Australian Tales - Setis

acquire more muscular strength and vigour of mind, than those who have
been constantly favoured, and treated by their parents with the most
scrupulous attention; or in other words who have been coddled and
spoiled.’
“I thanked Dr. Dollop for his kind and candid advice, which had
sensibly shaken my confidence in flannel bedgowns and nightcaps, as
well as in soothing syrups and other compounds, which I had had a sort
of traditionary belief were as indispensable to the nursery as life-buoys
were to a fleet. I went home with my mind much relieved, and at once
began to enlighten my dear Ruth, and to confer with her upon the most
judicious course to mark out for the future physical and moral training of
our darling, having in mind what somebody has sagely remarked, ‘That
children are like jellies, as they are moulded so they turn out.’
“Our numerous friends now began to make their formal calls, to see
Ruth and the baby. I cannot tell you all the extravagant eulogiums they
bestowed upon the latter; but I may say, that the generally expressed
opinion was that it was a perfect beauty, the very image of its mamma,
with a remarkable resemblance to its papa.
“Time rolled on, and of course, trouble rolled on with it. Measles and
mumps, and other incidental ailments, came to prove to us that our little
treasure was not exempt from the common inheritance of mankind. Still
it suffered far less than some poor infants do, who are half suffocated
with physic and flannel by over-anxious nurses. Like a tight little bark, it
weathered all those waves of trouble; though the squalls were sometimes
very long and strong, and our hearts were often anxious. There were
many seasons of joy for us too, when the sunshine of hope chased away
the mists of gloomy fears. There was the joy of welcoming our darling's
first ‘ 'ittle toosy,’ as it cut through its soft rubicund bed; and of
beholding the first capering signs of recognition of its doting parents; of
its first attempts to creep, and of its precocious efforts to talk. I shall
never forget the bright evening when my delighted wife assured me
immediately on my return home, that she had distinctly heard our poppet
call, ‘dad, dad, dad!’ How eagerly I listened and longed to hear it repeat
that infantile abbreviation of its father's name. Nor shall I forget my joy
when the next week I heard it say, ‘mam, mam, mam!’ Those early
efforts to talk were considered remarkable by all our friends, some of
whom appeared to take a peculiar interest in the budding wisdom which
we from day to day observed in our offspring, and coincided in our
opinion that it was not a common child.
“It had a hard fight with its eye teeth, and symptoms of convulsions
more than once appeared; but a tepid bath wrought wonders in relieving
them, and a sixpenny rattle was a hundred fold more efficacious in
restoring quiescence than a gallon of soothing syrup would have been.
“At ten months old my little tiddledum trots began to toddle. Ah, sir!