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Review and Herald Publishing Association · Tacoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 19, 1911

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 88, No. 42.

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“Now, Ellen,” said a mother to her little daughter, whom she had just put to bed early for some kind of mischief, “to punish you and to show you how very naughty you have been, I shall not kiss you good night.”
With great mournful eyes wide open,—astonishment personified,—the child lay with big tears dropping down her cheeks and her little red lips quivering, but her mother pretended not to notice, and went about her work.
“Mama! Mama! Mama!” in distressful, pleading tones, soon called her back. “O mama, won’t you kiss me? I can’t go to sleep if you don’t!” sobbed Ellen, tremblingly and with outstretched hands.
“Mother can’t kiss you,” she replied, as she put the little hands under the coverlet. She noticed that they were very hot, but attributed that to excitement. “Mother hopes little Ellen will learn to mind her,” she said, as she left her for the night.
About midnight she was called to the bedside of the child, who did not know her. She was sitting up, crimson from the forehead to the throat, her eyes dazzlingly bright. Fever raged for days, and the parched lips made incessant plaint: “O, kiss me, mama! do kiss me! I can’t go to sleep. Won’t you kiss Ellen? I can’t go to sleep. I won’t be naughty if you’ll only kiss me! O, kiss me, dear, dear mama! I can’t go to sleep!”
Of what avail then were all the kisses showered on the delirious child?
She did go to sleep, however, one gray morning,—to the long, long sleep that knows no earthly waking,—the mother holding the little hands, and all her veins seeming to grow icy with their gradual chill. The last whispered words were, “I will be good, mama, if you’ll only kiss me!”
And yet the mother loved Ellen with all the fervor of a tender heart, and had merely sought to correct her for her best good,—only she did not really understand her darling.
“The wounds I might have healed, The human sorrow and smart; And yet it never was in my mind To play so ill a part; But evil is wrought by want of thought As well as want of heart.” — Selected.