A Child of Air

To Any Reader

BY ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON

As from the house your mother sees

You playing round the garden trees,

So you may see, if you will look

Through the windows of this book,

Another child, far, far away,

And in another garden, play.

But do not think you can at all,

By knocking on the window, call

That child to hear you. He intent

Is all on his play-business bent.

He does not hear; he will not look,

Nor yet be lured out of this book.

For, long ago, the truth to say,

He has grown up and gone away,

And it is but a child of air

That lingers in the garden there.

Empty Nest/Empty Pockets, Indeed.

Before college costs are considered, rearing a middle-class child in the northeast U.S. is estimated to be about $300,000. Check out the latest, from the Associated Press, via the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2014/08/18/business/ap-us-parenting-cost.html?ref=business