Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1894-02-01

puts the premature wrinkles on SO
many maternal faces, and powders
wnlte SO many maternal foreheads.
ron see. 1t is question that keeps on
ior all the years of childhood. 1t comes
from The nursery and from the evening
stand where the boys and girls are
learning their school lessons, and from
the starting out in the morning. when
the tlppet or hat or slate or book or
! oyershoe is lost. until at night all out
OF breath the youngsters come in and
shout until you can hear them from
cellar to garnet, and from front door to
the back fence of the back yard
where's mother?" Indeed, child S
life is SO full of that question that if
ne De taken away one of the things
that the mother most misses and the
silence that most Expresses her is the
absence of that question, which she
VIII never hear on earth again, except
she hears it in dream which some
times restores the nursery just as it
was, and then the voice comes back so
natural, and so sweet, and so innocent
ana so lnquiring, that the dream breaks
| at the words, "Where's mother?i'
I II that question were put to most o.
us this morning, we would have to say
if we spoke truthfully, like Sisera' S
mother, she is at the palace window
/ She has become a queen unto God for
ever and she is pulling back the rich
| folds of the kings upholstery TO look
down at us We are not told the par
ticulars about the residence of Sisera's
mother, but there is in that scene in
the Book of Judges so much about en-
broideries and needleworlx and ladies
in waiting, that we know her residence
must have been princely and palatiai.
| So we have no minute and particular
description of the palace at whose win
! dow our glorified mother SITS but there
! is so much in the closing chapters o
the good old book about crowns. and
| pearls big enough to make gate out
! of one of them, new songs, and mar
riage suppers, and harps, and white
horses with kings in the stirrups, and
golden candlesticlis that we know the
heavenly residenc of our mother is SUI
perb, is unique, is colonnaded, is
domed, is EMPOWERED, is fountained. is
glorified, beyond the power of pencil o.
pen or tongue to present, and in The
window of that palace. the mother sits
watching for news from the battle
What contrast between that celestial
surrounding and her once earthly sur
roundings. What work to bring m
family in the old time way, with but
little or no hired help except pcrlap
IL. O.. 4 /,
slaughtering, commonly called tht
''killing-day." There was then ne
reading of elaborate treatise of thu
best modes of rearing childr n, ano
then leaving it all to hired help. witt
one or two visits day to the nur
sery to see il the principles ann uncec
are being carried out. The most o.
those old folks did the sewing. the
washing, the mending, the darning.
the patching, the millinery, the man
tua-making, the housekeeping, and in
hurried harvest time helped spread the
hay or tread down the load in the NOV.
They were at the same time caterers,
tailors, doctors, chaplains and nurses
for a whole household all together
down with measles or scarlet fever. or
round the house with whooping cough
and Groups and run-round fingers and
ear-aches, and all the infantile dis
tempers which at some time swoop
upon every large household. Some of
those mothers never got rested in this
world. Instead of the self-rocking
cradles of our day, which, wound up
will go hour after hour for the solace
of the young slumberer, it was weary
foot on the rocker sometimes half the
dav or half the night-rock rock
rock-rocx Instead of our drug stores
filled with all the wonders of materia
medica, and called up through tele-
phone, with them the only apothecary
short of four miles's ride was the gar
ret with its lunches of peppermint
and pennyroyal and catnip and mus
tard and camomile flowers, which were
expected to do everything Just think
of it! Fifty years of preparing break
fast, dinner and supper. The chief
music they heard was that of spin
ming wheel and rocking-chair. Tagged
out, headachy and with ankles
swollen. Those old-fashioned mothers
If any persons ever fitted appropri-
ately into a good easy comfortable
heaven, they were the folks, and they
got there and they are rested. They
wear no spectacles, for they have their
third sight-as they lived long enough
on earth to get their second sight-and
they do not have to pant for breath
after going up the emerald stairs of
the eternal palace, at whose window
thev now sit waiting for news from
the battle.
But if anyone keeps on asking the
question, where's mother?' ] answer:
she is in your present character. The
probability is that your physical feat
ures suggest her If there be seven
children in household at least six of
them look like the mother, and the
older you get the more you will look
like her. But | speak now especially
of your character, and not of your
q H..