The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1890-04-02

and sleep. / will put the defense of
marble slab between you and that boys
outrages. Go, now. where the wicked
cease from troubling and the weary are
at rest2" At the departure of such
mothers let the music be an anthem in.
stead Of dirgo. While you and l hear
no sound, yet there are at this moment
tens of thousands OF parental hearts
breaking. All care was taken with
the boys schooling, all good counsels
given, and the equipment for sober
and earnest and useful life was provid.
ed, but it has all gone, and the foolish
son has become the heaviness Of, his
mother.
Much of the poignancy Of the parental
grief rises from the ingratitude of such
behavior. What an undertaking it 10
to conduct family through the all
ments and exposures of early life! Talk
about the skill demanded of a sea cap
tain commanding ship across tho
ocean! That requires less skill than to
navigate young soul in safety across
the infantile and boyhood years. The
sicknesses that assault, the temptations
that entrap, the anxieties that are ex-
cited! Young man, you will never know,
what your mother has suffered for you.
You will never know how your father
has toiled for you. You have been in all
their thoughts, in all their plans, in all
their prayers, from the time your first
breath was drawn to this moments re-
SEPARATION. What they could do for your
health, what they could do for your hap
piness, what they could do for your
mind, what they could do for your soul,
have been absorbing questions. TIC
earn livelihood for you has not always
been an easy thing for your father. by
what fatigues of body and what disturb.
ances of mind, and long years of strug.
gle, in which sometimes the losses were
greater than the gains, he got bread for
you, paying for it in the sweat of his
own brow and the red drops of his own
hearts blood! He looks older than he
ought to look at his years, for it has
been work, work, work.
Many time he felt like giving up
the battle, but then he looked at your
helplessness and the helplessness of the
household, and then no nerved himself
up anew and said: "By she help of God
I will not stop; my children must have
home and education and advantages,
and comfortable starting in the world,
and must get something ahead, SO that
if l am taken away thesV helpless ones
will not be turned out OF the cold chart.
ties of the world" YsA. your father
has been good friend to you. He has
never told any one, and he never will
tell any one, of the sacrifices he has
made for you. And he 10 ready to keep
right on until unto that hand that has
been toiling for you al these years
shall come the very nuntness of death.
You can not afford to break his heart,
But You are doing it. Yes, you are You
have driven the dagger clear up to the
hilt.
And your mother-I warrant she has
never told you much about the nights
when you were down with the scarlet
fever, or diphtheria, and she slept not a
wink, or, falling into drowsiness, your
first cry awakened her, and brought thr
words: What is it, my dear?" Oh, il
the old rocking chair could speak! Oh
if the cradle could only tell it's story o.
years! And when YOU got better, and
were fretful and hard to please, as i!
usual in convalescence, she KEEP her pa
thence so we'll, and was as kind as YOU
were unreasonable and cross. Oh, mid
nights Of motherly watching, how cal
you keep silence? Speak out and tel
that wandering young man the storJ
that he so much needs to hear.
BY the by, wonder What has becom,
of our old cradle in which all of us chill
dren were rocked! must ask my siste
when see her next time. We were
large family, and that old cradle wa
going good many years. remembe
just how 1t looked. 1t was old-fashionet
and had no tapestry. Its two sides ant
canopy all Of plain wool, but there wa
a great deal Of sound sleeping in tina
old cradle, and many aches and pain
wcro soothed BY it as It moved to AM
fro by day and night Most wildly
remember that the rockers. which CAM
out from under the cradle, were on the to]
and sides very smooth, SO smooth tina
they. actually glistened. They must hav'
been worn smooth by foot that lonl
ago ceased its journey. How tired tn,
. foot that pressed it must sometime
have got! But it did not stop for that.
went right on, and rocked for Phebe tn,
: first and for Dewitt the last. And i
was cradle like that, or perhaps o
modern make and richly uphol
stored, in which your mothe
| rocked you. Can it be that TO
J oil that care and devotion you are pay
, ing her back with harsh words, or neg
: lect, or wicked life? Then l mus
r tell you that you are the foolish sol
! who Is the heaviness OF his mother.
, Better 60 home and kiss her and ask he
forgiveness. Kiss her on the lips tina
have so often prayed for you. Kiss he
on the forehead that has often ached 70
5 you. Kiss her on ne eyes that have s.
I often wept over you. Better 60 RICH
, away, for she will be dead before long
t And how will you feel then, after yo
t realize that it is your waywardnes
that killed her? Romulus made no la,
: against patricide, or the Staying of
t father, matricide, the Staying of
' mother, because he considered sue
t crimes impossible, and for 600 year
: there was not crime Of that sort i
' Rome. But then came Lubius Ostiu
: and slew his father, proving the Grim
n possible. Now. do you not think tina