Robert Gilding, 3d
From his godfather
John Strong

Or the presents may be anything else they fancy. In New England a very
rich godfather sometimes gives the baby a bond which is kept with interest
intact until a girl is eighteen or a boy twenty-one.

=TIME OF CHRISTENING=

In other days of stricter observances a baby was baptized in the Catholic
and high Episcopal church on the first or at least second Sunday after its
birth. But to-day the christening is usually delayed at least until the
young mother is up and about again; often it is put off for months and in
some denominations children need not be christened until they are several
years old. The most usual age is from two to six months.

If the family is very high church or the baby is delicate and its
christening therefore takes place when it is only a week or two old, the
mother is carried into the drawing-room and put on a sofa near the
improvised font. She is dressed in a becoming neglige and perhaps a cap,
and with lace pillows behind her and a cover equally decorative over her
feet. The guests in this event are only the family and the fewest possible
intimate friends.

=THE CHRISTENING IN CHURCH=

In arranging for the ceremony the clergyman, of course, is consulted and
the place and hour arranged. If it is to be in church, it can take place
at the close of the regular service on Sunday, but if a good deal is to be
made of the christening, a week day is chosen and an hour when the church
is not being otherwise used.

The decorations, if any at all, consist of a few palms or some flowering
plants grouped around the font, and the guests invited for the christening
take places in the pews which are nearest to the font, wherever that
happens to be. As soon as the clergyman appears, the baby's coat and cap
are taken off (in any convenient pew, not necessarily the nearest one),
and the godmother, holding the baby in her arms, stands directly in front
of the clergyman. The other godparents stand beside her and other
relatives and friends nearby.

The godmother who is holding the baby must be sure to pronounce its name
distinctly--in fact it is a wise precaution if it is a long or an unusual
one, to show the name printed on a slip of paper to the clergyman
beforehand--as more than one baby has been given a name not intended for
it. And whatever name the clergyman pronounces is fixed for life. The
little Town girl who was to have been calle