THE CHILD'S PART IN ENTERTAINING FRIENDS.
By Margaret Sangster
Margaret Sangster, in Good Housekeeping. Not long ago I was a guest in a home where there was a very charming child, just three years old. The little fellow was most friendly and affectionate, brought me his picture book and showed me his blocks, and, when meals were announced, slipped his mite of a dimpled hand into mine, and led me to the dining-room. When I took my leave, he bade me goodby gravely and sweetly, and said, in his clear little flute-like voice, “Aufwiedersehen;” and you may be sure that I carried with me from that dear household a very lovely association with the baby who had so beautifully assisted in my entertainment. A golden mean lies between keeping children in the background altogether, and placing them in the forefront, where they monopolize attention; and the young parents of this darling brown-eyed laddie had found it. Children who freely associate with intelligent elders will have more ease of manner and less self-conscious awkwardness than those who are relegated to the companionship of untaught and illiterate nurses. A very important part of a child's education as a social being is gained by him through mingling with the guests who visit the house, and they should never ignore the child, but should take pains to establish a pleasant intimacy with him. Through all the years between the flaxen and the silver hair, I recall most gratefully the presence of a fair young woman who once spent a week in my father's house, when I was a wee lassie, conning my Webster's spelling book. Her pretty gowns, her tortoise shell comb, her amber beads, her merry laugh, and her sweet notice of my small self are with me still. She was to wade through seas of trouble, poor lady! but she did not dream of that then; and, in her queenly beauty, she was not too radiant, nor too happy, to add sweetness to the cup of a little person who was blissful in touching her garment's hem.