Pray, little child, for me, and say: 
“Please, Father, keep him firm today
Against the shadow and the care,
For Christ’s sake!” Ask it in thy prayer,
For well I know that thy pure word
’Gainst louder tongues will have been heard,
When the great moment comes that He
Shall listen through His love for me!

Oh, little child, if I could feel
One atom of thy faith so real,
Then might I bow and be as one
In whose heart many currents run
Of joyful confidence and cheer,
Making each earthly moment dear
With sunshine and the sound of bells
On the green hills and in the dells!

Pray, little child, for me tonight,
That from thy lips in sunward flight,
One word may fall with all its sweet
Upon the velvet at His feet,
That He may lift it to His ear
Its tender plea of love to hear,
And lay it, granted, on the pile
Signed with the signet of His smile!

[Nursery hints and Fireside gems 801]

Motherhood.—­Motherhood is a profession that is overworked.  The hours are long and holidays and vacations are few and far between.  Mother gets a great deal of maudlin sympathy and not enough tangible aid, says a writer in the Housekeeper.  Our poetic conception of the true mother is that her whole life is bound up in the welfare of her children and her family.  At what age are her children not, for her, a matter of serious concern?  She has ever had plenty of material which she can manufacture into worry and heartaches.  Many mothers consume too much of their own nervous energy and jeopardize their health in what they think their bounden maternal duties.  There is a judicious limit of all things even though they are virtues.

Mother.—­The babe at first feeds upon the mother’s bosom, but is always on her heart.—­H.  W. Beecher.

Baby’s Layette.—­The principal thing to be borne in mind regarding the baby’s layette is that all the clothing should be light, soft, in both surface and texture, and porous also in order that the evaporation of perspiration and a certain ventilation of the skin may take place.  Perfect simplicity, not only in material and trimming, but in the whole plan of the little garments will testify to good taste and common sense, and at the same time tend to eliminate much fretfulness and wailing.

Baby.—­A sweet new blossom of humanity, fresh fallen from God’s own home, to flower on earth.—­Massey.

[802 Mothers’ remedies]

Boy’s Garments.—­Don’t burden the boy with a whole array of separate garments, but give him a few good, heavy things.  The lessened number will allow him freedom, and his comfort, too, is to be considered.  Boy’s trousers are now fully lined, and these with the right sort of underwear will give him the requisite warmth with very little unnecessary weight.

Boys.—­A torn jacket is soon mended, but hard words bruise the heart of a child.—­Longfellow.