The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1885-06-17

When ! hear = man say /
haven't seen nv mother for five
years" | always feel like saying
: Well, then you ought 10 be asham-
ed of yourself = III don't say it I
think it, which gives me some salts
faction. And | think Of the lonely,
elderly woman living in some quiet,
far-off place, her children. some mere,
some there, and she nothing to do In
the winter days Dus TO remember
and say:
We'll. after all, perhaps old maids
are Just as happy
There she sits at her parlor win
dow. Far away are the roofs of the
town, the steeple Of The church where
she was married. Just where the
shadow Of the steeple stops at sun
set is her husbands grave, and the
little ones so close TO it; that first
child who died young-the girl. The
old lady does not cry now-a- days,
but she sits and thinks the knit
tAI- AAAAo III ~ lAEA AdD.
Poor par she sighs and sees
him in her fancy. a young man COM
ing home from the fields beyond,
brown and handsome, catching up
little Trot and giving her ride to
the house on MS shoulder. Dinner
Is ready. Her father aud mother
were living then /; not so old as she
IS now. either. They had stopped to
dine They gave her advice about
Trot end the housekeeping All
gone-aii gone, like dream.
Ii little Tot had lived, she thinks
she should have had a daughter,
perhaps, about the old home yet.
Perhaps she might be married on
the whole, she rather thinks she
would and then she might have
lived with them, and her graBdcail-
dren wsald have been a comfort
Daughters are daughters always.
She sits 10 her rocking chair and
looks at the photographs OF Der sons
Tom and Dick. Oh, she did so
hope that Dick would stay on the
farm. and Tom BET minister and
preach IN the village ehuscht He
might have been called there. 1t
would have been likely, people
thought him 30 talented. Bat Tom
dropped theology and took TO law,
and Dick went into trade They are
doing so well-so well. OF course
she IS glad, but she Is so lonesome.
and now they do not even come
down on Fourth Of July or Thanks
giving Day or Christmas One is in
one city one in another She
would quite willingly sell the place
and 90 and keep house for either,
but they do not propose it They
lead 2 bachelor life there, she that
of a childIess widow here. Letters
come, but men do not ike letter
writing, and it is only little COM
fort, after all. They are good boys
out she has money enough she
needs nothing but 10 De with them
As for . the boys no longer
boys at all except to her-when they
speak Of their mother It IS to praise
her. She was so good so energetic
She spared no pains to educate
them. She did without pleasures
that they might have. more But
they believe her more comfortable at
home. IL she were poor, either
would do everything for her, bat she
has more than she needs Il = quite
a distance to Rose Hill, whore she
lives. They mean to go and see
her very often. but they sre busy
men. and do not 90. And SO, some
day there will come a letter with q
black seal, and there viii 10 longer
be anv eisl- mother ysarning for her
bows in the empty farm house.
The last she said will run the
postscript, perhaps. was. ii / only
could see Tom and Dick once
more >"
Haven't seen your old mother for
five vears2 Well. even If you do
lose fifty dollars by It, or one filrta-
ton with q girl, or 4 Jolly fishing
party, 90 to see ner. The time VIII
come when YOU can only see her.
grave.-M Il. d. IN Sslr Iore
Ledger.