Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/87

82 return. There may be a want of sympathy, a want of generosity, or a want of adaptation to their peculiarities of character, which sets them in some measure apart from intimacy with her, and consequently makes her to some extent a stranger to their feelings. To be separated in this manner from a father, is an evil great enough; but for children not to make a bosom friend of their mother, is a calamity of such magnitude as to demand the most careful examination as regards its cause.

Perhaps the warm gush of the child's affection has not been met by equal warmth in return. Perhaps the germes of feeling, as they unfolded themselves in infant beauty, have been withered by sarcasm, or blighted by contempt. Perhaps the mother has never thought how important it is, that children should be encouraged to speak freely what they think and feel, in order that their erroneous notions may be corrected. Or, perhaps, the peal of laughter allowed to echo round the social board whenever a mistake has been committed, has closed the expanding heart, and left it in a manner companionless and unknown. Now, it is the mother who ought to stand by her children in all these little instances of individual exposure; and it is the office of affection not only to make reparation where injury has been done, but so to shield from danger and from pain, as to inspire a feeling of trust and safety under the protection of maternal love.

And the father too—how beautiful it is sometimes to see his stronger powers of protection brought into action, to defend the little helpless one from heedlessly inflicted pain! How beautiful it is to see—and happy is it for families where this can be done with safety—the reference of the mother to his authority, as the highest and the best, on all disputed points; with the treasuring up for him those select and appropriate enjoyments which are most adapted to the situation of a weary man coming home to his well-earned reward—the enjoyment of his own fireside! How pleasant then to tell over the little incidents of the day—little to all the world, but great to them—how happy to watch the expression of the father's face, as he listens