Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1879-06-13

Oh my dear boys-no matter how big you
get, or how busy you become, or how manly
you fancy you are growing, do not ever get
too big, or too busy, or too manly TO be in
love with your mother She who loves you
as no other woman ever can she who would
gladly die a thousand deaths for you-Oh,
never, so long as you live, turn her out of the
first place in your heart Never so long AZ
you live let there be a time, when, in the
slightest attention eyen-thc quick offer Of
an arm or the STOPPING to save step-you
will prefer another to her.
do not mean to moralizc to you or preach
TO you very much in this story, but cannot
help saying this. For l know too well how
surely will come time when You will thank
me for it. You do not think very much
about it now, as you go about the house with
hearts singing and feet that keep time to the
home music. And when the day comes for
you to go out from the home-life you will
run lightly down the steps and ride away.
scarcely turning for n last look at the loving
mother who stands there in the doorway, with
eyes that fill so fast they can scarcely follow
you as you go. And when you come back at
Christmas, or Easter, or at midsummer,
though you may notice perhaps that some
little change has taken place in your absence,
the dear mother-face has grown thinner,
lht nltI HlbNNls bi' ulhNbts lut grey uulIh
have become more freguent-yet still you will
laugh and turn away and forget until some
time late, ! trust, but surely sooner or later,
there will come a change which you will
not laugh away or forget. Sometime when
You are far away perhaps at school or col
lcge, or in a distant city-whilc You study or
sport or carouse-there will come tidings and
a summons least expected. that will kill the
laugh upon your lips in an instant and strike
your joy dead.
And then, when you have hurried home
again and. standing once more 10y the hearth
that can never again be rs it has once been,
you begin to realize rs you cannot at first,
how very different everything is and how
empty aud dosoate home and the world and
life itself is, with that presence that has made
it all so beautiful gone out of it forever when
you stand, later still, beside that sacred mound
in the church. yard and weep such hot tear
as boys and men do weep over their mothers
graves-theH itjs, that every little care and
thoughtfulness and attention that You have
paid her, and all the larger sacrifices you
have made for her sake, will come bnck &c
you like ministering spirits. aud bring you
comfort and consolation that you cannot
now understand just as the remembrance Of
every SORROW yon have caused her will b,
very bitter.
Ana il THESE WoIuh an saying VIII OillN
make you think of this HOr and if the
thought shall make you in any way NOR,
careful and considerate and afTcctionate nor
to the mother whom l am sure you love very
much, l shall be glad indeed that have sale
them and sometime you will be glad too
however dull ard prosy you may think then
now.
And as for your mothers picture, boys
(for | want to say a word about that too
never go away from her without it. Keep i
| by you always not in your trunk or drawer
but on your bureau, or wall, or shelf, wher,
you can see it constantly and where Il can 50
you. You will lead truer lives for it, beliey,
me. For it is in the privacy Of our owl
chamber perhaps, that We think our mean
est thoughts and do our moanest acts ant
you will hardly dare to think or act unworth
lily with those eyes following you about tn,
room u. Tdljot, in Wide Arake