Spirit of the age. [volume] (Woodstock, Vt.) 1845-1913, 1882-05-17

BI""BV" hi"hcJ P"'" wv "VohP WI"
newspapers and she read aloud to her
son hours at a time, She would read
of great men with u smile Of enthusi-
asm on her face Of great art galleries
with all tho appreciation of q cultured
taste,
And Robert had seen her face flush
with pleasure at the sight Of some
famous painting on one or two rare
occasions,
But they had visited Rome, and he
had seen nothing Of the treasures Of art
or relies of early religion there they
had journeycd to Egypt, and hc had
not climbed u pyramid; they had been
IN Paris twice, and hc had never seen
a play nor listened to IN opera; they
had visited Berlin, st. Pctersburgh,
Washington, aud he had only by acci-
dent seen some of the noted leaders
among men, and he had never been
inside one of tho public buildings in his
life, They had spent month in Phila-
deldhia during tho summer Of 1876,
and had not been allowed to visit the
great exhibition,
There were three conditions which
Robert had always had to obey. lie
could never go anywhere, even for the
shortest distance or the bricicst time,
without full statement Of exactly
where he was going aud how long he
would be gone, and was allowed to 60
alone only on rare occasions. His
mother always read all newspapers be-
fore he was allowed to touch them. She
always read her letters in silence and
never mentioned them attcrward.
Indulgcnt in many things, his mother
cxactcd implicit obedience in these
matters. He went or remained as she
said he read his iavoritc papers after
she had finished them; he never ap-
pcarcd to even know when she had let
tcrs.
Robert Gains was thinking of these
things as he paced the deck of fast
ocean steamer headed for New York,
on the eleventh of October, eighteen
hundred aud eighty. And the wise
conclusion he 70. med as he threw away
his cigar and turned to rejoin his moth
cr, VINO was rcuuiIS II uo~o.. rs"~~
from him, WAS u conclusion that had
been uttered by more than one person
who had met Mrs. Gaines in the last
one aud twenty years:
"Some make pleasure of travel.
Some try to get pleasure out of it, and
get worry and discomfort for their
pains and money; but she makes II
business of travelling. Why?"
And his question had been asked
many times before he had grown old
enough and wise enough to ask it.
The reader will remember that the
condition of life in which one is brought
up will unless life he made positively
unhappy, be natural to him. lie will
remember that Robert had had the
chance to learn little of fany other life
than the one he led. He was thrown
with travellers to journey long and
widely was natural to him.
We must not think that Robert was
less acute than other young men, al
though he had never put his slowly
formed conclusion into words until that
night.
"She makes IA business of travelling.
Why?"
And behind the fair face that looked
up at him in the gathering twilight,
with its wealth of love and tenderness
that had always been there for him,
was the secret; for he began to feel
to know-that there was secret which
he could not fathom.
"Robert !"
"Yes, MOTHER
''Do you know what day tomorrow
will be?"
"The twelfth of October"
"How old are you?'
"Twenty-one tomorrow, mother
She made room by her side for her
son, and asked with an air of one who
has something to tell which she shrnks
from telling:
"Did you never wonder why we
travel about constantly! Why we
have always journeyed!"
II have wondered, II other; was
thinking of it not minute since.
Why?"
SIT is time you should know. 1t is
time you should begin to help me. We
may succeed better when we can work
together"
l...l.. ..... la.,x.