American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Sunday schools -- United States -- Periodicals
"One day its nurse took it out to ride in its little carriage, and took
me (how delighted I was!) to pin its dress. We went a long way off,
to a part of the city where the houses were smaller, and the yards
larger, and there were more flowers and trees. The nurse stopped in
front of one of the little white houses, and walked in, rolling the
baby-carriage before her. She called the woman who came to the door
'mother,' so I supposed that this was her former home. Her mother took
her to another room, and they were gone quite awhile. So the baby for
something to do, and putting up its fat little hand, took hold of me,
and tried to pull me out of its dress.
"Now I knew that the baby put everything in its mouth that it could, so
I stuck on just as hard as I could; but it tugged away at me, finally
got me out, and put me in its mouth, much to my dismay. Not only was
it very disagreeable for me to be there, but I knew there was danger
of the baby's swallowing me. Still, I could do nothing. The little
one chewed me and poked me around with its tongue, until finally, by
a mis-poke--as you might say--it sent me down its throat, and there
I stuck. Then, O, what a commotion there was! The child screamed
slightly, swallowed, and gurgled, and choked, and I--O, my dear friend,
you cannot imagine my state of mind! To think I should be the cause of
such suffering, and possibly the death of one I loved so much!
"Finally the noise that the child made brought the nurse and her mother
to the room. 'Mercy on us!' exclaimed the former, 'the child is choking
to death!'
"The mother took the baby on her lap, and pounded, actually pounded,
on its back! But this treatment was effectual, though apparently
cruel, for the pounding sent me on the floor, out of the baby's mouth!
I cannot express my delight in the feeble words that our language
possesses. I was in ecstasies. The nurse's mother picked me up, and
seeing where I had come from, replaced me in the child's dress,
cautioning her daughter to keep watch of me.
"Then we speedily returned home. The story was recounted with many
apologies on the part of the nurse. I think the baby's mother would
have discharged the poor girl, only, as she afterwards remarked to her
husband, 'that was a very difficult season to get good nurses.'
"That night I was replaced on the cushion, and was not taken off for
what seemed to me ages. I was in a part of the cushion where beads
where, and I suppose my head looked so much like them, that I was not
noticed. The other pins were gradually taken out of the paper, used,
and either lost or replaced on the cushion, till finally they were all
gone, and a new paper was bought. These, of course, were strangers to
me, but I soon became acquainted with those on the cushion, and they
were very pleasant. On the whole, I did not so much dislike my life
then, though naturally enough, I wanted a change.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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