Companionship of Children.
The man who never tried the companionship of a little child, has carelessly passed by one of the pleasures of life, as one passes a rare flower, without plucking it, or knowing its value. A child's eyes! Those clear rills of undefiled thought—what on earth can be so beautiful? Full of hope, love, and curiosity, they meet your own. In prayer, how earnest! in joy, how sparkling! in sympathy, how tender! A child cannot understand you, you think! It will take, it is true, no measures or soundings of your thoughts, but its whole soul will incline to yours, and engraft itself, as it were, on the feeling, which is your feeling for the hour. A child should always go to bed happy. Whatever cares press, give it a warm, good-night kiss, as it goes to its pillow. The memory of this, in the stormy years that the future may have in store for the little one, will be like Bethlehem's Star to the bewildered shepherds.—Sel.