The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1907-03-24
CHAPTER 1.
How IL All BEGAN.

I'VE can hold out six months long
er-at least six months" My moth
er's tone made the six months
stretch encouragingly into six lone
years
/ see her now wildly as if 1t were
only yesterday We were at our scant
breakfast, I as blue as was ever
even 25, 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 DOGGY that life or
death can conjure. Her tone lifted
me; / glanced at her and what shone
from her eyes set me on my feet, face
to the foe. The table-cloth was darn
ed in many places, but SO skillfully
that you could have looked closely
without detecting it. Not a lump OF
sugar, nor a slice of bread went to
waste in that house; yet even l had
to think twice to realize that we were
poor. desperately poor. She did not
hide our poverty; she beautiied 1t,
she dignified it into Spartan sim
plicity. 1 know it is not the glamour
over the past that makes me be-
lieve there are no women now like
those of the race to which she be-
longed. The world. to-day, yields
comfort too easily to the capable;
hardship is the only mold for such
character. and in those days. in this
midd1e-western country, even the cap
able were strangers to hardship.
when l was young" she went on,
have habit of looking to the young
and inexperienced" that put in with
q teasing smile at met used to say
to myself: We'll, anyhow, they can't
kill me-" And the thought used to
cheer me up wonderfully. In fact, 1t
still does
1 no longer felt hopeless. / began
to gnaw my troubles again-despair is
still.
Judge Cranky is a dog" said I;
yves. a dog"
Why dog objected my mother
why not simply mean. mann I've
never known a dog that could equal
a man who set out to be 'ornery'"
When l think of all the work I've
done 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
But he was benefited by it, too"
] 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
of ba oil in, h
hang out big sign of my own over
my own Office door"
My mother burst into a radiant
smile I've been waiting year to
hear that" she said.
Thereupon | had a shock of fright
inside, for I'd never have dared to
show fear before my mother. There's
nothing else that makes you so brave
as living with some one before whom
you haven't the courage to let your
cowardice show its feather If we
didn't keep each other UP to the mark.
what spectacle of fright and fight
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 to
the same thing.
When did you do it?' she went on.
and then ! knew I was in for it. and
how wellfounded was the suspicion
that had been keeping my lips tight
shut upon my dream of independ-
ence
'Tll-I'u think about it" was nv
answer, in a tone which l hoped she
would see was not hesitating, but re-
Elective; i mustn't go too far-or too
fast"
Better go too far and too fast
than none at ALL" retorted my wise
mother Once tortoise beat q hare
once 1t never happened again, yet |
the whole timid world has been talk |
ing about it ever since" And she
fell into study from which she
reused herself TO say: You'd better
let me Bargain for the office and the |
furniture-and the big sign che |
knew-but could not or woulS not |
teach mellow TO get dolla worth |
for dollar; would not, spect. for /
she despised parsimony eclaring it /
10 be another virtue .lch is becom- |
ing only in woman
"Of eourse-wher-" I began.
We've got to do something in the |
next six months" she warned. And |
now she made the six months seem |
six minutes
l had at my tongues end some |
thing about the danger of dragging
her down into misfortune: but before
speaking ] looked at her. and. look /
Ing, refrained. To say it to her would /
have been too absurd-to her who |
had been left a widow with nothing
at all. who had - Gated me for col
lege, and who ha V.elped me through
my first year there-helped me with
money. / mean. But for what she
gave besides, more, immeasurably |
more-but for her courage in me and /
round me and under me-Td never
have got my degree or anything else,