BIBLE CHARACTERS
AS DEPICTED BY THE BRILLIANT AND NOTED PREACHER,
T. De Witt Talmage.
ATHALIAH
Grandmothers are more lenient with their children’s children than they were with their own.
At forty years of age, if discipline be necessary, chastisement is used; but at seventy, the grandmother, looking upon the misbehavior of the grandchild, is apologetic and disposed to substitute confectionery for whip.
There is nothing more beautiful than this mellowing of old age toward childhood. Grandmother takes out her pocket handkerchief and wipes her spectacles and puts them on, and looks down into the face of her mischievous and rebellious descendant, and says:
“I don’t think he meant to do it; let him off this time; I’ll be responsible for his behavior in the future.”
My mother, with the second generation around her—a boisterous crew—said one day: “I suppose they ought to be disciplined, but I can not do it. Grandmothers are not fit to bring up grandchildren.”
But here we have a grandmother of a different hue.