MOTHER NATURE’S CHILDREN.
By Mrs. L. Wilcox
“I’m so perplexed,” exclaimed Mother Nature, “I don’t know what to do. My children have all refused to obey me. The child I have always put so much dependence upon, my own little Stomach, has utterly refused to act in a normal way. She seems sour and morose, and I heard her tell her sister Heart (tho she did not know I was aware of it) that she was tired of being a slave to her little sister Palate. She had been imposed upon so many years she was just wearing out, and could not supply me with the actual necessities of life, much as she loved me and felt the responsibility of filial duty to her parent.” “She said that if Mother Nature would only control her little sister Palate, she felt certain a load would be lifted from her. And I must confess I have indulged little Palate in many ways (but she has always been a wilful child), till I am at my wits’ end often enough. I appealed to my stronger son, the Mind, to help me carry on my work and assist in the government of little Palate, and have handed the reins to him, and perhaps with the aid I can give, we may keep a little tighter rein on her, till poor Stomach is rested a little from her burdens.” “I took her into my confidence, and, like a dutiful daughter, she told me all that troubled her. As a near relative, I had felt for some time the effects of her burden; but I had not the least idea of the extent of the evil. She told me she had always been a faithful child, and had always tried to be neat and tidy; but little Palate had sent her so much grease that she could hardly keep her walls in respectable appearance; and, try hard as she could, her brother, Gastric Juice, often found things out of order, and scolded her till she ached.” “‘But, dear Mother Nature,’ she said, ‘what was I to do, when Mind just humored Palate in everything, because she was a little nearer by? She played with all sorts of sweets and pastry; and, will you believe it? she actually sent me some pieces of dead pig. I was so shocked, but Gastric came in and poured on some fluid, and we managed to get rid of it before decomposition set in very badly. I told him I believed little Palate must have thought my house was a burying-ground.’” “‘But this was not all. She played with all sorts of things, as I said, till she was tired of them, and then threw them all into my little house for me to pick up and take care of. Like a dutiful sister, I have done the best I could for years; but I had used up so much energy in trying to keep tidy and not have Gastric scold because things got all mixed up, that I began to feel faint. This pained my brother, Mind, and he said I was to blame for it. And, as if I had not had enough to do before, he sent me some awful stuff in little round shells. Palate laughed over them, but she only saw the outside, and I had to undo them. They almost made me sick, and were bitter too.’” “‘I asked Mind what he had given me, and he said, ‘Only a little sugar-coated pill.’ The pills were recommended to be perfectly harmless, and were highly advertised. I don’t11know what advertised means, but Cousin Eye said she saw him reading an almanac, and Cousin Brain said something about Dr. Nostrum. But, dear mother, we got along for years without that bitter stuff, and I never heard you say that pills were included in the first bill of fare. God gave Adam beautiful things, I’ve heard you say; but they were called fruits, were they not? I seem to have a different bill of fare altogether.’” “‘Last spring I was so tired I could hardly move about, and Mind, in brotherly love for his poor sister, sent Miss Sarsaparilla to help me. We got along pretty well after the first day, and she helped me quite a good deal in my work. But Cousin Ear said he heard you rebuke Mind, and tell him Miss Sarsaparilla was a frivolous thing, and mostly alcohol, any way. So, after we all seemed rested, she left off coming; and then it was we felt the effects of her absence (or, rather, her presence). We were all so very tired; I sometimes think I have never gotten rested. But don’t let Dr. Nostrum hear I said so, or he will send me some more of his stuff, and I know I could hardly live through another such scolding as Gastric (who lives in the same house with me, on generally pleasant terms) gave me when I opened those other little white shells.’” “‘Only last night little Palate called for some queer stuff at the table. Cousin Ear said it was beer. Of course the humored child got what she called for, but tired of it in a moment, and sent it to me. I was foaming with rage in a moment when I saw what it was; but it kept coming down in torrents like great waves lashed to a foam, until I thought we had all tumbled into a sea of beer.’” “‘I felt deathly sick, but Mind refused to listen to me when I asked him about it. Cousin Brain, he said, was very dizzy and stupid, and he was going to put him to bed; and so I was left to work on alone, as usual; and no doubt that is the reason I am so sour and morose to-day, as you have already said, dear Mother Nature.’” “‘But that is not half my troubles. Only last week, when my life companion, the Body, took a brisk walk, my sister, Heart (who has always been so faithful to me in furnishing me that life-giving fluid called blood), gave a start, thumped, sputtered, and stopped, and then thumped again, until the pericardium fairly ached. Our distant cousin, the Pulse, took it up, and sent the shock to the arteries. I felt rather faint, but did not call to my brother Mind for a stimulant, for I remembered only too well my experience with Miss Sarsaparilla last spring.’” “‘Cousin Ear told me Mind had called in Dr. Rational Treatment, and the doctor said that you, dear Mother Nature, were imposed upon, and had been for generations, till we were a dying race. I thought of you then, and how many, many years you had suffered, only becoming a little more languid and frail and having less resistive power. You have made so little fuss that folks do not generally know of it, while I have not ceased to complain, till they call me dyspeptic, and have for years, and I have felt ashamed to confess my inmost thoughts even to you, my dear Mother Nature.’”