The Newtown bee., 1892-08-12
WILL.
OUR SCHOOL DAYS,

OUR SCHOOL DAYS, WILL. "still sits the school house by the way;
 A ragged beggar summing" -[Whittier. What host of memories! What painstaking plodding at the A, B, Cs! What numb fingers and toes January September afternoons. What awaken ing of intellect, plans for wealth and greatness in life, friendships, loves and hates the memory of those days has in store! School teaching, school influ- | ence, did much to make or mar us, though we knew it not. There is one fact for which we can all be thankful and that is our early home training, in those years which are the most impor- tant of all, was in New England par sonage. This generation is fast out growing the one which included our birthdays; the new has made many ad- vances on the old, but the moral and re- ligious atmosphere of our childhood was more spiritual and efficient in forming character than that which our children will, breath. It was surely no accident that all the sons and daughters early chose the faith of father and mother. Let us see to it that even down to the third and fourth generation, we are all bound up in the sure bundle. Not only in their religious aspect were our home influences a happy introduction to life's school. There is a large element of the born teacher in the Hagen blood. The readiness and clearness of statement and striking way of putting things fla miliar to us all in Uncle Timothy and Aunt Lizzie were not lacking in our dear mother and there was added in her a love for whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatso- ever things are of good report, to which we owe what of refinement and purity of life is in us all. The constantly recur- ring arrival of new inmates of the home and heart and the time required for their hospitable reception and care gave little leisure for direct teaching, but uncon- scious influences are after all strongest and with thankful, reverent, loving pride we bow to our first and best teach er-our beautiful mother, no less lovely to her lover sons and daughters in her silver haired age than to the lover of her youthful choice.
 It was fathers ambition, we all know, to give each one the best education pos sible to his means. With this end in view, he bought the farm at South Am herst and he would have made all of the boys from Will down graduates of his alma mater had he lived and the boys so chosen. Deaths staying hand prevent ed this and threw the younger boys ear ly into the larger school of practical bread-winning, yet the training of books and teachers is, after all, only the vesti- bule, not an absolute essential to the temple. To each one of us, each days providence should be lesson, each op- portunity for mental and spiritual equip ment eagerly grasped. Not for our own sakes, merely, but for those who shall come after us, few of the best books and magazines should lie on our tables. Let not drudgery make pack horses of us so that we cannot enter into the broader vision which better opportunities may open for our children. And, above all, let the daily morning prayer, the weekly afternoon Bible study be as safeguard, an anchor to the soul for our children and children's children in an un- yaf Most of us are hardly through our first semester, our first term. As we come together, we look each to each to see what of pecuniary, mental, intellectual, spiritual acquisition we have made in the harvest field. On to the fight, brothers. Let us win for ourselves at least pure manhood and the kingdom of heaven within us and, though we make no great mark among men, remember The stoutest ship may breast the gale
 And still be driven back;
 What though to reach the port she fail, Shall we declare she could not sail
 Because she had to tack?
 When storms beIate and plagues impede,
 When aches and ills betide,
 Ambitious goal may not be won
 Yet hast thou bravely, nobly done
 If thou hast bravely tried.
 "He nobly does who nobly dares'
 When trials sore oppress
 Whose perseverance naught can shake, Though failure follows in his wake,
 His failure is success.
 The fiercest battles are to fight,
 The strongest forts to scale.
 Sometimes the bravest heroes tall,
 Sometimes the truest lives of all
 Are lived by ones who fail.
 OUR GIRLS, ALLIE.
 "soft eyes looked love to eyes which spoke
 again
 And all went merry as marriage bell.
 -[Byron.
 A. P. Smiths paper closed: Let us keep bright the fraternal tie. May we never become so engrossed in our own affairs as to fail to manifest the fraternal spirit. We may make mistakes and of fend, but, gathered about this festal board to-day, let us drink anew the cup of love and friendship. The older grow, the more I honor and respect Father Smith. He made mistakes, but, God knows, there never breathed man with greater heart, or more sincere desire to do the will of God. If he were here to- day, I'm sure he would urge us to draw closer to one another. The good wives about our firesides have been to us a source of inspiration. They have shared our joys and sorrows, have mingled their prayers with ours to the throne of grace and have come to be very part of our life blood. The home is the heaven spot of heart and no men have been more di- vinely blest than we.