs in their bosoms, sunshine in their faces. _Lucy Larcom_

DECEMBER EIGHTH

The mother, with anticipated glee, Smiles o'er the child, that, standing by her chair, And flattening its round cheek upon her knee, Looks up and doth its rosy lips prepare To mock the coming sounds: at the sweet sight She hears her own voice with new delight. _S. T. Coleridge_

DECEMBER NINTH

A babe, in lineament and limb Perfect, and prophet of the perfect man. _Tennyson_

DECEMBER TENTH

In the children lies the seed-corn of the future. _Froebel_

DECEMBER ELEVENTH

When the bedtime shadows fall, I'm always sure of this, Just as I'm drifting off to dreams, I feel my Mother's kiss. _Mary Stanhope_

DECEMBER TWELFTH

_Grandma's Prayer_

I pray that, risen from the dead, I may in glory stand-- A crown, perhaps, upon my head But a needle in my hand. I've never learned to sing or play, So let no harp be mine; From birth unto my dying day, Plain sewing's been my line. Therefore, accustomed to the end To plying useful stitches, I'll be content if asked to mend The little Angels' breeches. _Eugene Field_

DECEMBER THIRTEENTH

The studying child has all the needs of a creating artist. He must breathe pure air; his body must be at ease; he must have things to look at and be able to change his thoughts at will by enjoying form and color. _George Sand_

DECEMBER FOURTEENTH

At one dear knee we proffered vows, One lesson from one book we learned, Ere childhood's flaxen ringlets turned To black and brown on kindred brows. _Tennyson_

DECEMBER FIFTEENTH

Art thou not a sunbeam, Child, whose life is glad, With an inner radiance Sunshine never had? _Lucy Larcom_

DECEMBER SIXTEENTH

No rosebuds yet, by dawn impearled Match, even in loveliest lands, The sweetest flowers in all the world; A baby's hands. _Swinburne_

DECEMBER SEVENTEENTH

Sweet was the whole year with the stir Of young feet on the stair. _Lizette Woodworth Reese_

DECEMBER EIGHTEENTH

The religion of a child depends on what its father and mother are, and not on what they say. _Amiel_

DECEMBER NINETEENTH

So was unfolded here, the Christian lore of salvation, Line by line, from the soul of childhood. _Longfellow_

DECEMBER TWENTIETH

It is good to be children sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty founder was himself a child. _Charles Dickens_

DECEMBER TWENTY-FIRST

We greet the joy that Christmas brings; But, where the heart of childhood sings, There all the months are full of cheer And Christmas-tide lasts all the year. _Francis McKinnon Morton_

DECEMBER TWENTY-SECOND

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in Fairies! You might get your Papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Nobody can conceive nor imagine all the wonders that are unseen and unseeable in the world. _From New York "Sun" of Sept. 21, 1897_

DECEMBER TWENTY-THIRD

You once told me that in the school of God the wisest man never gets beyond the Infant Class; I thought it a strange idea at first but now I know it is true. For, in the matter of the Eternities, a man's only hope of learning is to remain in the Infant Class. Children invariably have the ear of God first. They have been in His company last. _From "The Finest Baby in the World"_

DECEMBER TWENTY-FOURTH

To you this night is born a child Of Mary, chosen mother mild, This little child of lowly birth Shall be the joy of all your earth. _Luther_

DECEMBER TWENTY-FIFTH

For unto you is born this day, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God and saying, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good-will toward men." _Luke ii. 11, 13, 14_

DECEMBER TWENTY-SIXTH

A child is the greatest living revealer of the Eternal in this world. You are nearer God when you have your child in your arms than at any other time. _From "The Finest Baby in the World"_

DECEMBER TWENTY-SEVENTH

I never realized God's birth before, How he grew likest God in being born, This time I felt like Mary, had my babe Lying a little on my breast like hers. _Robert Browning_

DECEMBER TWENTY-EIGHTH

What do I dream of, far from the low roof Where now ye are children? I dream of you, Of your young heads that are the hope and crown Of my full summer, ripening to its fall, Branches whose shadow grows along my wall, Sweet souls scarce open to the breath of day, Still dazzled with the brightness of your dawn. _Victor Hugo_

DECEMBER TWENTY-NINTH

Verily I say unto you, "Whosoever shall not receive the Kingdom of Heaven as a little child shall in no wise enter therein." _Luke xviii. 17_

DECEMBER THIRTIETH

Heroic Mother! What can breath add to that sacred name? _Author unknown_

DECEMBER THIRTY-FIRST

The mother has eternal youth. _Edith M. Thomas_