they do wrong, especially if it is a sweet, tender girl--I believe
there is no instance on record of any veal being given for the return
of a girl--some Christians drive them from their doors and then go down
upon their knees and ask God to take care of their children! I will
never ask God to take care of my children unless I am doing my level
best in that same direction. Some Christians act as though they
thought when the Lord said, "Suffer little children to come unto me"
that he had a raw-hide under His mantle--they act as if they thought
so. That is all wrong. I tell yon my children this: Go where you
may, commit what crime you may, fall to what depths of degradation you
may, I can never shut my arms, my heart or my door to you. As long as
I live you shall have one sincere friend; do not be afraid to tell
anything wrong you have done; ten to one if I have not done the same
thing. I am not perfection, and if it is necessary to sin in order to
have sympathy, I am glad I have committed sin enough to have sympathy.
The sternness of perfection I do not want. I am going to live so that
my children can come to my grave and truthfully say, "He who sleeps
here never gave us one moment of pain." Whether you call that religion
or infidelity, suit yourselves; that is the way I intend to do it.

When I was a little fellow most everybody thought that some days were
too sacred for the young ones to enjoy themselves in. That was the
general idea. Sunday used to commence Saturday night at sundown, under
the old text, "The evening and the morning were the first day." They
commenced then, I think, to get a good ready. When the sun went down
Saturday night, darkness ten thousand times deeper than ordinary night
fell upon the house. The boy that looked the sickest was regarded as
the most pious. You could not crack hickory nuts that night, and if you
were caught chewing gum it was another evidence of the total depravity
of the human heart. It was a very solemn evening. We would sometimes
sing "Another Day has Passed." Everybody looked as though they had the
dyspepsia--you know lots of people think they are pious, just because
they are bilious, as Mr. Hood says. It was a solemn night, and the next
morning the solemnity had increased. Then we went to church, and the
minister was in a pulpit about twenty feet high. If it was in the
winter there was no fire; it was not thought proper to be comfortable
while you were thanki