Omaha daily bee., 1912-06-15

ho s4ioQlo ldll w no S gong TO take care
of him If he should be i'll? How is he
going to know what to say to the editors
when he does See them?
-. Dear me, what a mother you are, to
be sure; what regular mother from the
very first letter of your name to the
very last drop Of ink at the end of your
signature!
Let him. Why what else can you 70
but let him? He isn't yours; he's his
own. -
Yes, know. I know you've nursed him
and walked the floor with, him, and
you've sat up at night and taken care of
him through that spell of typhoid, when
the doctor said there wasn't a chance
for him to pull through. You've cooked
for him and mended for him and agon-
lied for him and hoped for him and lived
for him. ''---
Let's see, it's nearly nineteen years
ago that you heard his first feeble Wall,
isn't 1t? Nineteen years. How many
parties did you stay at home from for
his sake: how many dresses have you
worn when you really should have had
a new one, to save money for his new
suit? How many times have you planned
and thought and worried to help him out
Of some foolish boyish scrape? He is
all you have, you say; all you live for.
Well, then, in the. name of justice, give
him his chance to live..
Let him learn how few people there are
who will care cent whether he is hun
CRY or not. Let him learn how many fell
lows there are in the world who are
twice as clever as he; let him learn that
the only way to get anything on earth
is to work for it and work in dead and
desperate earnest.
Your boy is too big and too strong and
too smart to be ruled by you any longer
little mother; let him go and rule him
self, and yet him go with a smile and a
blessing.
Ungrateful, selfish, cruel hearted? Not
a bit of it,; he's boy. that's all. Some
day he will be man if you'll let him.
Dependent upon you, is he, under it
all? Can't find his own socks and
wouldn't know how to buy a suit of
clothes for himself if he had all the
money of Croesus?
He'll find his socks all right when he
has to, and about that suit-dont you
worry. He'll get cheated few times;
he'll buy the wrong thing and have to
wear 1t, and he'll learn.
cartoonist. eh? Poor boy, he'll learn
never to say that word above his breath
He'll learn to laugh at his own work and
to smile at his own disappointments, and
he'll learn to be thankful for a chance to
be plain, every day dub as they cal
them In the art rooms of the big papers.
He'll be joked for coming from coun-
try town. and he'll be made fun of till
there isn't an ounce of conceit left in
him. and sometimes he'll feel as if he'd
give all the world Just to be little again
and run home and hide his face in your
faded old dress and cry and have You
comfort him.
And then he'll fall In love with a fool
and he'll fall in love with girl who will
do her worst to break his heart, and he'll
fall in love with woman old enough to
be his mother, and he'll spend every
some cold-hearted creature VINO will
make fun of him to his very face
And he'll get into evil ways maybe for
while and walk along the brink of the
preeipice. You'd hold your breath if
you could see. him, but he'll learn, he'll
learn, and some day when he has learned
he'll come home and tell you all about it,
And your faded face will look more
beautiful to him than all the faces he
has seen in all his foolish dreams, and
your tired voice will sound to him like
the music of all the angel choirs, and
he'll bring you new gown and make
you buy new pair of pretty shoes, and
he'll take you to town with him to visit
He'll take you to the theater and to the
park, and he'll show you the town and
laugh at your old fashioned ideas very
tenderly. And he'll buy you a posy to
wear in your little plain gown, and he'll
show you the place where he slept the