In Praise of Aunts A LITTLE girl said to me once
: " What a good thing it is that Aunts are so fond of children." I asked her in return, " But why should they not be ? " She answered gravely, " Because Aunts never have any children of their own."
This, like many of the remarks of children, has an inward wisdom that dawns slowly upon an older mind.
I believe the ideal Aunt is single in most cases. The very splendour of her is that she has " the heart at leisure from itself " to devote to other people's children.
When I think of all that Aunts mean to somebody's children I feel that no tribute can be worthy of them, save that ocean of love and trust, often, alas ! unex- pressed, which is rightly theirs. If an Aunt chooses single blessedness she makes of it often a blessed singleness which leaves her free to give her heart and mind to a hundred poor and needy ones. For it is not only children who need mothering. Often old people need it far more eagerly. " Will you tell me," said a. Relieving Officer once to me, looking at somebody's Aunt Mary who was passing by, " how that lady ever escaped' a husband, such a pleasant- jolly lady as she is ? "
Examples are in this case better than precepts. Each of us knows an ideal- Aunt, probably several Of them:- But let me present one or two, that I may thereby evoke other people's Aunts and hear you cry, " Oh ! but I wish you knew Aunt SO-and-so."
At the moment I am thinking of Aunt -Minnie, who • lives in a beautiful-part of Sligo quite near to Queen Maeve's mountain;'Knockrea. I am bold to use her name and to hope that she and her innumerable nepheWs and nieces will forgive me: To obtain the freedom Of her Auntship is better than gaining the freedom of some dull City. Aunt Minnie is soinewhere in the 'eighties:- NoW, if you meet her you will not guess who she is, for you would say,- " Well,- perhaps the early 'seventies." - Sympathy with the rising and with the risen generation is her chief quality. While you talk to her you realize that spirit is unquenchably youthful. -Aunt Minnie-has read everything, all the reviews, all the new books. and has her definite opinion about them. She was discussing Jew Sass when I saw her two years ago. By now she will be comparing the later books with it. If anyone has been to Sligo-I say instinctively, " I'm sure you know Aunt Minnie." - In this perfect culmination -of- Auntship her surname is as lost as the surname of Royalty. Her grand-nephew was speaking of our greatest -poet. We saw him this summer in Sligo ; of course, he came to see Aunt Minnie." But—of course ! Now I shall too): for Aunt Minnie in his poems.
Then there is -Aunt Mary. :Half Ireland calls her Aunt. Her parties are still glowing in the memories of many. Her heart is young because it is entirely absorbed in the younger generation and in their children- Never have I met an • old lady wild' lived so much in a spiritual out-of-doors: Her own ills (and most Aunts have -rheumatism). were of no -concern except that-they hindered her eager visits-to sec this or that beloved child of her heart. She was a centre of news; For all write to her. -How many an Aunt is the receiver and -retailer of family news; keeping the clan together, 'explaining the eousinsto each other, relating family history, keeping-old legends and honie sayings 'alive ! When such= ',goes the 'clan will- drift apart and—if youhave Sottish blood you will agree—this is a pity. - - - I have -spoken so far -of Aunts in the singular, but so. many families boast Aunts in the plural. At One period- nearly every- Victorian family had at least two Aunts living in the old home, looking after -old people and receiving -the- yOunger ones. We spoke of:" the Aunts." The Aunts were people to consult about eVerything. What they thought was very important:.-The Aunts so often helped with school -fees,- With trousieaux, with a project for going abroad: This readiness tO be interested and to help was' their character-istie; The -law, though" it seems ungallant in its retention of the term 'Spinster 7 in - legal- papers, is,- -no doubt, really deep.sighted. For spinster is a busy, beautiful word. It suggests one with clever -hands spinning a -thread that will later be woven into something warm and bright. Aunts are constantly spinning useful threads. It is a deserved compliment paid to them by the B.B.C. in allotting the Children's Hour to Aunts rather than to Mothers. , And apart from the care of Children, who, - if at all -pleasant, bring their own reward,- there are so many *Woiks for Aunts to The • world is such a disorderly -place, always at Sikes and sevens, within itself.- It needs regiments, battalions of -kind: determined -Annts to tidy it up; as It were. The disorderly who anuise themselves too well, the ineffective who can never take care of them• selves, the good societies which want workers—all these are in pitiful need of Aunts; There 'seems everywhere an impassioned deinand for Aunts to put aside their own concerns and come and tidy up the world. Often I have g suspicion that that great society the " Mothers Union " really consists of Aunts, and as for the Girls' Friendly Society it surely owes- its life and soul to them. Apart from these notoriously -good works the Arts are in need of Aunts. Libraries; 'Picture Galleries; lecture.. halls Would be much emptier without them. If they are ubi- quitous it is well for the world that owns them; I give you a toast-the Aunts-God bless them ! W. M. LErrs,
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