The Cooperstown courier. (Cooperstown, Griggs Co., N.D.) 1902-1913, 1903-10-15
THE MOTHERS, pIcNIcs.
0ae-Day Outings Of the City Felix
That Do Them Worla
Of Good.

II xS6, S6lO Tic 6StLAVAASAS WI h0As
according to Youths Companion, '.our
fresh air children were success they
always are. 1t was Joy to sec the
difference 1t made in some Of them;
poor little thin, weak. whining. whey
faced midgets when they went, with
hardly spirit to be naughty; and .
pack Of whooping brown imps that
nearly drove the conductors crazy on
the way home. It was positively as ex-
hilarating as 1t was exhausting to have
to quench so many pranks. Those were
whole monthers, mostly, with q few
fortnighters, and occasionally one
weeker or so. OF course. the just-for-
the-days don't show It 20 much; al
though it's surprising the virtue there
is in . four hours layer Of sunburn."
She paused to smile and then added:
when 1t comes to one-day outings,
the people It does the most obvious and
instant good to are the mothers. Not
the mothers who accompany babies or
sick children. either, but tho middle
aged and elderly women. who are
.coaxed and scolded by us. and often fair
lly coerced by their husbands and Older
children, to leave their families for .
single day anu accept our invitation to
picnic in the country.
The first mothers picnic We gave
was q triumph, but it was al I could
do to keep the tears out Of my eyes
while was serving sandwiches and
telling funny stories to amtlse our
guests. They had been exchanging
news on the way, you see quite without
self-pity and with not much pity for
one another; It was too much the usual
thing and the revelation Of what
seemed to me their perpetual imprison-
ment at hard labor in q lot bounded
by poverty, toll. WEAKNESS and monot-
ony, diversified chiefly by births. deaths
and lost jobs. upset my nerves.
Three of them had not been outside
the city for more than ten years; one
Tor II; and the way those women rev
eled In the glimmer Of the lake and the
greenery Of the trees shall never for
got.
longed for derrick in getting her on
and OF the cars-began to whimper
softly like big baby when we got
fairly into the grove. and suddenly sat
herself down plump on the pine-needles,
although there was . comfortable broad
rustic seat at hand. Then she apollo
gizeds in advance. very mustered and
meek, for the trouble she knew it was
going to be to get her up again.
"'But I amt set on them sweet
smelly things since I was no bigger'n
my Name is now, andI just had to do It.
I'm awful sorry she explained.
''Well, Of course her foot went to sleep
and she got cricks In her knees, and
burst both sleeves, OF her gown when
we pulled her up: but We didn't mind.
poor soul. She was 20 happy she
dropped occasional unconscious tears
into her teacup all supper time; and
whenever she could hear a bird sing she
couldn't hear anything else, and It was
no use to talk to her.
"There was another woman who
never, since the age Of IL, remembered,
except when she was sick, eating more
than two meals she hadn't prepared
herself; and another who had never
seen q pond outside . park; and another
who said she could name three kinds Of
wild birds-sparrows. squirrels and
peacocks. I think never saw q score
Of people as happy as that picnic party;
and know. after the first, was never
happier myself