The San Francisco call., 1905-08-27

W " months My mothers
tone made the six months
stretch encouragingly into
six long years.
1 see her now, viVidly as if it were
only yesterday. We were at our scant
breakfast, I as blue as was ever even
%, she brave and confident. And
hers was no mere pretense to reassure
me. no cheerless optimism of ignorance,
'but the through and through courage
and strength of those who finch for
no bogey that lite or death can con-
jure. Her tone lifted me; I glanced at
her, and what shone from her eyes set
me on my feet, face to the foe. The
tablecloth was darned in many places.
but so skillfuily that you could have
looked closely without detecting it.
Not a lump of sugar, not slice OF
bread went TO waste in that house;
yet even / had to think twice 10 realize
that we were poor desperately poor.
She did not hide our poverty; she beau
tilted it, she dignined it into Spartan
simplicity ] know it is not the CLAM
our over the past that makes me be-
lieve there are no women now like
those of the race to which she be-
4
fort too easily to the capable; hard
ship is the only mold for such char
actlr. and IN those days. in TINS
Middle Western country. even the cap
able were not strangers to hardship.
When / was young" she went on,
and things looked black, as they have
a habit OF looking TO the young and IN
experienced that put in with a teas
ing smile for me-"l used to say TO my
~. f-f11
And the thought used 10 cheer me up
wonderfully. In fact. it still does"
no longer felt hopeless. ! began
to gnaw my troubles again-despair is
still.
Judge CRANKY is dog" said I; yes.
a dog"
why dog ?" objected my mother
WAY not simply mean man I've
never known dog that could equal
man who set out TO be -ornery.
! When / think of all the work I've
None for him IN these three years
For yourself she Interrupted.
Work you do for others doesn't amount
to much unless it's been first and best
for yourself
nBut he was benefited by. it. too," 1
urged, -and has taken life easy, and
has had more clients and bigger fees
than he ever had before. I'd like to
give him a jolt. I'd stop nagging him
to put my name in miserable corner
of the glass in his door, I'd hang out
a big sign Of my own over my own Of
fice door,"
Ny mother burst into a radiant
smile I've been waiting a year to
hear that" she said.
Thercupon : had a shock OF fright
inside, for I'd never have dared to show
fear before my mother. There's moth
ing else that makes you so brave as
living with some one before whom you
haven't the courage to let your coward
ice show its feather. If we didn't keep
each other up to the mark, what a
spectacle Of fright and flight this world
drama would be- Vanity, the greatest
Of vices, is also the greatest OF virtues,
or the source OF the greatest virtues
which comes 20 the same thing.
when viii you do it?" she went on.
and then / knew L was in for it, and
how welI-founded was the suspicion
that had been keeping my lips tight
shut upon my dream of independence.
.Tii-I'n think about it" was my an
s.ver. in a tone which L hoped she
would see was not hesitating. but re-
fective; Il mustn't go too far--or too
fast" ~
Better go too far and too fast than
not go at ALL" retorted my wise mother.
HOnce a tortoise beat a hare-oace. 1t
never happened again, yet the whole
Amid world has been talking. about II
ever since And she fell into study
from which she rouseds herself 10 say,
You'd better let me bargain for the
Office and the furniture-and the Dag
sign" She Kaew--but could not or
would not teach mc--how 10 get a dol
lars worth for dollar; would not
suspect. for she idespised parsimQny, de-
ciarine IL TO. be another virtue wnicn
is becoming only in a woman. -
''Of course,--when-" / began
We've got to do something In the
next six months" she warned. And
now she made the six months seem six
minutes.
I had at my tongues end something
about the danger Ofsdragging her down
into misfortune. but before speaA-ng l
looked at her, and, looking. refrained.
TO say X TO her would have been too
absurd-to her who had. been left a
widow with nothing at all, who had
educated me for college and who had
helped me through my first year there
helped me with money. mean. But
for what she gave me besides, more,
fmmcasurably more-but for her cour-5
age IN me and round me and under me
I'd never have got my degree or any
thing else. I fear. To call that courage
belp would be like saying the main
spring helps the watch 10 go. looked
at her. They can't XIII me. can thew"
safc i. with a laugh which sounded
so brave that IT straightway made me
brave.
So it was settled.