Harper's Young People, March 7, 1882 An Illustrated Weekly

"Why, you have envied me my daily trip there for ages"--they gave a sigh in unison--"and never would believe me when I said it had its drawbacks."

They looked too crushed to answer, but finally one of them said, "I don't believe the people of earth would have dared to treat you as they treated us."

Father Time leaned back in his chair and laughed aloud. "Let me hear what they have done to you," he said. "You begin," nodding to the child who sat nearest to him, an attenuated little creature with hollow cheeks. She raised her head, and began, in a feeble voice:

"I am so weak that I can hardly speak, for I have had the most dreadful day that can be imagined. I took my place by a nice-appearing little boy, whose mischievous look and dancing eyes attracted me to him at once. At first I got on very well; he seemed to take a fancy to me. But after a while he grew careless, dropped his books, yawned and stretched. Then he began to get into mischief, and did more naughty things in the course of an hour than I imagined could be done in a day; and so matters went on from bad to worse. I felt myself wasting away, but he never once thought of me, never gave me another bit of attention, and I thought I should not live to get home. Finally, when his mamma came in, and wanted to know what he had been doing, the naughty child threw all the blame of his neglected duties on me; said that I was a 'hateful Time to go so fast,' and called me a hundred other unjust names. I am so tired!--so tired!"

Father Time smiled pityingly, and stroked his poor child's head.

"You have been terribly wasted, my dear; I know how unpleasant that is. But never fear; a good sleep will quite restore you.--What have you to say, my son?" to the next child.

"Look at me," moaned the one questioned. "I am one mass of bruises from head to foot. I can hardly walk. I was never so treated in my life."

"What has happened to you?"

"I went into the house of a child who seemed very fond of study, and whom I thought would be very pleasant company. Stupid little thing!"--with a burst of rage--"she began to practice her music, and that moment I felt a sharp pain; she set to work beating me with all her might and main, great irregular thumps, now on my head, now on my shoulders, until I thought I must scream. I did groan and moan; it was all of no use, for she went on, as it seemed to me, forever. By-and-by her teacher came in, and that was better, for although he beat me, it was in an entirely different way, that did not hurt at all. It was as if he were caressing me. But the little vixen, belabored me again, and I am all black and blue."

"Never mind, poor boy," said Father Time. "You will be all right to-morrow; but I have had enough of such beatings to sympathize with you fully."

"They have neither of them suffered as much as I," remarked a third young Time, in a pathetic, subdued voice, "for they at least were abused in an open sort of way; but I have been mortified beyond conception. Shortly after my arrival in the world I entered the house of a respectable middle-aged woman: you know I have always been fond of associating with my elders, and I thought that I should be likely to learn something from her which might be of use to me."

"Quite right, my child," said Father Time, nodding his approval.

"But there never was a greater mistake," continued his son. "From morning until night that same respectable middle-aged lady has done nothing but attempt to hide me, as if I were something to be ashamed of; I, a scion of the oldest house in existence; I, a Time with a pedigree which goes farther back than Adam, though it consists of only one generation besides my own." (He said this with such pride that the trillions of dejected Times for one second really straightened themselves with family feeling.) "The first thing that she did was to cover my face with the most disgusting paint and powder that were ever invented, sighing all the time about wrinkles, crow's-feet, and the ravages of time. Then she put on some untidy mess of hair all over my forehead, and into my very eyes, after which she dressed me in a style which made me blush under the paint. Such furbelows! such gew-gaws! Then followed visits and conversations. She giggled; she simpered; she talked to me and of me as if I were a babe in arms; why, she talked like Mother Goose herself, and Father Gander, and the whole family of geese," indignantly. "I declare it made my blood boil."

Father Time looked grave. "I know thousands of such women," he said, "who are ashamed of their acquaintance with us. Very foolish of them, since they can not possibly cut us, and since, if they only knew it, there is no alliance in the world more highly respectable. Cheer up, my dear. You have nothing to be ashamed of.--And now tell me your experience," to a fourth young Time, who was holding his head with both hands, and groaning in agony.

"I am tired almost to death, if a Time could die," was the reply. "I have been with a poet."

"Good things in their way," remarked his father.

"But this one wasn't a good one, though he thought himself so. And the worst of it all was that he insisted upon writing an ode to Time. Before the day was over I almost wished that you, my dear father, had never existed."

"I know the man you mean," said Father Time, gravely; "he lives in every town on the globe, and is the greatest time-waster on record. You look thin with the fatigue.--Why, why, what is this?"

A beautiful child stepped up before Father Time, and smiled in answer to his exclamation.

"Don't you know me, papa?"

"Are you--is it possible--can you be one of my children? What has happened to make you so lovely?"

"I have been improved," was the answer. "I have never had a happier day in all my life."

Her brothers and sisters looked up in amazement.

"Yes, I think I am the only one of us all who has been fortunate to-day. I went into the house of the dearest child in all the world. Why, the first thing that she did was to kiss and pet me, and say, 'Dear Time, let us see how we can help each other to-day.' From the moment I came until the moment I left she never faltered. In the first place, she studied her lessons with great diligence--"

"Ah!" said Father Time, "that is what makes your eyes shine so brightly."

"Then she played with some little friends, and was always sweet and gentle with them. She talked so cheerfully and lovingly--"

"That is what gives your lips that lovely smile," said Father Time again.

"She helped them in various little ways; picked up one when she fell, fetched some toys to amuse another--did all she could to make them happy. And when I left her this evening, she was as much improved as I. Do you wonder that I have had a happy day?"