The Cape Girardeau Democrat. (Cape Girardeau, Mo.) 1876-1909, 1893-09-09

| folks THINK DOyS can Z sweep.
Fred put all his strength into tho
welding of the broom 1t had boen q
/ rainy week, and Susan's careful hands
had not supplemented her morning care
of the room by gathering with brush
and dust-pan of the mud which his
careless feet brought In. 1t was now
dried and ground into the carpet, to be
raised in clouds of dust by his vigorous
sweeping.
"Phew." Glad enough was he, hav.
ing at length finished, to get Into the
open air, burdeued with d few doubts
rs to whether, after all, he 81 very
much enjoyed the new order of things
II don't really believe boys were
made to be h~ousemaids, he concluded.
but it's only an experiment There
won't be any trouble in getting back
to mothers dear, careful ways" COD
scious of an uIexpressed yet decided.
increasing respect for his mothers
ways.
Late in the day Fred rushed back to
to be spent in company which he held
i'll high esteem. Fred's slovenliness did
not. as a general thing, extend to the
care of his person, his mother having
often had occasion to wonder at the
neat appearance with which he con-
trived to emerge from the chaos of his
room.
"Thuuderr! Fred stood for a mo-
mentat his room door, finding the situa-
ton worthy of his strongest expletive.
The dust from which he had fed lay
thickly upon everything, adding dis
mally t. the prevailing disorder.
81 forgot all about the things mother
spreads over things when she sweeps.
How l hate dust on books! WELL" sei2-
ing a towel and hastily whisking 1t
about, II haven't time to do much dust
ing now. Jack Harper will call for me
in a quarter of an hour.
buttons off? l forgot to take my
best suit to mother. And there's a lit
tie rip near the coat cuff, but l can ink
that"
Setting the ink on the bureau, he
carefully darkened the white streak.
but as he turned from a study of the eff
feet, his brow took on a deeper cloud.
my white tie in the backing box!"
He snatched it up. THE last one l
have left! And all these" tutnbling
over a number which were mixed in
with other things thrown on the table,
are covered with dust. Perhaps this
one will do; but there's a spot on it."
Selling a towel, he carefully rubbed
the front of the lightest-colored tie he
could find. But it was the towel which
had already done duty as a duster, and
was streaked with the sooty dust which
prevails in a house in which bitumin-
GUS coa is used.
As the tie soon looked rather worse
than better, Fred threw both towel
and tie from him with an angry eXcla-
nation. They struck something on the
bureau, which went with them to the
floor.
"Oh, that ink. And all over those
books l left there! What shall l.
Mother! mother.'
Mother. quickly appearing in answer
to his loud cry of distress, could not for
pear a smile at the mixture of express
sions on Fred's face. Despair, mortifi-
cation and a comical of the ludi-
crous seemed striving for the mastery.
20 MOTHER he said, after she had
lone her best TO arrest any further mis-
chief from the ink, will you take mo
back?'
Take you back?" she asked, not
quite understanding what he meant
YES, me and my room. I've given
up. I'll take all you have to say on
tie subject of boys and tidiness if only
you'll wind me up and then keep
me running. But first will you please
go down and tell Jack Harper l can't
go t~o-night?"
why can't you, dear? Thought you
were so anxious to GO
$50 ! was: but look ut me. Buttons
off. Rips. can't find a clean collar
in that muddle, and my white ties
spoiled"
''Ill ask Jack to wait for you a few
minutes. think we can manage things
yet"
Most boys who have mothers a
imagine the quickness with which her
HdIuS It" iIOIu OlC tiiiIR ~ duOtLCl
in making that particular boy look as
a boy should look. From hidden
depths of her own stores a tie vas I'M
earthed. Buttons went on and rips
hid themselves from sight. At the end
of a quarter of an hour Fred Joined his
friends a wiser and happier boy.
Some hours later he turned the
light high for a satisfied gaze about his
room.
This is jolly! Everything clean. ev.
erything in place. Well, it's rather
mean in me if l can't cooperate with
mother and Susan in keeping myself
straight. guess its best for folks in
this world to help each other run each
other, and not be always making things
harder for each other-I mean me, for
mother and Susan-and other folks for
each other"
With which very indefinitely ex.
pressed but very sincerely felt senti-
ment as to every days small duty, Fred