his joy continuing for many a day; for blossoms will dry up; crumbs
may blow away; but a kind word to a child may start a blossom growing
in that young mind, which will so far surpass what an _un_kindly man
might drop, as an orchid will surpass a wisp of grass. Just stop a bit
and look back at your footprints along your past pathway. Did you put
many humps in that soil which a small child might trip on? Did you
angrily slam a door, which might so jolt a high-strung tot as to bring
on nights and nights of insomnia? Did you so constantly snarl at it
that it don't want you around? In fact, did you put _anything_ in that
back-path of yours which could bring sorrow to a child? Or start its
distrust of you, as its rightful _guardian_? If so, _go back_ right
now, man, and _fix_ up such spots by kindly acts from now on. Or, _jump
into a pond, and don't crawl out again!!_ For nobody wants you around!"
Lady Gadsby, as this oration was wafting off amongst lilac shrubs, and
across soft, warm lawns, had sat, also thinking; finally coming out
onto that ivy-bound porch, and sitting down by His Honor, saying:--
"That was just grand, John, but I was thinking along a path varying a
bit from that. You know that Man's brain is _actually_ all of him. All
parts of his body, as you follow down from his brain, act simply as
aids to it. His nostrils bring him air; his mouth is for masticating
his food; his hands and limbs furnish ability for manipulation and
locomotion; and his lungs, stomach and all inward organs function
_only_ for that brain. If you look at a crowd you say that you saw
lots of folks: but if you look at a man bathing in a pond; and if that
man sank until only that part from his brow upward was in sight, you
might say that you saw nobody; only a man's scalp. But you actually
saw a _man_, for a man is only as big as that part still in sight. Now
a child's skull, naturally, is not so big as a man's; so its brain has
no room for all that vast mass of thoughts which adult brains contain.
It is, so to say, in a small room. But, as days and months go by, that
room will push its walls outward, and that young brain gradually fill
up all that additional room. So, looking for calm, cool thinking in a
child is as silly as looking for big, juicy plums amongst frail spring
blossoms. Why, oh, _why_ don't folks think of that? _You_ know what
foolish sounding things Julius was always asking, as a child. 'How can
just rubbing a match light it?' 'Why is it dark at night?' 'Why can't
a baby talk?' But, you and I, John, didn't laugh at him. No, not for
an instant. And _now_ look at our Julius and our Kathlyn; both famous,
just through all that asking; and our aid. John, God _could_ put Man
into this world, full-grown. But God don't do so; for God knows that,
without a tiny hand to hold, a tiny foot to pat, tiny lips to kiss, and
a tiny, warm, wriggling body to hug, Man would know nothing but work."
Gadsby sat smoking for a bit, finally saying:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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