The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1886-01-06
CHARLEY AND HIS MOTHER.
No Did Not Understand Her, hut Sh'
Loved Him All the Same.

No Did Not Understand Her, hut She
Loved Him All the Same.
She had certainly been e trying
mother. While there are trying peo-
pie in the world, it follows naturally
thai some of them will DO mothers, and
Deacon Hanson's wife was one of
them The deacon was of German
descent-and perhaps some of the
composure of his nature came from
that He was stolid sort of q man,
some people said; but that was just
what Deacon Hanson was not.
Hewas simply patient man, be-
lievhg that God ruled the world, and
thatit was an i'll thing to pull against
providence. Moreover he had in him
a wonderful capacity for unselfsh and
long.enduring love. He had married
Jarh Trey because he loved her, and
he Gven her still, when she was fifty
years hid, . wiry, fretful woman, in
Whole worn and worried aspect no sug-
gestpn Of her sweet youth was left in
any Ather eye than his. He looked at
herss&ough the mist of vanished years,
express with some second-sight Of
to be prQt4sflses Of long ago on her
ttses Is, Slf tfS light of other days In
her eyes. ~"t'
But that was what her son could rot
do. He had no memories Of days old
er than himself; and ever since he could
remember she had been fretful and
hard to please. Only when he had
been i'll, at times, she had nursed him
so tenderly that he began to find out
the mother side of her nature. and half
longed to be i'll over again, when he
got well, and all this unwOnted soft
ness vanished. He used to envy boys
who could go to their mothers with all
their little troubles and joys-their fail
ures and their successes. His mother
desired, indeed, to be informed of his;
but she seemed to him in the first place
to claim his confidence as a right, and
then to use it as text for fault-tiuding.
SO-instcad of trying to thaw her
out with the sunshine of his love-he
shut his heart away from her, and new.
er spent moment with her that he
could possibly avoid. Thus there grew
up between them sort of wall, over
which she looked at him sometimes, as
he then thought, sullenly. He knows
now, too late, that il was with dumb
longing in her eyes. For suddenly she
was taken i'll, and her illness was sharp
and short. Her son was away from
home. They sent for him; but when
he came it was too late for her to turn
back from the gate of the other world
to speak some last word for this. He
went into the house, into the we'll
known room, and there he saw her ly-
ing dead.
"Did she leave any last message for
meP" he asked his father, who sat beside
the bed, gray with his unspoken sorrow.
mot exactly. She only cried ont,
just as she was going: Oh, If Charley
and could only have been like other
sons and other mothers!' And then,
before l could answer her, she was
gone. always knew you didn't un.
derstand her, Charley; but she loved
you, all the same. She never had one
day of really good health aftel
you were born, and she suffered so she
couldn't be gay and clipper and easy
going. But she did love you, Charley
And there she lay, dead tn,
boy felt that if he had but drawn
nearer to her, and warmed her with hi.
love, he might have found out her sui
fering, and cheered her with his ten
derness, and warmed her with his love
and tasted the sweetness of being elk;
other sons with other mothers" Ant
so knowing, over his heart there fel
the shadow of sorrow and self-con
domination which will not leave hin
while life shall last. ......
All, let us be tender and pitifal t.
our own, now, to-day, and not wal
until we see them lying dead. Youth
Companion. ..