The Bozeman weekly chronicle. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1883-1889, 1884-10-15
Taking the Mother Away.

customary advice on question of vital
Importance, and the advice is cherfully
given. He says:
my brother and myself have quar-
Ter section of land in Dakota. and we
have been out there and broken a part
of it, built sod house, and expect to
remove out there this fall. We need
somebody to keep house for us, and
our mother has offered to 60 with us.
think she offered to 60 more from a
feeling OF duty TO her two sons, than
from any desire to encounter the hard
ships Of pioneer life, and we don't
know whether it would be right to take
her out there, and have decided to
leave it to you. My sister, who is mar
ried and living at Monroe, wants mo-
ther to live with her, and thinks it is
not the duty of an old lady of sixty-five
years to 60. Our father is buried here
and every Sunday mother goes out to
the cemetery and places flowers on his
grave. am engaged to be married to
young lady. but the time is not set,
though probably we shall be married
within year or so. do not like to
ask girl who has always lived in this
country, and enjoyed society, to marry
me and go away off to the frontier.
What would you do about mother?''
Well, to make long story short, we
would cut our right arm off at the
shoulder before we would take mother
away from the hallowed associations of
home and transport her gray hairs to
sod house in Dakota, four miles from
the nearest neighbor. Let her stay
with your sister, and you two boys 60
out there, keep old ''bach." raise big
crops for couple of years. and when
some eastern capitalist comes along
who wants to own the world, sell him
the farm for ten or fifteen dollars an
acre with the crops on the ground, and
then you come back and marry the girl
and settle down in old Green county.
Or, if you have got to have house.
keeper. hire one, or marry your girl
now. 1t would be better for the girl to
put in couple of years helping you
make money than to take the old
mother.
the mother has had her share Of pio-
neer life before you were born. helped
to raise the family OF children so they
can take care of themselves, and in her
OLD age it would be cruel to cause her
to endure hardships that almost killed
her when she was young She may
smile at your ambitions, and tell you
she will go with you 10 the ends of the
earth, and you may think she wants to
90. but boy, that grave of your dead
father in Green county contains large
part of her dear heart, and if you take
her away from its vicinity there will be
y great lump Of lead in the heart case.
She will strive to make you boys happy
way out there OH that prairie. and will
endure the blizzards of summer and
winter and not complain, but if you
watch her when she receives Letters
from the old home you will see great
tears in her eyes, and she would give
all tine world to 90 back, though she
will never mention it TO you.
During the long months of winter,
when your sod house is covered with
snow, and it is a struggle with you all
between life and death from freezing,
she will try to brighten your sinking
spirits by telling you how pleasant it
will be when the winter is gone, but if
you should say to her, Mother, we
will sell the farm and go back hOme,"
you would see hcr face brighten and
look to you rs it stood over your cradle,
and you were little child. Her heart
is bound up in you, and she would go
with you. but the hailowed spot where
rests all that is mortal of yoar father,
and the home where your sisters chill
dren delight to welcome grandma, is
the place for her, and if you go west
YOU must leave her here, write to her
often. and come back as soon rs pos
sible.
DO not deceive yourself by the idea
that she wants TO 90. Her love for you
would prompt her to die for you if nec-
essary, and very likely she would if you
took her away out there. Dakota is .
grand place for young men and women
to 60, to get experience and make
some money. They learn to take re-
sponsibilitics and bear them nobly,
they enjoy health that is brought to
them by labor in the pure air. but the
old fathers and mothers in Israel want
more shade than can be found in =
treeiess territory, and home surround
ings that cannot be found in sod
house.
The San knows many cases where
old fathers and mothers have been
transported from this state of loveli-
ness to the far west. who have been
brought back OH trains where hearses
instead of Omnibuscs met them at the
depot, and cases where the old hearts
have yearned for the old homes until
they almost broke; and while it would
advise boys who are able to 60 west
and become men. it would more strong
ly advise the boys to leave the old folks
where they have raised families, where
they know all thepeople and are loved
and respected, where children adore
them. neighhors are ever ready to SYM
pathize with them in sorrow, and lend
helping hand in sickness.
BY all means. boy, leave the old mo-
ther with your sister and she will live
ten years longer than she would on the
Dakota farm. and when You come back