The enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 188?-1899, 1890-03-19

from weeping, ana says; You need NOT
bear the excruciation any longer. Go
and sleep. Twill 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 rest?" At the departure Of such
mothers let the music be an anthem in
stead Of dirge. While you and / 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 provided,
but 1t has all gone, and the foolish son
has become the heaviness OF his mother.
Much Of the poignancy of the eparental
grief arises from the ingratitude Of such
behavior. What an undertaking 1t is to
conduct family through the ailments
and exposures of early lifel Talk about
the skill demanded Of sea-captain
commanding ship across the oceanl
That requires less skill than TO navigate
young soul in safety across the infan-
tile and boyhood years. The sicknesses
that assault, the temptations that entrap,
the anxieties that are excited 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 | n all their
prayers, from the time your first breath
was drawn to this moments respiration.
What they could do for your health,
what they could do for your happiness,
what they could do for your mind, what
they could do for your soui, have been
absorbing questions. To earn liveli-
hood for you has not always been an
easy thing for your father. BY what
fatigue OF body and what disturbances
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 1t has
been work, work, work. Many o time he
felt like giving up the battle, but then
he looked at your helplessness and the
helplessness of the household, and then
he nerved himself up anew and said:
"By the help OF God will not stop; my
children must have home and education
and advantages, and comfortable
starting in the world, and must get
a little something ahead, so that II ! am
taken away these helpless ones will not
be turned out on the cold charities OF
the world" Yes your father has beena
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 is ready TO keep right on until
to that hand that has been toiling for
you all these years shall come the very
numbness Of death. You can not afford
to break his heart. But you are doing
II. Yes, you are. You have driven the
dagger clear in up to the hilt.
And your mother-l warrant she has
never told you much about the nights
when you we're down with scarlet fever,
or diphtheria, and she slept not wink,
or falling into drowsiness, your first cry
awakened her and brought the words,
"What is it, my dear?" o, II the old
rocking-chair could speak, o, II the
cradle could only tell its story Of yearsl
And when you got better, and were
fretful and hard to please, as is usual in
convalescence, she kept her patience so
we'll, and was as kind as you were un-
reasonable and cross. o, midnights OF
motherly watching, how can you keep
silence? Speak out and tell that wan
dering young man the story that he so
much needs to hdar.
BY the bye, wonder what has become
Of our old cradle in which all OF us chill
dren were rockedl ] must ask my sister
when see her next time. We were
large family, and that old cradle was
going good many years. | remember
just how 1t tlooked. Itwas old-fashioned
and had no tapestry. Its two sides and
canopy all OF plain wood, but there was
q great deal Of sound sleeping in
that cradle, and many aches and
pains we're soethed by 1t as 1t moved
to and fro by day and night. Most
vividly ! remember that the rockers,
which came out from under the cradle,
were on the top and side very smooth,
so smooth that they actually glistened.
They must have been worn smooth by
a foot that had long ago ceased Its
Journey. How tired the foot that
pressed it sometimes must have gotl
But 1t did not stop for that II went
right on and rocked for Phebe the frst
and for Dewitt the last. And IL was a
cradle like that, or perhaps OF modern
make and richly upholstered, In which
your mother rocked you. Can
IL be that for all that care
and devotion you are paying her
back with harsh words or neglects,
or a wicked lifep Then l must
tell you that you are the "foolish son
who Is the heayiness OF his mother"
Better 20 home and kiss her, and ask
her forgiveness. Kiss her on the lips
that have 80 often prayed for you. Kiss
her on the forehead that so often ached
for you. Kiss her on the eyes that have
so often wept over you. Better 90 right
away, for she will be dead before long.
And how will you feel then after you
realize IT is your waywardness
that killed her. Romulus made
no law against patricide, or
the Staying OF father, matricide, or
the Staying Of mother, because he con-
sidered such crimes impossible, and for
six hundred years there was not crime
Of that sort in Rome. But then came
Lucius 0stius, and slew his father, prov.
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