God's precious gifts

I liked this section of a book I read awhile back. In context a woman is concerned and asking what she and her husband would have to offer a child if they were to have one -


We are at a farm-house. Everything is plain, but neat and nice. I asked Mrs. Brown, our hostess; the other day, if she did not envy me my four little ones; she smiled, said they were the best children she ever saw, and that it was well to have a family if you have means to start them in the world; for her part, she lived from, hand to mouth as it was, and was sure she could never stand the worry and care of a house full of young ones.

"But the worry and care is only half the story," I said. "The other half is pure joy and delight."

"Perhaps so, to people that are well-to-do," she replied; "but to poor folks, driven to death as we are, it's another thing. I was telling him yesterday what a mercy it was there wasn't any young ones round under my feet, and I could take city boarders, and help work off the mortgage on the farm."

"And what did your husband say to that?"

"Well, he said we were young and hearty, and there was no such tearing hurry about the mortgage and that he'd give his right hand to have a couple of boys like yours."

'Well,' says I, supposing you had a pack of, 'em, what have you got to give 'em?' '

 'Jest exactly what my father and mother gave me,' says he; 'two hands to earn their bread with, and a welcome you could have heard from Dan to Beersheba.

"I like to hear that!" I said. "And I hope many such welcomes will resound in this house. Suppose money does come in while little goes-out; suppose you get possession of the whole farm; what then? Who will enjoy it with you? Who will you leave it to when you die? And in your old age who will care for you?"

"You seem awful earnest," she said.

"Yes, I am in earnest. I want to see little children adorning every home, as flowers adorn every meadow and every wayside. I want to see them welcomed to the homes they enter, to see their parents grow less and less selfish, and more and more loving, because they have come. I want to see God's precious gifts accepted, not frowned upon and refused."

Stepping Heavenward