The Press., 1894-08-30
affairs cause you to be late at your meet

affairs cause you to be late at your meet ing.''
 Mrs. Thayer arose to go at once. Don't be so angry with me. It is be- cause Fl love you and your boy that want you to think of my suggestion. Good bye, 8
 Mrs. Howard stood still until she heard the front door shut, then threw herself upon her bed and shed angry tears.
 AThe meddlesome, disagreeable thing She's only jealous because my house is kept inso much better order than her own. And her children hang around home till should think she would go Wild with their laughing and chatter. My head aches so ' shall not be able to sew another stitch, after hearing all that horrid stuff. Why -can't people learn to attend to their own affairs That's what comes of these tenn perance societies for women." Then she went back over the whole and remembered how she had forbidden Roy to play in the house. Somehow she began to feel uncomforta- ble and uneasy. What did the boy do when she sent him out of doors to play i? Whom did he play with? Was there really any danger for him? Her con- science began to sting and her anger to- wards Mrss Thayer to diminish. Pres ently she got up and ran down stairs. She looked for Roy, first on the street in front of the house, then ill the back yard. Voices in the barn arrested her attention, and with cautious step she approached until she could see within.
 Earl Evans and Roy sat on the manager smoking cigarettes, while coarse faced, dirty boy she had never seen before was drawing long whiffs through an old cob pipe, stopping at intervals to indulge in jokes so coarse that Mrs. Howard was appalled,. She endured the torture but a few minutes before she made herself known. The strange boy was sent away with sharp rebukes, the other two were taken to the bathroom and put through a course of vigorous scrubbing of mouths and teeth and hair. To the distressed mother it seemed the children were pol luted body and soul, and she felt that the one great effort of her life hereafter must be to try to remove the stains before they became indelible.
 In spite of her harshness to her little
 Roy, he was the idol of her heart. She felt unable to say or do anything strong enough for the occasion. Indeed, her own shortcomings as a mother rushed upon hers sharply and so suddenly that she felt lhelplessN and almost hopeless. Her very silence impressed and awed the children, it was so different from her usual scold- ing, and her white, miserable face made
 them ashamed and penitent.
 Pm SO sorry, mamma! Bob said you l:gnnldn't really care, that mothers never ' d9; that all they cared for was to get
 boys out of the way, and-and-I guess
 that's the truth, isn't it" Roy said apol- ogetically.
 "No, dear, it is not true Mammas do
 care very much indeed; more than can
 tell you. But we will not talk about it just now. Take Earl into the sitting
 room and play whatever you please, so
 that you do not hurt yourselves or destroy
 anything. Just have good time, and oh, my darling, never forget that mamma | loves you!"
 She could say no more, her voice was
 so choked with tears, and the two little
 boys went quietly down stairs and soberly
 talked the matter over together. When Mrs. Thayer reached her home
 from the w. c. T. U. meeting, to her in
 tense surprise, she found Mrs. Howard
 awaiting her.
 "I've found do need reforming. Tve
 been heather in my home, and I've come
 to have you teach me how to remove the
 sin spots from my little Roy's soul," the
 humbled woman said, smiling faintly. It was almost dark when she returned
 home, some of the heaviness lifted from
 her heart, her hands full of leaflets and
 books on child culture, social purity
 heredity.
 I The next week found her an eager lis
 tener at the w. O. T. U. meeting. Un-
 der the ennobling influences exerted there
 she put forever behind her many false
 ideas concerning housekeeping and child.
 rearing, and learned of the beauty. broad.
 ness and holiness of the higher life of the
 true mother.