The Lakeland evening telegram. (Lakeland, Fla.) 1911-1922, 1918-01-19
(By Edith Barnard Delano of The
Vigilantes)

NA6houIOoI
The Old Lady came in with her
cheeks as rosy as winter apples.
Gold, mother?" her daughter-in
law asked.
Nov look here, Mary, don't you
say anything to me about being cold
or about anything in the nature of a
hardship! Course | know you don't
mean 1t the way some do, but | de.
clare to goodness just cant stand
any more talk of that sort! Every.
body l met up street either asked me
II there was any coal at our house
or said something about the scarcity
O. things or the price of 'em, till |
just out and out lost my patience!
Lands sakes! | don't know what
folks are coming to, when they are
afraid O. what they call hardships!
That's just what l up and told 'em,
too, right there in Illness store"
why, mother! How outrageous of
you!" Mary laughed.
well, don't care!" said the Old
Lady. "They needed it said to 'em
and said it. Look here says l,
do you know that this country of
ourn wouldn't found place on the
map at all, nor had boundary it
could call its own, nor grown into a
leading nation Of the world, If 1t
hadn't been for the blessing of hard
ships? Do you know how many
times your kin and mine come and
tried to settle on this Atlantic coast
before they could get foothold enough
to enable 'em to stay? Do you know
how many years folks lived in log
cabins, with the wind bowling
through the chinks and the wolves
bowling elsewhere, before the West
was built up and won? Do you know
what those poor shivering creatures
at Valley Forge had to eat and to
wear, or what they didn't have, before
they won your freedom as we'll as
theirs? Do you know what twas like
in the sites, or do any of you remem.
Der 1t the way do? Do you know all
that and more, and what come Of It?
And do you know how twas all won
Through hardships! You got a coun-
try, and fine big rich country, and
plenty Of education in it and plenty
Of good times and prosperity and
room for your children to grow up
safe in; and you got it because your
forefathers weren't afraid of a little
bit of hardening! And what's come
of 1t is that this generation is down.
right afraid of hardening! You're
afraid to be cold! You want the fat
of the land all time and every time,
because you've been having it to
waste and throw away. You're
afraid of doing without something,
or of learning to put something else
in it's place! Shucks! I'm ashamed
of every mothers child Of you! Time
you got little good healthy harden
ing, seems to me! Why, hardships
are as healthful as beans or baked
apples, If you know how to take EN-!
l wouldn't be willing to bring up a
child o. mine, no, nor even a grand
child, without some good old-fash-
Toned hardship to give 'em backbone!
And there you men over by the stove
there are fussing because Tommy
Hines hasn't coal enough to keep the
stove going red-hot! And you know.
ing there's hundreds o. miles o.
trenches over there with men stand
ing up to their knees In ice,water, and
all SO you wont have to come up
against the hardships of war; That's
what l said to 'em; and I got so ex-
cited over it, Mary, that l plumb for
get to bring home your pound of
sugar?"
Mary laughed. "Well, mother, l
guess we can stand the old-fashioned
hardship of going without, for a few
days." she said, But l don't know