Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-02-26
A Short Story with a Moral.
by ELLEN C. HOBBS.

is the first commandment with promise
promise as beautiful in its exemplif-
cations, as glorious in its conception
A mothers lips first breathed into our
ears those words of Holy writ, and cx-
planned their general import; and from
the time when the story of gray-haired
Elijah and his youthful Knockers first
Eexeitea 1ny-yort11g i'm cir ths
1spect then inspired. for the white hairs
of age, has grown with my growth and
strengthened with my strength. We
sigh when we think of the days when
the young were wont to bow before the
hoary head, and by gentle uncalled-for
assiduities, strew roses in the old mans
tottering path.
But those kindly customs have pass
ed away. The world grows selfish as
it grows old; and agc-dimmed eyes must
turn homeward for stays to their trem-
bling hands and tottering limbs. Here
they shall find fuifllment of their first
commandment with promise.
No true womanly soul ever withdrew
her gentle hand from her poor old faith
er and mother; no manly heart ever for
got the home loves OF his wayward
childhood, or ceased to hear the echoes
of fond mothers prayer. Often the
cares of this world and the deceitfulness
of riches may choke up the inborn affec-
tions of narrow souls; but few and far
between is the fondly loved child, who
can be so untrue to himself or his Ma
kcr as wholly to forget the mother who
bore him.
Yet even with the holiest dictates Of
our reasons and souls. as with the wider
application of the commandment, has
Fashion insinuated her poisonous influ
ence; and the son, perchance, who LETT
his fond parents home reluctantly and
tearfully, to make his way in the world,
forrets, when fortune favors, to welcome
his rustic mother to his own luxury with
the same cordial embrace with which he
left her in his childhood home. Her
dim old eyes, perhaps, do not catch read
ily the meaningless courtisics of life, but
they look none the less lovingly upon
her child, than when they watched over
his helpless infancy. Her withered
.hands may be large and bony, and new
or had inoSI:11a je9Tel, but none the less
gently did they smooth the weary pill
low, or bathed the heated brow, in the
dependent days Of boyhood, All she's
the same fond m mother still-hcr aged and
work-bent form, clad in rustic garb, con-
ceals heart full of never dying love,
and ready for a new sacrifice.
And, thanks to the Great Being who
gave us the commandment with prom
isc, and now and then there stands up a
noble man, true to his inborn nature,
who throws off the tramme!s of Fashion,
however wide the gulf which separates,
in the worlds eye, from the humblest
poverty of his boyhood-who is not
ashamed to love, before his fellows, the
humble mother who gave him birth.
':IIy Mother, permit me to present her
to YOU said an elegantly dressed, no
BILE looking young man to a friend, for
whom he had crossed a crowded draw
ingroom, with his aged parent leaning
Oh his arm. There was dead silence
for full five minutes.
The moral beauty Of the picture per-
vaded every soul, and melted away the
frost work of world word hearts. Twas
the old foreground ola fashionable sum-
mer resort, whittier hosts had come, with
all their selfish passions to seek IN vain
for health and pleasure. But here was
xariation-a bit of truth to nature-in
the motley mingling of colors.
From little brown farm house, pent
in the forest, away up in the Granite
State, that young man had gone forth
With brave heart and stalwart arm
strong, like his native hills he had al
ready made a name for himself Pol
ishcd circles opened for him, and gentle
lips bade him welcome. Yet none the
less carefully did his manly arm sup
port his homcly lettering old mother;
none the less softly and tenderly did he
call her, queer though she looked, my
mother" amongst the proud beauties
who had striven for his favor. Her dress
was antiquated for the gifts of her son
had been mutilated by rustic hands; yet
only one heartlcss girl Uttered, despite
the broad filled cap and well kept shawl.
Her voice was rough, and often her ex-
pressions coarse and inelcgant. Used
to the social mug at home. she asked for
her neighbor's goblet at she table, and
was guilty Of many vulgaritics. She
; was an unintcrcsting woman, save III her
vigorous age, and her beautiful love for
her son.
Yet, for week, the son watched over
that mother, and gained for her kind
ness and Difference, in the very face OF
fashion; walked with her, drove with
her, helped her, like an infant, up diff
ficult mountain side of twenty miles, hu-
mored her every caprice, and each day
found some new friend, whose heart he
might thrill by those gentle words my
mother" To him she was the gentle
mother who rocked him to sleep in child
hood; and, true to the commandments
she had taught him, he was making
the path smooth to her dependent
years.
One there was in the gay throng,
whose eye flashed haughtily, as they
rested on the homely, toil-worn woman,
but she was a noble soul, and truth and
right gained an instant victory over life
long prejudices. Quickly and elegantly
she crossed the room laid her hand with