Middletown transcript., 1910-07-09
fCOSrrSurD From LAST WEEK.

0AS VA 19A GAA@ @@AS@@~S
she had taken upstairs to show
her new room, had remarked;
What q perfect levely mother
you have! If I had q mother,
and one like yours, / should be
the happiest person on earth! ]
should love her to pieces!
The daughter had taken it as q
matter of course, and smiled
carelessly at her orphan friends
rawlings.
The father went to the safe,
and after a short search, brought
back to the table two little leath.
er covered books, worn and old
looking. He called the daughter
to him.
Here is something I should
like you to read tonight think
you will find these interesting. ]
have always meant to have you
read them some time, and to night
is a good time-you'll be alone.
/ am going down to the shop.
You will find me there if you want
me.
She took the books and glanced
at them curiously. At the door
he paused. Don't fall asleep be-
fore you read them, and drop
them into the fire, he added,
humorously. They are precious.
No, indeed, I won't father
What are they? But he had
gone.
She opened one of the books.
The name on the hy-leaf caught
her attention - Cornelis Bell,
Diary for 1s8-. How odd, how
interesting she thought. Moth
er's diary She drew her chairlto
the open CRATE, then abandoned
it and dropped to the hearth-rug,
where she began to read.
It was the later diary she read
first, the happy chronicle of the
mothers first meeting with the
father, Of their growing friend
ship, her shy delight in the sec.
ret Of her love for him, and later,
exult8nt and awed joy over the
precious thought of his love.
Tender, shy and quaint emotions
were expressed in those pages,
the story Of maid and q man in
their beautiful youth, ones
father and mother.
The daughter was conscious of
queer little thrills of interest as
she read of these things, little in.
innate manners and tender ca.
resses, when they were new and
strange and wonderful. 1t was
like the most enhancing love
story.
And to think it was father and
mother! It made ones heart
grow big and soft and eager to
love.
Dear old dad she murmured
with q smile, as she read an elo-
quent account Of a charming
necktie he wore in his youth.
She understood now why mother
and father each must ever be
young to the other.
She finished the book and
gazed dreamily into the fire.
New thoughts. new ideas came
into her mind. What a very fas.
cinating girl mother must have
been /! she said, aloud. For a
long time she thought deeply
over what she had read. Pre-.
cious indeed they must seem to
father, these books.
After . while she opened the
other diary, written before father
had appeared in her life. Grand.
mother Bell, whom the daughter
had stood in awe of most of her
life, figured strongly in the |
pages.
She felt that she never under.
stood before how lonely her
mother had been as a girl, al.
though she had always known
that her childhood had not been
particularly happy. She could
see why she had been so lonely |
in spirit, the mother as girl was
30 entirely different from her
who was q good deal Of
. prig, and from her Puritan
mother.
The daughter smiled as she
read in one place, "To, day mother
received q letter from her friend,
Sarah Smith, who is a terribly
good woman. She wrote she had
been TO visit poor, sick woman,
bedridden over twenty years,
who believed in the Life Ever
lasting, but liked to have some
one come Ia now and then. /
Mother said l laughed
just like all the Bells. the worst
thing she thought she could say
10 me.
Il