Page:The Mothers of England.djvu/89

84 again for the green knolls, and to wish we had been contented with the freshness, the verdure, and fertility, which might still have smiled around us there.

It is an ungrateful part of the duty of those who write upon the moral tendency of human actions, and who consequently presume to examine motives, to cry beware! when others see no danger, and thus to bring upon themselves the odium of being cynical and gloomy in their general views of human life; when in reality their love of what is estimable in human character is too intense to permit them to rest satisfied under the apprehension of its being obscured by some advancing cloud. More especially is this the case, when childhood with its fresh uncalculating energies becomes the subject of consideration—when we sit down to make cool comments upon its outbursts of ungoverned feeling, and its thrilling voice of joy which echoes upon the weary ear like the summer song of birds, startling the tired spirit into hope that some new spring of gladness has been found, when it is but nature at her joyous revelry, making pastime of common and familiar things, and exulting in the fulness of her own delight.

With this ringing shout of joy, the father of a family is sometimes welcomed home, when, "Let me be first," is the undisguised and general wish;—"Let me be first to meet him at the door," "Let me be first to claim his promised kiss." The father and the mother too partake in their full measure of the general exultation, and the strife of little arms to meet a parent's fond embrace, sends warmth and gladness to his heart. But—and here lies the ungraciousness of those who cry beware! at such a time—there is sometimes hidden a dark secret in that very language, "Let me be first." Yes, looking on the shaded side of this sweet picture, we behold, not always, certainly, but far too often, strife, envy, and passion, among the little anxious group, because they can not all be first; and we find then that to be distinguished from the many, to enjoy what could not be enjoyed by others, and to obtain the credit of being the most eager and affectionate, has