St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-06-29
Mothers and Sons.
BY NJ. E. SANGSTER.

Inc lie OF DOy CONSISTS OF series
of formations, much like the differing
strata in geology. During the first six
years he is the object of admiring in
terest in the home circle. Everybody
unites in petting and spelling him.
Mamma and aunts vie with each other
in praising his fair skin, his bright eyes
and his beautiful hair. His dress is
picturesque, and his actions are grace
full. Grown older, the activity and en-
ergy of childhood assert themselves,
and he disdains to be a plaything, and
amazes his relatives by the develop
ment of tastes which are entirely for
eigu to the family creeds and traditions.
He likes to play with strange lads, who
wear rags and bags, and talk in queer
patois of their own. He warrlers off,
following organ-men and monkeys, or
joining the motley crowd who bring up
the rear of the circus. Too large for
the nursery, his school days begin, and
now comes several years of hard work
and eager play-years which make I'M
pressions deep and inetfaceable. His
teachers, his books, his associations,
and more important than all else, his
companions, cannot be too carefully Sc
lected. Boys are the unconscious in
structors of other boys, and the young
er one has always some bigger and old
er mate, whose influence over him is
simply without limit. Did you ever
observe the feeling, something like
worship, with which a boy of twelve
rdgards boy of fifteen or sixteen He
copies his tones, his gestures, and his
walk. He receives his opinions as if
they were law and gospel combined. If
the older lad be really brave, generous
and manly, the education he gives to
the younger ones, who regard him as
their hero, is worth considerably more
than the learning they get from their
grammars and lexicoas. If he be mean,
deceitful, vulgar or vicious, the bad
leaven of his example works toward the
corruption of the manners and morals
of the smaller boys. in way to which
parents and pTeceptorS are sometimes
strangely blind. Most boys go through
period when they have great need of
patient love at home. They are awk-
ward and clumsy, sometimes strangely
wilful and perverse, and they are des
perately conscious of themselves, and
very sensitive to the least word of CEN
sure or effort at restraint. Authority
frets them. They are leaving childhood,
but they have not yet reached the sober
good sense of manhood. They are an
easy prey to the tempter and sophist.
Perhaps they adopt skeptical views,
| from sheer desire to prove that they
are independent, and can do their own
thinking. Now is the mothers hour.
Her boy needs her now more than when
he lay in his cradle. Her finer insight
and serener faith may hold him fast,
and prevent his drifting into dangerous
courses. At all events, there is very
much that only a mother can do for her
son, and that son can receive only
from his mother, in the critical period
of which we are thinking. 1t is we'll
for him, if she have kept the freshness
and brightness of her youth, so that she
can now be his companion and friend,
as well as mentor. 1t is good thing
for boy to be proud of his mother; to
feel complacent when he introduces her
to his companions, knowing that they
cannot help seeing what Il pretty wo-
man she is-sO graceful, winsome and
attractivel There is always hope for a
boy when he admires his mother, and
mothers should care to be admirable in
|
possess characters which are worthy of
respect, but to be beautiful and charm
ing, so far as they can, in person and
appearance. The neat dress, the be-
coming ribbon and the smooth hair, are
all worth thinking about, when regard
ed as means of retaining influence over
IA soul, when the world is spreading
lures for it on every side. A girl has
her trials and temptations, too, but she
has one advantage over her brother,
which it is practically in the power of
parents to bestow equally on him. How
few homes there are where, for instance,
a boy is taught music as thoroughly
and carefully as it is taught to a girl.
1t is taken for granted that Phebe must
learn to play the piano, while no one
thinks of having the science acquired
by Edward. Yet Edward may have
more musical taste and talents than
Phebe, and it may save him from Il
hundred snares if he were given the
resource for hours of WEAKNESS that
music is to one who loves it. The more
l reflect on the subject, the more it
seems to me that by neglecting to fur
nish boys with something to do, over
and above the mere education they re-
quire for business, we leave them free
to fall into the nets of vice. Mothers
have more time than fathers to think
over and discover the talent, inclina-
tiOns and abilities of their sons. A taste
for modelling, for carving pretty things
out of wood, for crayon drawing, fOr
working with any sort of tool, for culti-
waiting flowers, for beautifying the home
in any way, should be hailed with de-
light in boy. 1t is well to fill up and
improve many moment, when else be
would be yawning with ennai or Won
dering what TO do with himself. When
a young man has genuine love OF
reading, there is little danger but that
he will be kept in the straight path, il
only there be somebody vigilant and
wise enough to guard him from bad
books. A mother who has time and
desire to associate herself with her boys
will share their reading, and to some
} degree, at least, guide it. Above all
!, things, mothers need faith. Genuine
!, hearty, loving trust in God, life o1
meek, glad acquiescence in his will
lived daily through years in the pres
ence of sons, is an immense power
, They never can get away from the
sweet memory that Christ was theil
mothers friend. There is a reality il
that which no false raaaaninu CON nor