In America a similar situation cannot very well exist; though on rare occasions an employer volunteers to stand as godfather for an employee’s child.  Godparents must, of course, give the baby a present, if not before, at least at the christening.  The standard “gift” is a silver mug, a porringer, or a knife, fork and spoon, marked usually with the baby’s name and that of the giver.

    Robert Gilding, 3d
    From his godfather
    John Strong

Or the presents may be anything else they fancy.  In New England a very rich godfather sometimes gives the baby a bond which is kept with interest intact until a girl is eighteen or a boy twenty-one.

=TIME OF CHRISTENING=

In other days of stricter observances a baby was baptized in the Catholic and high Episcopal church on the first or at least second Sunday after its birth.  But to-day the christening is usually delayed at least until the young mother is up and about again; often it is put off for months and in some denominations children need not be christened until they are several years old.  The most usual age is from two to six months.

If the family is very high church or the baby is delicate and its christening therefore takes place when it is only a week or two old, the mother is carried into the drawing-room and put on a sofa near the improvised font.  She is dressed in a becoming neglige and perhaps a cap, and with lace pillows behind her and a cover equally decorative over her feet.  The guests in this event are only the family and the fewest possible intimate friends.

=THE CHRISTENING IN CHURCH=

In arranging for the ceremony the clergyman, of course, is consulted and the place and hour arranged.  If it is to be in church, it can take place at the close of the regular service on Sunday, but if a good deal is to be made of the christening, a week day is chosen and an hour when the church is not being otherwise used.

The decorations, if any at all, consist of a few palms or some flowering plants grouped around the font, and the guests invited for the christening take places in the pews which are nearest to the font, wherever that happens to be.  As soon as the clergyman appears, the baby’s coat and cap are taken off (in any convenient pew, not necessarily the nearest one), and the godmother, holding the baby in her arms, stands directly in front of the clergyman.  The other godparents stand beside her and other relatives and friends nearby.

The godmother who is holding the baby must be sure to pronounce its name distinctly—­in fact it is a wise precaution if it is a long or an unusual one, to show the name printed on a slip of paper to the clergyman beforehand—­as more than one baby has been given a name not intended for it.  And whatever name the clergyman pronounces is fixed for life.  The little Town girl who was to have been called Marian is actually Mary Ann!

As soon as the ceremony is over, the godmother hands the baby back to its nurse, who puts on its cap and coat, and it is then driven with all its relatives and friends to the house of its parents or grandparents, where a lunch or an afternoon tea has been arranged.