The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1890-07-03
IA LIGHT IN THE WINDOW
The Beautiful Story on Which the
Well known Song was Founded.

LIGHT IN THE WIND OW.
The Beautiful Story on Which the
Well known Song was Founded.
Few are probably the persons who
have not one time or other heard the
Sunday school song "A Light In the
Window. Unless | am mistaken,
says writer in the Louisville Times,
1t is founded upon o story told upon
the little island Of Sylt, but which
might easily have it's exact counter
part on almost any seashore where
mothers heart beats with yearning
love for her sailor son and keeps its
fond promise from night to night
Among the simple fisher folk on the
island lived woman and her son.
He was her only son. the pride of her
heart as we'll as the source of constant
dread. for the boy loved the sea as his
father before had loved it, and nothing
gave him so much pleasure as to
watch the incoming tide tumble its
curling waves over the sands. No
sooner was he strong enough to WELD
an oar and steer boat than he joined
the men in their fishing expeditions.
The mother, with all her fears, and
the fate of long line OF sailors in her
mind, yet would not have had 1t other
wise, for it would have been deemed
dishonor among the hardy coasters to
have kept the boy at home or sent him
safely at work for some farmer.
The fishermen taught him the tricks
of his craft until he knew how to sail
boat, splice a rope, or do many little
things which sailor must know. He
was a great favorite among the long
shore folk and with the sailors, and
when at last his thirteenth year came
around and he obtained the consent of
his mother to go to sea, he easily
found a good ship and captain. Then
there was parting, and tears shed by
the mother, while he looked forward
into the great, wide world with all the
joyous eagerness of a boy. But with
her last blessing the widowed mother
promised that every night a light
should burn in the seaward window of
her cottage to light him homeward
and to show him that she still lived,
awaiting his return.
The ship sailed. Six months passed
and sailors dropped into the vii lage
and told how she had been spoken and
all was we'll, and the neighbors came
TO the cottage and told the pleasant
news to the waiting mother, who
nightly trimmed the candle, lit it, and
set it in the window to make bright
path up the sands. Again six months
elapsed, and other sailors arrived from
far-off lands, but they had no news to
tell OF the ship. A great storm had
happened and she was overdue She
might yet make port, but-and the
people shook their heads and carried
no tales to the widow, whose candle
burned brightly every night and cast
long streamers of light out upon the
sea. Another year passed, but the
sailors going or coming brought no
news OF the ship, and the neigh
bors whispered apart and shook their
heads whenever any spoke of the
widows son; but no one was cruel
enough to cut the slender threads
which held the anchor of her hope.
And thus the light continued to glow
out toward the sea at every cleaning,
and burned steadily through every
night.
Years came and went. The children
who had played with the sailor lad
had grown to be men and women, her
own head had been silvered with age,
her form was bowed, yet no one dared
to cut the cables of her hope. Tender
words cheered her and tender hands
,smoothed the way for her as she
patiently waited for the homecoming
of her fair-haired boy, and every night
the glow Of her candle strearned out to
sseaward and told the story Of the low
ing heart waiting at home.
How many years did she watch and
wait? / do not know. But one day at
teventide, there was no cleaning patch
of light across the sands. The window
remained dark, and the accustomed
beacon failed the fisher folk, and when
they wondered and went to the cottage
they found that the mothers soul had
gone out to seek the son.
It's the ElephantW
One day, about seventy years ago,
when .menagerie was almost thing
unknown, and a solitary wild beast was
now and then carried about the country