"STAR" TALES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7891, 22 December 1903, Page 4

"STAR" TALES.

«—: THE UPBRINGING OF THE LAST. (By MARION HILL.) It is a crime to bring up children. Or, if not a crime, it is a huge mistake. At any rate, it ia the biggest waste of time in the wo^ for, if left properly alone, ohildren will come up by theiaaalves quite as well *s anyone can bring them. It's something H&e swimming. So long aa tha would-be swimmer fancies that he has to perform all the work, his kicks and splashings simply sink him; but when he realises that th© water will do the supporting If ho vex it not too muoh, he goes ahead beautifully. The Pettieons brought up their first thiea children with suoh a terrific expenditure of force all round that, when brought up, the brought as well as the bringens were premature}^ old. They let the fourth cbiM a! one; not because they believed it bast, but because sho did. Moreover, by then, the parent Pettison* were awfully tired. Not too tired, however, to retain the grip they had upon the older three. No, indeed. They practised upon that luckless trio to preserve the balance of power. When, the youngest Pettiaan flew too high, the older ones had their wings clipped closer. It was a wonder they loved Pink as they 'did; they ought to have hated her. Pink was the fourth Pettieon's name — *nd wasn't. Had she been a boy and received the name of John Ernest, after a wealthy English cousin, she would have received also the heirship to that cousin's property. Making the best of a woeful business, her father and mother named the baby Johanna Ernestine — whioh was worth just a hundred dollars— that sum to- be hers upon the cousin's death. He was a healthy xafn, too. • " For some ceason or other, Johanna Ernestine decided that her name should be pronounced Pink. And she succeeded. It took her reefs to make her name good. But a little matter like a fight was nothing ' at all to Pink. She had been a fighter since infancy, in her fifteenth month undermining the sternest bulwark in her mother's stronghold of education. If there was one thing Mrs P«ttison would not tolerate ft was Daby talk, 60 when Pink christened her milk-bottle her " billie-boggin," the trouble commenced. " Bocib. Say ' bottle/ " commanded Mrs Petii-- :orensically. "B ' niinmured the baby tentative^. "Bctiie! '' she repeated, curling her lips in disgust. " Billie-boggin'f" she announced, in ft fiim shrink. " Bottle !" insisted the mother, Aghast at the rebellion. . "Billie-boggin," persisted the infant, and the matter was settled. Not knowing it to be settled, Mrs Pettison sought to starve the refractory on© into obedience. " It is "more than a matter of a mere silly name," she explained to her husband. "It is a whole principle. Moreover, if I allow tnr to have her way in this instance z each succeeding confliot of authority will be made BK»re difficult. I must conquer now." " You must " agreed Mr Pettison, equally »olemn, equally aghast. So, to Johanna Ernestine was offered a "bottle" at her next feeding, which, upon being hailed as a " billie-boggin," was promptly removed. Pink went empty — and kicked and screamed. After another three hours — hungry, rebellious hours — the bottle ■was hailed still more violently as a " billieboggin". Again it was removed. Being emptier, Pink kicked and screamed more, furiously. A third attempt was no less a failure.* When the time came for the fourth feeding, what with hunger and passion, the baby had worked herself into a fever and was raving for her " billie-boggin" in real delirium. "*' Not being; a monster, the heart-broken, if fad-ridden, mother gave in.

" Here is your bottle t dear," she whispered. 1 U.. billie-boggin," muttered the baby, clutching it ravenously. For a quarter of an hour she imbibed, sanity and peace returning in measure as th« milk disappeared. When finished, " Take biilie-boggin," she commandedj poking the article into her mother's hand. Than she sank into a long and victorious sleep. Outsiders who heard the Pettieons requesting the nurse to prepare " Pink's billieboggin " never dreamed of the frightful struggles the words inferred. There wasn't a nurse after a few years. Poverty was another factor which aided in, Piuk J s liberation. The Pettisons came down in the world. Not everybody knew it, becaux>e Mrs Pettison believed in putting her best foot foremost— as sho expressed it; and that foot was so much in evidenoe, even after the crash came, that neighbours contented themselves by merely wondering how in the world the Pettisons got along a<» they did, and Mr Pettison out of his job, too. For a fact, they did not get along ; but, just as stars apparently shine for thousands of years after they have died in heaven, so can a family, though socially and financially extinct, manage to twinkle along for quite a time on the reserves of the attio trunks and the contento of the krtcHen cupboard and the root cellar. Mrs Pettison tfeing obliged to look after the house, had very little time for personal encounter with, her youngest-r which kept Pink's disposition in a pleasant and unruffled condition. The child's insides profited, too. There was no money to buy thrice-cooked cereals and predigested foods ; consequently, Pink had to do her own di-gesting-^-something none of the others could- The third Pettieon was especially weak in this regard, being a semi-invalid. 'Pink said it was her name — Constantly. Constantia herself said it was her liver. She referred to herself sighingly so often as a "perfect wreck" that Pink heartlessly dubbed her "the P.W.," but evened! urp by giving her a world of affectionate care. Who says that thirteen is not an unlucky number? It was when Pink was thirteen years old that the final ■crash came, and th# last savings of the family were swept away in a bank failure. ]Slo one seeawd to appreciate the gravity of their need except the youngest. The others were stupidly hopeful over nothing. Mrs Pettdson was to rent rooms ; Hex was to enter the ministry j Regina^ 'his twin sister, was to sing in the choir ; white Constantia wag to attend to the housekeeping. Mx Pettison would have to get something to da-soon. But— tibe pride of none of them could stand advertising: their rooms ; Rex loathed the ministry ; Regina 'was too miserably siby to ever open Jier moufch in a public place ; Constaniia was always too busy attending "to Iher lives to have any time or inclination left for (housekeeping, and, saddest of all, Mr Pettison, in his weary middle age,, was m«asely the clerk that he was when" a youtn, and to every position open to him there were hundreds of high school boys ready andi «#le to take it at a few dollars a week. The mental worry, of all this slid from the others like water from a duck's back, and settled in lines of anxious care on the small, pale face of the youngest. When she could stand it no longer, she wxote this letter:— " Dear Cousin John.— l am the one who