The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1886-06-18
THE FINISHED FAMILY.
None Complete without q Grandfaths
and a grandmother I'm 1t.

and grandmother I'm 1t.
It is Southey, isn't it. who saws in
1.-THE Doctor" that household is never
complete unless it has as inmates kitten
and a child not much past It's third
birthday? While we cling to the kitten
and the baby we feel that the family is
not yet finished. We would add to il q
grandmother.
The Pilgrim just beginning his jour-
ney is a curiosity. We long to know
how the country strikes him. how he
will meet the lions in the way, and
whether he will fall a prey to Giant
Despair, but we also desire to learn how
the lions have been conquered, how es-
cape from Doubling castle was effected,
and how roses were made to bloom on
the stalk that had produced only thorns.
The young fill us with visions of what is
to be; the old alone can tell us what
has been. Anticipation is pleasant
companion and often amuses us, but
experience gives us wise advice and an
arm to lean upon when we are in need
of counsel and support.
There is nobody like comparatively
young and lively grandsre or grand
mother to fill in the family chinks.
Grandfather roasts bones and compounds
savory, hot messes. well-peppered, for
the hens, and keeps them laying all
winter when the neighbors are STIR
ring a spoonful of snow into cake in
place of eggs. He keeps the wood-box
well filled with the incest of kindlings
and the driest of wood. and never fOr-
gets to wind the clock. He oils the
crcaking door-hinges and rusty locks,
replaces the tack that has worked out of
the carpet. and soldiers the pin-holo that
has impudently appeared in the new tin
pail. He pares apples and brings the
rind off in one unbroken, red curl for
the little ones to fling over their Shout
ders to form queer, misshappen capital
letters; nobody can coax corn to pop in
to such white flakes as grandpa, and
nobody else can mend toys, direct the
boys about training the ceilings" or
tunncling through the deep snow-drift
at the foot of the hill. If COW in the
neighborhood is sick or a sheep refuses
to own her lamb grandfather is sent for.
and he knows sure remedy. He has
forgotten more than all the neighbor-
hood know to-day, and yet remembers
more than all they ever knew.
And what is there that grandmother
can not do? She is always in order to
see company and never at loss for
something to say. She is ready to take
the baby when nobody else can give
him attention; she binds up bruised
fingers with soft rags and wounded
hearts with tender words, kisses, and a
stray peppermint from the depths of her
pocket or mysterious little box which
She takes down from high shelf in
some cupboard. She keeps the thin
places in the stockings and mittens
darned before they become real holes,
and her wise counsel and soothing words
prevent many holes in the peace of the
family and neighborhood. She has
great stores of supplies for everybody
far and near. She never forgets where
her sage and summer savory and catnip
are, and her hOarhound candy and
thoroughwort strip are so delicious that
every coughing child for miles about
considers himself in luck when he gets
chance to take them.
Grandmother has wcathcred the storm
tossed sea of rctribution and gotten into
the peaceful harbor of forgiveness.
Childhood is infinitely more tender in
her sight than IL is to father and moth
er, and what are deliberately wander
ings out of the way in their eyes are but
involuntary slips of the untried feet to
her Grandmother knows that the
hasty word or unrclcnting penalty of
to-day may gnaw forever at the heart of
the speaker and inilictor. All! how
much grandmother knows!
There is never n snow-storm but that
grandfather or grandmother remembers
a worse one away back in the fabulous
times of 80, 40, or go. years ago. No
late springs or early autumn frosts sur
prise them, for they know by long ex-
perience that the promises of seed-time
and harvest arc sure.
They are better than town histories,
for they furnish not only facts but illus.
tratiOns. They are versed In genealo-
gies. When western paper comes
home with marked item telling of the
success some boy or girl is achieving
two thousand miles away grandfather
and grandmother will tell you whether
the germ of that success came from the
Smith or Jones side of the house-the
Smiths natural aptitude or the Jones'
energy. When people wonder why
young Black, with his good home, went
down-hill, the old people can put fin
ger on the barrel of hard cider that was
on tap in his grandfather's cellar the
year round, and show how the sins of q
man are visited upon those who follow
him.
When somebody comes home after an
absence of a generation in Australia he
finds nobody so delightful rs grand
father and grandmother The younger
people have left of making twisted
doughnuts and condemn pies as I'M
healthful, but grandmother assures them
grimly that her .doughnut pot hasn't
been empty nor pie missin' from her
table a single meal for fifty years. and
she hain't afraid to set herself beside
the women O nowadays, nor the ten
men and women that call her mother,
besides any children she knows of q
CROWN up She has no need to be
ashamed when she looks back on her
work, or to fear for her reward in the
future. Neither grandfather nor grand.
mother spared themselves. Their hands
grew hard for us. They made roads,
they cleaned fields, they invented and
improved that we might enjoy. and we
arc entered into the fruits of their Ia
bors.
The old folks 'pows" are white and
SO arc their hearts. They have served
God and their country for many years,
and every day of life is now but mellow
ing their hearts and adding to the
flavor of the wine of kindness that
flows in their veins. They have lived
both long and well. They have blessed
their fellows, and may heaven, as it has
always done, bless them. How can we
repay them for what they have done for
usp We must ''pass along" to those
who shall follow us as we have followed
them. -Le,oiStOn (Me.) Journal.
l.