The Philipsburg mail., 1898-12-09
An Ideal Mother.
{By a young girl.)

Wy h sOuAS 6AAtj
Orators have said that mothers have
Madonna faces. There Is certainly
something divine in the face OK
mother with her baby in her arms, but
1t is almost impossible to define what
this something is. Her eyes and smile
are full Of love and gentleness, and the
very atmosphere about her seems &c
be radiant with these attributes.
An ideal mother is one who lives FOR
her family, but who is not their slave
She is patient, too, but there Is limit
to patience. 1t is perfectly exasperat-
ing, and it must be extremely hard Tor
the mother to be patient when crowd
OF children. her own and somebody
else's, come trooping into the house
with mud on their shoes an inch thick
and almost as much on their hands
and faces. But the ideal mother does
not scold; she simply takes deep
breath and quietly asks the young par
| ty to scrape their feet out of doors, and
II she wants their shoes to be very
clean she will give the children a knife
to do it with. Then the children want
| to come in and play fighting the Span
iards or the Indians with their blocks
or else they want to play emigrants
with every chair in the house for g
horse and the most elegant shawl they
| can find for a cover for the wagon
1t is Saturday morning, too, and the
baking must be done and the house put
| in order for Sunday. But what can the
ideal mother do? II she sends them
away, heaven only knows what sort OF
| mischief they will do or what kind Of!
outwardly calm, bat with very Tuffleo
spirit within, she allows them to stay
And they play happily until noon. But
during the morning about every fifteer
minutes they pop into the kitchen tt
| see IL the cookies are not nearly done
and II they may have "just one apiece. "
An ideal mother is sympathetic an6
, reliable. Two-year-old baby May with
the tears trickling down her fair little
| face, can go to mamma" with heI
! broken dolly, and there she will be
| comforted and consoled to her hearts
|
low, who always wants advice, but
| who is either afraid or too proud tC
ask for It, cannot help telling mother
all about his trials and tribulations
/ tie knows that she will neither scolt
nor laugh at him, and he starts of
again with light heart because there
is one woman in the world who trust
and relies on him.
| l know mother who makes it {;
point to be around while the children
are getting off to school. AS each
starts off she kisses him good-by, from
the college student to the primary
scholar, and her last words, Good
tuck to you, dear" rings in their ears
all day long. Another thing she doe.
is to mend gloves and mittens at tn,
last moment. and in the greatest pos
sible hurry.
Children, as we'll as adults. like tc
be praised and appreciated. Whel
children have tried hard to be good
they like to have their mother tel
them that she appreciates their efforts
And when daughter tries not to us,
slang, because one OF her specia
friends does not approve OF it, sh,
feels greatly rewarded when mothe
says that she is improving in that re
spect. The college boy, when in tn,
depths OF despair about his examina
tions, feels inspired to work harde
than ever when mother says that sh
knows he can do anything he under
takes, because he is his fathers son
and his father always carried every
thing before him.
These are few OF the characters
tics Of an ideal mother. Such moth
er is an inspiration to the child to b
as nearly like her as possible, for sh
is perfect in his eyes.