Warren sheaf. [volume] (Warren, Marshall County, Minn.) 1880-current, 1892-06-16
KEEPING UP.
q Mother WHO strovs for the saks Of he,
Children.

Children.
She was woman Of middle age, thin
lnd plain, with no claim to beauty exc
sept the eager dark eyes shining star
like from q wistful, care-lined face
Twenty years ago she had slipped her
trustful hand into that Of another, and
counting the world well. lost for the
sake Of her love and faith, had entered
apon q life of such toll, privation and
heroic endurance as only women in
frontier settlements, amid primitive
conditions, know.
have tried my best, " she said, sine
ply, TO keep up with the children.
Father and resolved, when our first
boy was a baby, that, stint and scrape
and contrive as>we might, we'd educate
I'll that Heaven sent us. And we hnve
done what we could. / wasn't willing
that my children should get ahead Of
me. I've tried to- study their lessons
with them and to enter into their feel
mgs. don't want them to outstrip mo
In the race.
This mother had been one of those to
whom early rising and late retiring had
been always essential. in order that the
eoutine of the house-work should not
suffer. In that part of the country
where she lived hired help for domcs-
tic purposes was almost unheard Of;
women did their own work,
neighbours daughter sometimes lending
kind hand in an exigency, and tho
men of the family doing their share at
need. In her determined effort to keep
step with her children in their intellec-
tual development, she had in another
direction builded better than she knew;
for the children, boys and girls alike,
had early been pressed into her service,
and had, as she explained, "tallen hold"
OF whatever was to be done. The boys
could make beds and set tables us we'll
Is draw water and split wood. The
girls were facile housekeepers with
practical knowledge of cooking and
laundry American society as
essential in the outfit for life to the
richest as to the poorest. Though the
living in the HOUSEHOLD was plain, it was
abundant, and the ideal set before tho
family was something nobler than a
mere strife for wealth. Everything
was open and above board. Books were
read and priced in common, and so
much was going on to interest every
body that there was no temptation to
devour poisonous tidbits in secret. So
it came to pass that the keeping up
with the children brought great good
in its wake
At last a day dawned when the
mother felt as if the first stone had been
set in a wall Of separation. Two of her
brood had found their wings. A daugh-
ter. was going to college. A son was
entering upon business career. The
4 little wistful4 woman ycarncd to keep
pace with them both, yearned perhaps
to ordain the pathway of both, as she
always had done. But it was inevitable
that there should be some parting OF
the roads Brave as she was she kept
down heartache under her CHEEKY
show of courage.
Have comfort, DEAR" said an old
! friend, who had been through similar
experience. 1.-THE children will never
! outgrow you; you had a twenty years
start of them. And you have SO disci-
pinned your mind, and trained your
heart, and elevated your own thoughts
above the daily rut,, the fret. and the
stir, that you dwell in serene atmos.
! phere, favorable to expansion of every
faculty. They may acquire facts, bit
they will fly like honey-laden bees back
to the hive. The mother who has kept
/ pace with her children from baby-hood
to adolescence will never lose them
Harper's Bazaar.