Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-10-29
TO Sis.

| Come here. Sis, and sit down beside me,
and let me give you little talking to. Sit
clear to the other end of the sofa. It makes
more room for my gout and corns, besides
being good habit for a young lady to be-
| come addicted to. Always pander to this
habit, and you will in time find yourself
walking through the green meadows and
beside the still waters of self-respect.
You may be walking alone, 10 be sure, but
you Will have fewer lawn dresses to do up
Monday mornings. | wish to speak to
you for your mother. 1t may be you have
noticed a careworn look upon her face
lately. Of course it has not been brought
there by any act of yours, still it is your
duty to chase it away. l don't mean
for you to run at it and shake
your skirts and tell it to 'shoon . as
you would a hen, nor do I expect
you to get on the other side of the fence
and throw old oyster cans and pieces of
barrel-staves as you did at the COW yester-
day. But i want you to get up tomorrow
morning and get breakfast, and when ma
comes down and begins to express her sur
prise, 60 right up to her and kiss her on
the mouth. You can't imagine how it will
brighten up her dear old face. Besides,
you owe her kiss or two. Away back
when you were a little girl she kissed you
when no one else was tempted by your
vertainted breath and swollen face. You
were not as attractive then as you are now.
And all through those years of childish
sunshine and shadow she was always ready
to cure by the magic of mothers kiss the
little dirty, chubby hands whenever they
were injured in those first skirmishes with
this rough old world. And then the mid
night kisses with which she has routed
go many bad Dreams as she leaned over
your restless pillow, have all been OF inter-
est these long, long years. OF course she
is not so pretty and kissable IS you are,
but if you had done your share OF the
work during these last ten years, the con-
trast would not be so marked Her face
has more wrinkles than yours, far more,
and yet If you were sick that face would
appear to be more beautiful thar an angels
as it lowered over you. watching every
opportunity to minister to yonr comfort,
and every one of those wrinkles would
seem to be bright wavelets OF sunshine
chasing each other over the dear old face.
She will leave you one Of these days.
Those burdens, if not lifted from her shoul-
ders, will break her down. Those rough,
hard hands-that have done so many un-
necessary things for you-will be crossed
upon her hfeless breast. Those neglected
lips-that gave you your first baby kiss
will be forever closed, and those sad, tired
eyes will have opened in eternity, and
then you will appreciate your mother,
but it will be too late. There, there,
don't cry, she has not left you yet. She is
down in the kitchen stringiug beans for
dinner, and if you feel so badly you might
90 down and finish them and let her change
her dress and rest half an hour before DIM
ner And after dinner you might do up
the dishes while she takes a little nap.
Then you might take down her hair and do
it up for her. You need not wind it over
your fir ger and fuss to make little spit curls,
as she used to do with yours, but give it n
good brushing and wind it up gently and
tenderly as though you enjoyed dong it
for her. The young man down in the par
lor can wait until you have performed
these duties. If he expresses any impa-
tience you may explain TO him that you
feel under more obligations to your mother
than you do to him. Ii this does not
seem to satisfy him, ask him how many
times he ever got up in the middle of the
night to warm peppermint for you when you
were dying with the collie, or how many
hours he has carried you up and down the
room just because you would not be quieted
in any other way. Ask him to repeat
Mother Hubbard backwards, and, if he is
unable to do it, it will be proof positive
that he is not the one who has repeated and
explained it to you seventeen hundred
times Catechise him to find out ik
he is the one who gave you the
black silk dress, and sat up nights to
make it, while you were off having a
good time. Corner him up, and make
him admit that he went without new
bonnet last winter that you might enjoy "a
Sl2 one that you admired so much. Wiring
from him confession that he has stitch
in his side, brought there by doing up yonE
finery week after week. Then show hin
out of the back door, put on a calico apron
and 90 out and help your mother pick cur
rants for jelly, and l guarantee you wilf.
think more of yourself, the world will
think more of you, and you will be hap
pier and better for having done So
[Stockton Independent.