The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1881-01-20
ssMAMMA."

"MAMMA.o
A sketeh From Life.
"Doyou suppose mamma will come
into the room that eveningP"
81 hope not; for her sake as well as
our own. She is always miserably ill at
ease"
cit is very different with papa. lam
proud to introduce him everywhere and
and at all times"
"Mamma is a good woman, Carry"
"One of the best and dearest in the
world. Kate"
..But hopelessly behind the age-and
u.s.
Don't enlarge upon that point, dear
She is socially and asthetically imprac-
.icable;" and the speakers voice shud-
dered as at the scratch of steel upon
glass. cit hurts me to admit it. I
cannot divest myself of the fancy that
there is undutifulness in my mortifica-
tion. when grow cold and hot by turns
in watching what she would call her
company manners"
"Not word more, Garry, or shall
confess my own shameful lack of moral
courage. This whole discussion is
worse than Improbable. Mamma is
mamma! All our wishing and talking
cannot transform her into our refined
and gracious ideal matron. The best
we can hope for, is to keep her in the
background when there are those pres
ent who would be unfavorably impressed
by her solecisms."
The Observation-Disclosures with fair,
fluffy hair, blue eyes and softly-tinted
cheeks, delicate of feature and vivacious
Of speech-sat at the library-table,
folding and directing invitations to their
twenty-first birthday party. In the
dialogue above recorded, there was not
q touch of asperity or ill-humor. As a
rule, they were in thorough accord with
one another, and suited the comforta-
bly-padded, perfuned world in which
they lived as well as it suited them. i.
But the attractive, perfumed, self
seeking world had made them supercil-
ious and cold-hearted. 1t had shriv-
eled the love of their childhood for
their mother, until it was SO faint and
weak that it could not accept and over
look her faults of education and of
etiquette. The remembrance of her
loving care and of her sacrifices for
them was forgotten. They had ceased
to "honor" her whom to honor is a
Divine benediction and a blessing.
The adjoining room was "papa's
sanctum." Eben Barrett, the success
full merchant, preferred to call it his
'den." Here he enjoyed his evening
cigar over book and newspaper, wrote
letters that could not be postponed un-
til business-hours, and chatted with his
grown-up son, who was his business
as were admitted to the family apart
ments. The den was obscure by day,
receiving light from solitary window
opening upon narrow alley and the
blank wall of the next house.
A woman was now lying upon the
sofa just beyond the library-door; q
sallow, meager woman, angular in out
line. with faded eyes and cheeks. Her
idly upon the front of such a black me-
rino gown as busy housewife would
wear about her morning work. Her
q Ia Watteou, sheer, dainty ruffies fall
ing over their pretty hands.
Mrs. Barrett had headache, and was
giving herself the rare indulgence of a
lounge in the quietest room in the great
house. The pleasant ripple of talk in
the library had soothed rather than
disturbed her. until it had turned so
suddenly upon herself that she was
stunned into stiffness. Nor could she
move at once when the sisterly prattle
wandered to other subjects.
Mamma is mammal 'Hopelessly
behind the age-and usr' Keep her
in the backgroundr' Papa is so diff
ferentr
These sentences were the precipitate
ofthe whirI of Thought in which '.esthet-
ically," 'impracticable," "ideal mat
rom" ''solecisms," floated as insoluble
and confusing particles.
In her girlhood such terms were not
in the mouths of women. She had been
too busy since to pick them up. Mar
ried at twenty to a busy man, who had
his fortune to make, she had, as she
would have phrased it, "kept up her
end of the log" She was country-bred,
industrious and conscientious. Eben
was ambitious. It was to please and
help him that she worked as diligently
at home a. he did abroad; had risen
early, lain down late, and eaten the in
nutritious bread of carefulness for twen-
ty-six years
She had borne six children. all OF
whom were alive and healthy. She
was q cook and model housewife; an ex.
pert seamstress and economist; feared
God; honored as king her husband;
served as princes and princesses the
children she had given him.
Years ago she had seen that her lord
and master had grown away from her
mentally. The friction of other minds
had frightened and developed the
powers of q naturally excellent intel
fect; the exigencies Of business had
drawn him into competition that was in
itself an education.
The discovery had not troubled her
seriously. He was the stronger vessel.
st. Paul and nature taught her to look
up to him. So long as he loved her,
liked to have her sit near him in the
evening, the Argand burner that illu-
mined his book or letters shedding
light upon her mending-basket. she was
content.
Her children filed, colored. glorified
her life. Being shy, undemonstrative
and unlearned, she coul0 not have put
this into words, but surely they must
have known it. Her husbands wealth,
their own personal endowments- of
beauty, intelligence and tact, had
opened to them the doors of the '.best
pesisty".--s fHct that elated, but did net