The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1886-04-21

through the darkness and the smoke, crying
OUT "Mother, where are your and
never came back again, all the
world admired that young man.
Splendid young man! Every body said
be was q splendid young man. Self
sacrifice. We all admire it in Others How
little we exercise of it'll How much would
we endure9 How much would we risk for
others2 A very rough schoolmaster had
door lad that had offended the laws Of the
school. and he ordered him to come up.
Now" be said, ''you take off your coat in
stantly and receive this whip" The boy de-
clined, and more vehemently the teacher
said, 81 tell you, now take OF
your coat, take it off instantly" The
boy again declined. It was not because he
was afraid of the lash; he was used to that in
his cruel home. But it was for shame; he
had no uuderqarments, and when at last he
removed his coat there went up sob of emo
tion nll through the school as they saw why
he did not wish to remove his coat, and as
they saw the shoulder blades almost cutting
through ths skin. As the schoolmaster lifted
his whip to strike a roseate, healthy boy
leaped up, and said: "Stop, schoolmaster;
whip me i He hn is only R9S RSSr ehaR RaG the
scourging, but if you want to take the posi-
tio,a Of substitute you can do it." The boy
said: II don't care, whip me, I'll take il, he's
only poor chap. Don't you see the bones
almost come through the flesha Whip me-"
And when the blows came down on the boys
shoulders, this healthy, robust lad made no
outcry: he endured it all uncomplainingly
We all say: "Bravo" for that lad. Bravo,
that IS the spirit Of Christ
Splendid" How much scourging, how much
chast 's,ment, how much anguish will you and
T &,1, for ofharc2 Nh that MIGHT have
something of that boys spirit. Aye, that we
might have something Of the spirit Of Jesus
Chlist, for in all our occupations and trades
and business, and all our life, home Life,
foreign life, we are TO remember that the
struggle will soon be over. One of the most
affecting "reminiscences ofmy mother was my
remem brance of her as Christian house
keeper She worked very hard and when
we children would come in from
play in the summer noon and sit down at the
table, remember sometimes seeing her come
in with beads of perspiration along the line
of the gray hair, and remember that some
times she would sit down at the table and
lean her head on her wrinkled hand and say:
"Well, the fact is I am too tired to eat"
Long after she might have delegated these
duties to others she persisted in the work,
and we rather liked it, because somehow
things tasted better when she made them.
night, shot past the oil
homestead and cleared the blur of
the window and was trying to look through
and peer into the darkness and one OF my
old schoolmates that I had not seen that
night tapped me on the shoulder and said:
"De Witt, I see you are trying to look tor
the scenes Of your boyhood. "Oh,, yes," !
said, 81 was trying to look at. the old place
where my mother lived and died." That
night in the cars, the whole scene came back.
There was the country home There was
the MONDAY table. There were the children
all around the table, the most OF them gone
now never to come ba * At one end of the
table sat my father with smile that never
left his countenance even after he lay in his
coffin. It was an eighty-four-year smile, not
the smile Of inanition as you sometimes see
on the face, but smile Of courage and Chris.
tian hope: At the other end OF the table sat
a beautiful, hardworking, aged Christian
no lsekeeper-my mother. Oh, she looks 80
tired, she looks so very tired. I am glad she
has so good place to rest in blessed are
the dead that die in the Lord; they rest from
their labors and their works do follow
them"