Knoxville daily chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1882, 1882-02-11
KISSES ON INTEREST.
An Old Mans Curtzfn-Lecture TO tn
Young Lady known as isis"

Am old Nan. Cart.in-Lecture TO the
Young Lady Known as isis" G
- II, From Peck's SUM-
Come here, Sis, and sit down beside
me, and let me give you little talking
to. That is right. Sit clear at the other
end of the sofa. It makes more room
for my govt and corns, besides being
good habit for a young lady to become
addicted to. Always pander to this
habit, and you will in time find yourself
walking through green meadows and be-
side the still waters of self-respect. You
may be walking alone, to be sure, but
will have fewer lawn dresses to do up on
Monday morning. I wish to speak to
you of your mother. It may be you
have noticed 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. Idont
mean for you to run at and shake your
skirts and tell it to "shoo," as you
would hen, nor do expect you to get
on the other side of the fence and throw
old oyster cans and pieces of barrel
slaves at it, as you did at the COW yes
terday. But want you get up to-mor-
row morning and get breakfast, and
when your mother comes down and be-
gins to express her surprise, go right up
toher and kiss her on the mouth. You
don't imagine how it will brighten her
dear face. Besides, you owe her kiss
or two, Away back when you were a
little girl she had kissed you when no
one else was tempted by your fever
tainted breath aid swollen face. You
were not as attractive then as you are
now. And along through those years of
childish sunshine and shadows she was
always ready to cure, by the magic of a
mothers kiss, the little, dirty, chubby
hands whenever they were injured in
those first skirmishes with this rough
old world. And then the midnight
kisses with which she has routed so
many bad dreams, as she leaned above
your restless pillow, have all been on
interest these long, long years. OF
course, she is not so pretty and kissable
as you are, but if you had done your
share OF the work during these last ten
years the contrast 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 you
to be far more beautiful than an angels,
as it lowered over you, watching every
opportunity to minister to your comfort,
and every one of those wrinkles would
seem to be bright wavelets of sun
shine chasing each other over the dear
old face. She will leave you one OF
theae days. Those burdens, if not lifted
from her shoulders, will break her down,
Those rough, hard hands that have done
80 many unnecessary 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 stringing beans for dinner, and
4 'yQn feel SO badly YOU might go down
and finish them, and let her change her
dress and rest an hour before dinner.
And after dinner you might do up the
dishes while she takes little nap. Then
you might take down her hair and do it
up for her. You need not wind it over
your finger and fuss to make little spit
curls as son used to do with yours, but
give it a good brushing and wind it up
gently and tenderly, as if you enjoyed
doing it for her. The young man down
in the parlor can wait until you have
performed these duties. If he expresses
any impotence, 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, AJAX him
how many times he has 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 gpieted in any othar
way Ask him TO repeat Mother Hub
bard backwards, and il he is unable to
do it, it will be proof positive that he
is not the one that has repeated it, and
explained to yoH /, 700 times, Catechise
him to find ont il he is the one who gave
you the black silk dress, and sat up at
night to make it while you were off hav-
ing good time. Corner him up and
make him admit that he went without a
new bonnet last winter that you might
enjoy S12 one that you admired so
much. Wiring from him confession
that he has stitch in his side, brought
there by doing up your finery week after
week. Then show him out the front
door, put On calico apron, and go out
and help your mother pick currants for
Jelly, and / guarantee you will think
more of yourself, the world will think
more of you, and you will be happier and
better for having done so.