The Lake County times. [volume] (Hammond, Ind.) 1906-1933, 1907-03-27
CHAPTER !.
How Il All BEGAN.

EIOW IL f>it 0CSaHs
eve can hold out six months long
er-at least six months" My moth /
er's tone made the six months
stretch encouragingly into six long
years
1 see her now wildly as II 1t were /
only yesterday. We were at our scant /
breakfast, l as blue as was ever
even %, she brave and confident.
And hers was no mere pretense 10
reassure me, no cherries 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; l glanced at her and what shone
from her eyes set me on my feet, race
to the foe. The table-cloth was darn
cd 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 had
| to think twice to realize that we were
| poor, desperately poor. She did not
| hide our poverty; she beautif1ed it,
she dignifed it into Spartan SIM
| plicity l 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
middle-western country, even the cap
able were strangers to hardship.
when l was young" she went on,
land things looked black, as they
and inexperienced that put in with
a teasing smile at mel used to say
to myself: We'll, anyhow, they can't
kill me-" And the thought used to
cheer me up wonderfully. In fact, it
still does"
1 no longer felt hopeless. 1 began
to gnaw my troubles again-despair is
still.
Judge Cranky is a dog" said I;
Eyes, a dog"
why 'dog?" objected my mother
''Why not simply mean man?' I've
never known a dog that could equal
man who set out to be 'ornery"
when 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"
I 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 a miserable
corner of the glass in his door. I'd
l. hang out big sign of my own over
my own Office door,"
My mother burst into a radiant
smile. I've been waiting a year to
hear that" she said.
Thereupon l had a shock of fright
inside, for I'd never have dared to
}. show fear before my mother There's
nothing else thatsmakes 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 flight
this world-drama would be- Vanity
n the greatest of vices, is also ths
greatest of virtues, or the source O
the greatest virtues-which comes t.
S. the same thing.
When did you do it?" she went on
and then l knew l was in for it, an,
" how well-founded was the suspicion
that had been keeping my lips tight
a shut upon my dream of independ
ence.
"Tll-Il think about it." was m
SIS answer, in tone which I hoped sh
t would see was not hesitating, but re
Elective; Il mustn't go too far-or to
fast"
l Better go too far and too fas
than none at ALL" retorted my wis
J mother. Once a tortoise beat a har
once. 1t never happened again, W
the whole timid world has been tall
Ing about it ever since" And sh
on fell into study from which sh
reused herself to say: You'd bette
let me bargain for the Office and tn
DIS furniture-and the big sign" ST.
knew-but could not or would n,
teach mellow to get a dollars wort
for dollar; would not, suspect, fl
she despised parsimony, declaring
81 to be another virtue which is beco1
ing only in a woman
"Of course-when-" I began.
ii We've got to do something in Il
next six months" she warned. Al
now she made the six months see
ca six minutes.
had at my tongues end som
Of thing about the danger of draggil
E. her down into misfortune; but befo
speaking l looked at her, and, loo
ing. refrained. To say it to her wou
on, have been too absurd-to her W
L had been left widow with nothil
at all, who had educated me for G
- lege, and who had helped me throu
my first year there-helped me wi