The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1879-07-11
BOYS and Their Mothers.

I am sure you would have liked the
two things that he did next-things
which he was accustomed to do every
morning of his life.
First, he went to the bureau and took
up picture that stood there upon an
easel-frame-the portrait of his mother
Good morning, my dear mother" he
said, gayly, and kissed the picture sew
eral times, tenderly and reverently, Just
as, few years later, he might do that
of some other woman whom he hoped
to make his wife. Indeed, Royal Low
RE was very much in love with his beau
tiful mother-in love with her as l like
to see boy in love with his mother-so
that no woman was fairer, or dearer, or
more worthy of knightly service than
she.
Oh, my dear boys-for it is you es-
pecially for whom l am writing this
story-no matter how big you get, or
how busy you become, or how manly
you fancy you are growing, don't 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 thous-
and deaths for you-Oh, never, so long
as you live, turn her out of the first
place in your heart. Never, so long as
you live, let there be a time when, in
the slightest attention even the quick
offer of an arm or the stopping to save
step-you will prefer another to her
/ don't mean to moralize to you, or
preach to you very much in this story,
but can't help saying this. For 1
know too well how surely will come a
time when you will thank me for it,
You do not think very much about it
now, as you 90 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 a
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 ut mid
summer, though you may notice, per-
haps, that some little change has taken
place in your absence-the dear mother
face has grown thinner, the step slower,
or, maybe, the grey hairs have become
more frequent-yet still you will laugh,
and turn away and forget; until some
time-late, trust, but surely sooner or
later-there will come change, which
you will not laugh away or forget.
Sometime when you are far away, per-
haps at school or college, or in distant
city, while you study or sport, or ca
rouse, there will come tidings and q
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 by
the hearth that can never again be as i,
once had been, you begin to realize, as
you cannot at first, how very different
everything is, and how empty and desc
late home and the world and life itseli
is with that presence that has made il
all so beautiful gone out of it forever
when you stand, later still, beside thai
sacred mound in the churchyard, and
weep such hot tears as boys and men dc
weep over their mothers graves, then il
is that every little care and thoughtful
ness and attention that you have paic
her, and all the larger sacrifices you have
made for her sake, will come back to yor
like ministering spirits, and bring yor
a comfort and consolation that YOU
cannot now understand; just as the re
membrance of every sorrow you hav,
caused her will be very bitter.
And If these words am saying vii
/ 10 khs,,1r ~f kL..
if the thought shall make you in an.