Crib

“ For the first few weeks an ordinary basket arrangement is all that is necessary. As soon as the baby begins to move around it should have a regular baby crib, so that possible accidents may be avoided. ”

“ The Crib.— The infant must have its own crib, without rockers, and it must on no account be put to sleep in the same bed with its mother. In its early life it should never be taken out of its crib except to be fed, to have its clothing changed, or to be bathed. There should be no holding on the lap, no dangling, no carrying or fussing over the new-born infant; and the more the baby is let alone, the better and healthier it will be. If baby cries, look at once to see if it needs a fresh napkin ”

“ When I was at, the crib of Bethlehem, I beheld a most beautiful Virgin with child, in a white mantle and tunic, evidently soon about to be delivered. With her was a most venerable old man, and they had an ox and an ass. When they entered the cave, the old man tied the ox and the ass to the crib, going out he brought the Virgin a lighted torch, and set it in the wall. ”

“ To this crib I always took my doll; human beings must love something, and, in the dearth of worthier objects of affection, I contrived to find a pleasure in loving and cherishing a faded graven image, shabby as a miniature scarecrow. ”

“ When a bed of rock, which may be considered [95] sufficiently hard and close to separate the feeders above and below it, is reached, the shaft is contracted to the diameter of the tubbing, and a smooth horizontal face is made on which to place the wedging crib. The wedging crib, which usually consists of segments about 4 feet long by 6 inches high by 14 inches wide, is then placed on the bed. To give the crib a firm and secure position, it is tightly wedged with wood, both behind and between the joints ”

“ The equipment of the nursery should include a crib of enameled iron, a low table, a screen, a closet or chest for the baby’s clothing and supplies, a small clothes-rack, a pair of scales, and a low chair—a rocker without arms if the mother prefers it. ”

“ The toy windows are worthy of study, and next to them the bakers'. A favorite toy of the season is a little crib, with the Holy Child, in sugar or wax, lying in it in the most uncomfortable attitude. Babies here are strapped upon pillows, or between pillows, and so tied up and wound up that they cannot move a muscle, except, perhaps, the tongue ”

“ If the white enameled crib is beyond the family purse, there are several substitutes which can be placed on an ordinary table with the legs cut off a few inches. One woman whom I met at a contest had found an old kitchen table in the attic. Her husband first cut off the legs evenly and then inserted casters, painting the whole white. On this she placed an ordinary marketing basket, with the handle sawed off. This, too, was painted with white enamel. In it she laid a hair pillow, cut down to the size of the basket, and then added the usual protecting piece of rubber cloth, sheets, and bedding. ”

“ Yes; playing cribbage with herself at the table. There she sat, intent upon her game, coughing now and then in a subdued manner as if she feared to disturb him—shuffling the cards, cutting, dealing, playing, counting, pegging—going through all the mysteries of cribbage as if she had been in full practice from her cradle! Mr Swiveller contemplated these things for a short time, and suffering the curtain to fall into its former position, laid his head on the pillow again. ”

“ In the white cribs in the alcove the same change comes, bright eyes, hair, cheeks, and lips lie blended in the shadow, the only sound is the even breath of night, and when you press your lips behind the ear where a curl curves and neck and garments meet, there comes a little fragrance born of sweet flesh and new flannel, and the only motion is that of the half-open hand that seems to recognize and closes about your fingers as a vine to its trellis, or as a sleeping bird clings to its perch. ”

“ The disk of the Cribrella is smooth, instead of being covered, like the larger Star-fishes, with a variety of prominent appendages. The spines are exceedingly short, crowded like little warts over the surface. It is an interesting fact, illustrating [Pg 113] again the correspondence between the adult forms of the lower orders and the phases of growth in the higher ones, that these spines have an embryonic character. ”

“ But we may note that cribbing is not confined to schoolboys. The full perfection of the art is only attained in the pass-examinations of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge. Then all considerations of conscience or sportsmanship are flung aside, and the cribber cribs, not to gain distinction or outstrip his rivals, but to get over a troublesome fence by hook or crook and have done with it. ”

“ Weave a Basket
by passing the vine alternately inside and outside of the stakes in the circle (Fig. 86) , and when the end of the first piece in hand is reached you must duck your head under water and push the vine to the bottom of the stakes. Beginning where the last piece ended, weave a second piece of vine and push it down to the bottom, and so on until the top of the water is reached. It is great fun to make these cribs, and not at all difficult work, and when they are done and filled with cobblestones they make fine piers for a club-house or an artificial island.
[100]
Fig. ”

“ "I shall arm myself with a knife," said Mr. Hale: "The days of eating fruit so primitively as you describe are over with me. I must pare it and quarter it before I can enjoy it." ”

“ There were high pillars and stately arches, whose glittering splendour was never excelled by the brightest fairy palaces. There were not many lamps; only those of a few poor miners, whose rough visages formed a striking contrast to the dazzling figures and grandeur which surrounded them. But in the midst of all this magnificence I felt an indescribable sense of fear and terror; for the sea raged above us, and by the awful and tumultuous noises of roaring winds and dashing waves it seemed as if the storm was violent. ”

“ Little Papoose
bound in its stiff cradle is one of the drollest things imaginable. Paint a small doll copper color, make its hair black, and bind the baby in a cradle cut from brown pasteboard (Fig. 200) . Cut along heavy line and bend forward the tongue R along the dotted line, bring the strap S across and glue the end on the under side of the cradle; then line the cradle with white tissue-paper and place the Indian child on it; spread a piece of vivid red tissue-paper over the infant, bringing the sides of the cover on the under side of the cradle, where you must glue them. ”

“ A white-headed baby lay in the old blue cradle that had rocked seven other babies, now and then lifting his head to look out, like a round, full moon, then subsided to kick and crow contentedly, and suck the rosy apple he had no teeth to bite. ”

“ From the limbs of a crab-apple-tree in full bloom, a child, in gymnasium bloomers, hung by her calves, in such a position that she could see directly into the room. What appeared to be still more astonishing was the fact that her eyes were focused on the limp figure in the corner. ”

“ I looked at Crip in silence. Was there no end to perils?
“Let us hope they’ll travel on,” he added. “There’s plenty of food abroad for them. But tell me, where did you find that worm?”
“Back in the far corner. Come with me. I was cleaning out the débris when I came upon him.” ”

“ The crinkled appearance—which is the distinctive feature of Crape Cloth—remains unchanged in the Printed Crape. The various methods of obtaining this crinkled effect is given under "Crape Cloth, Plain."
Printed Crimp Cloth.—Any all-cotton Crimp Cloth which has been ornamented by having certain designs or patterns impressed upon its surface in one or more colours is known as a Printed Crimp. The "cockled" stripes—which are the distinctive feature of Crimp Cloth—remain unchanged in the Printed Crimps. The method of obtaining these "cockled" stripes is given under "Crimp Cloth, Plain." ”

“ The cradle is usually deposited in some safe corner, and the baby is left [pg 547] to sleep or amuse itself with its infantine thoughts. The cradle is sometimes attached to two ropes to form a swing, and when the mother becomes conscious of the child's awakening she uncovers its head at times and the tiny thing casts its eyes around. ”

“ After twenty minutes or more, beating having ceased in the cord,—which may be known by pressing closely between the fingers that part nearest the belly of the child,—it should be tied by means of a flat knot, with lamp wicking, or many strands of white spool cotton, about a finger’s length from the belly. In case of twins, there should be a second tie the same length from the first, and the cord cut between the two ties. There have been times when women depended largely upon each other, in their helpless hours of confinement ”

“ The infant, therefore, being fastened with pieces of skin to a board spread with soft moss, is laid on the ground, or suspended to a branch of a tree, where it swings, as in a cradle—an expedient which is so carefully adopted as scarcely ever to be attended with accident. ”

“ The mother took it philosophically, recognizing the chirps, and locating them with an ease and precision that aroused envy in us bird-lovers, to whom young-bird calls seem to come from every direction at once. She immediately began to feed, and to collect them into a little flock. With her help we also found them, and watched them a long time: their pretty baby ways, their eager interest in the big world, their drawing together as they heard one another's voices, and their cozy cuddling up together on a log. ”

“ Suppose a coverlet of transparent skin were stretched over each cradle, leaving an opening just over the pillow. Suppose in every cradle there lies a baby with its little knees bent up to the chin in that zig-zag fashion in which children often lie. ”

“ A child, who has been set to watch beside the cradle of a baby brother or sister, and wants very badly to be off to play, may learn a lesson of patience from the way in which these little workers take care of the babies which are their special charge—for I suppose an ant's egg may be considered in its tiny way like a baby in its cradle. ”

“ Before Crip's father had gone down to the dock he had said to Crip: "Now, you must stay right here in the shop and not go near the dock, until I come back;" and Crip had said "Yes, sir," although every bit of his throbbing boy body wanted to take itself off to the "Sweet Home."
The snow kept on falling, and it began to grow dark in the little shop. Crip had just lighted a candle, when the shop door opened, and a boy, not much bigger than Crip himself, came in and shut the door behind him. ”

“ THE TREE CRICKETS The unceasing ringing that always rises on summer eve- nings as soon as the shadows begin to darken, that shrill melody of sound that seems to come from nothing but from everywhere out of doors, is mostly the chorus of the tree crickets, the blend of notes from innumerable harpists playing unseen in the darkness. ”

“ Sometimes the first note is pronounced two or three times, thus 'cuck-cuck-cuckoo', and I have heard it repeated rapidly many times in succession, so as to resemble the trilling note of the Nightingale, but in a lower key. The note of the nestling is a shrill plaintive chirp, which may best be imitated by twisting a glass stopper in a bottle. Even the human ear has no difficulty in understanding it as a cry for food, of which it is insatiable. ”

“ One inkstand, a very early production, evinces mechanical genius and artistic taste. Taking the head, throat, wings, and side feathers of a bluebird, she blew the contents from a hen’s egg, and set it on end, forming the breast of the bird by the oval surface of the egg, while through the open beak and extended neck entrance was gained to the cavity of the egg containing the ink. ”

“ For the creature wakes at intervals and scrapes and kicks, and struggles, pressing against the shell, tearing the investing membranes, and chirps, (and that this is done whilst petitioning for assistance I willingly concede,) all of which things may readily be heard by any one who will use his ears. And the hen listening attentively when she hears the chirping deep within the egg does not break the shell, but she turns the egg with her feet and gives the chick within another and a more commodious position. ”

“ Teams of horses and oxen are born under the Twins, and well-hung wenchers and those who bedung both sides of the wall. I was born under the Crab and therefore stand on many legs and own much property on land and sea, for the crab is as much at home on one as he is in the other. ”

“ The wood grew stiller and stiller; here and there fell a dry leaf which had been driven from its old dwelling-place by a fresh one; here and there a young bird gave a soft chirp when its mother squeezed it in the nest ”

“ When the babe is within his mother's womb, the umbilical cord is open, whilst the child's orifices are closed. But when the child goeth forth into the world, the umbilical cord is closed, and the nine orifices are then opened. ”

“ From this splendid structure silken ribbons stream in all directions, and at the end of each ribbon is a little girl—generally a pretty little girl—in a white dress bedecked with green bows. And each little girl leads by the hand one smaller than herself, sometimes a toddler so tiny that you marvel that it can walk at all. ”

“ I am strengthened in this opinion, by the history of the cripples I have met with in different parts of the country, whether they have been brought up in the woolen, worsted, flax, cotton, or silk mill; nine out of every ten having been compelled to work from morning to night, without being allowed to sit down for a minute.
Let us turn our attention, for a moment, to the formation of the lower extremities of the human frame. There is a beautiful arch of bones formed in the foot, on the middle of which the main bone of the leg is planted ”