“The elm was broken after many years;
The great trunk yielded when it seemed most sound;
And, while its wreck yet trembled on the ground,
A curious man, putting aside all fears,
Found in the wood fragments of broken spears
A lad had cast there in his round
Of boyish fun, He thought: ‘The strength profound
Of nature’s life, which every spring uprears
The tiny bud and cares for each small leaf,
Nursed well these wounds, the tree grew sturdily,’
One answered; ‘Love’s hand, drawing out the steel,
Had outweighed years in its prompt service brief:
A weak place in the heart of man and tree
Leaves he who waits for time such wounds to heal.’”
It seems to have been the nurse’s fault. Perhaps she was only careless. However it may have been, the maiming that came to the child that day was something he never got over. Down along the years we see a man lame, that he had to be carried about by attendants, – crippled, unable even to walk, because that day the nurse tripped and fell with the baby. No doubt there are many people continually in the world who carry scars and injuries which mar their usefulness and cause them suffering or loss, simply through the negligence of those who in childhood were set as their guardians and protectors.
But there are other hurts besides bodily ones, which come to people’s lives through the fault of others. There are woundings of children’s minds, which stunt or cripple them all their days, limiting or marring their development and hindering their usefulness. There are marrings of character which leave child-life distorted, wounded, scarred, deformed, sending men and women into the world unfitted for duty; to be a curse, not a blessing; to do harm, not good, to their fellows all their days. There are maimings of immortal souls in the cradle, in the home, in the school, which leave their sad mark on lives for all eternity.
Page 1