Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1916-08-22
KNEW HOW IT WAS
SON UNDERSTOOD WHAT MEM
DRIES MEANT TO MOTHER
Lesson in This Story to the Young
Who Fail to Realize What Asso-
Citations Represent to Those
Who Are Aging.

The time had come for the family
to be broken up. One by one the chill
dren had married and moved away.
Mother had hidden them good-by with
ltears. She had taken care of them all
for so long! She had been the big
factor in all their lives. Yet she knew
that it could not last forever. The
boy, the baby of the household, was
the last to go.
The daughter who was to live with
mother had been getting along well in
the world and had seen no reason for
having man help her manage her
affairs, and as she vowed that this
state would last forever she decided
that mother had best go with her.
Daughter decided that all the old
furniture must be sold and that they
must move into new house with all
new furniture.
1t was pathetic to see how mother
watched each old piece of furniture, as
she busted it on her daily rounds.
The old walnut bedstead, the cherry
dresser, the old-fashioned cane-bot-
toned walnut chairs that had been in
her room so long were old friends.
She protested feebly against hav-
ing to have a new brass bed in the
drew nearer mother became more and
more depressed. The business daugh-
ter, engrossed in her own affairs, did
not know the heart pangs it was tax
ing for mother to reconcile herself 20
the parting with the old furniture.
1t was mothers link to the past.
A day before moving into the new
place, the son from the far city came
home. He had an understanding
heart He saw in a minute what the
daughter had failed to see. Mother
just could not part with the old furni-
ture.
The daughter insisted that she
must not have any old-fashioned stuff
cluttering up the new house. The son
argued for room for mother with all
the old furniture. But the daughter
was not sentimental.
A bed was to be slept in. That
was the extent of its value. How
mother could cling to those relics was
more than she could understand. Sis
ter had always remembered her broth
err as too sentimental for his own good.
She had wondered how it was he had
escaped marriage thus far. But the
son understood his mother.
He could see how she was aging,
for he had not been with her every
day for years. He understood her as
her daughter did not Life without
the old associations would be mere
existence
He found mother rubbing the look
ing-glass on the old dresser. There
were tears in her eyes Then he could
stand it no longer.
Mother, 1 just came home to tell
you that I have come back to the old
town to accept a new position, and I
am sick and tired of hotels. Why
can't l move my trunk home here, fix
up fathers old room for my desk and
papers and live like used to?
Everything in this old house will
stay just as it is. Only l have to get
some of those old rag carpets for the
bedrooms like we had years and years
ago. You are going to be boss of the
ranch. I'll be the hired hand, and
We'll make the old house be glad it's
still standing"
Mother did not say word She be-
gan to cry. And because the son I'M
derstood wonderland especially moth
ers-he was glad to hear her cry, for
he knew it was for joy.-Indianapolis
News.