River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1892-06-16
KEEPING UP
A Mother Who strove for the sake of Her
| GhIlHr~r


Children.
| She wGs q woman of middle age, thin
and plain, with no claim to beauty ex.
sept the eager dark eyes shining star
like from a wistful,- care-lined face.
Twenty years ago she had slipped her
srustful 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
i have tried my best" she said, SIM
ply, ito keep up with the children.
Father and / resolved, when our first
boy was baby, that, stint and scrape
and coptriee as we might, we'd educate
all that Heaven sent US. And we have
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
lngs. l 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
routine of The house-worlk should not
suffer. In that part of the country
where she lived hired help for domes-
tic purposes was almost unheard of;
women did their own work, a
neighbor's daughter sometimes lending
kind hand in An exigency, and the
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, taken hold"
of whatever was TO be done. The boys
could make beds and set tables as well
as draw water and split wood. The
girls were facile housekeepers, with 8
practical knowledge of cooking and
laundry-work-in American society as
essential in the outfit for life 10 the
richest as to the poorest. Though the
living in the HOUSEHOLD was plain, it was
abundant, and the ideal set before the
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 20
ievour poisonous tidbits in secret. So
it came to pass that the keeping up
with the children brought great good
in its wake.
At last day dawned when the
mother felt as if the first stone had been
set in a wall of separation. Two of her
brood mad found their wings. A .dGugh-
teI was going to college. A son was
entering upon business career. The
little wistful woman yearned 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 a heartache under her CHEEKY
show of courage.
Have comfort, dear" said an old
friend, who had been through a similar
experience. The children will never
outgrow you; you hal twenty years
start of them. And yoh have SO disci-
plined your mind, ard 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, but
they will fly like horey-laden bees back
to the hive. The mother who has kept
pace with her children from baby-hood
to adolescence will never lose them
HarnarfS Ra1ar