The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1941-04-03

L OC OO~SC@ ~ SsDc 1P aScN Ossty Nssss%s
Read Kathleen Norris startling reply.
er and father. They fed her then,
naturally, but / clothed and educat-
ed her, worried over her when she
was i'll.
Now she is 10, and she wants to
live with her grandmother. That is
the long and the short of It. She
loves her father; he is managing
the small farm now, and he and her
grandmother worship Jean. She
wants to go to school with a little
girl who lives near, she wants to
help Granny cook, and she and Dad
dy manage everything and have so
much fun.
ST admit that it is a more nat
ural life for her than living In san
itarium filed with detectives and
psychopaths, but what about me?
Have I no rights? Now that she is a
fine, Independent, sef-reliant little
human being, rather than an exact
ing and delicate baby, Paul wants
her, of course.
A Bitter Blow.
'sThe thought that she wanted to
60 to him was so bitter to me at first
that could not conceal il from her.
She cried for days, but when she
finally gave in it was with the air of
a martyr, and she made no secret of
the fact that her interest was out at
the farm. She telephoned her father
every night, and nothing that I did
or offered In the way Of movies or
new frocks interested her.
'What shall I do? Give up my
child, the very light of my life, or
keep her and trust that after time
she viii turn to me again? We have
most of our meals IN the big dining
room, but ] have a nice suite of
three rooms, including a small
kitchen where can arrange an oc-
casional little feast for just the two
of US. We have many perquisites,
rent, light, service, meals, hot wa
ter, linen, but Jean says lately that
she hates the institution, the wards
and the smells of the halls and ele-
vators. Is it fair that after ignor-
ing his responsibility for her when
she most needed him, her father
should have the pleasure of her
company now? His mother, ! viii
say, is wonderfully fine woman,
and / am not surprised that Jean
adores Granny. Perhaps if I had
had Granny's sheltered life and
comfortable home I might be the
same sort of woman"
Let Jean Go.
This is really a sad letter, and a
hard one to answer. But I think
that the answer is that Jean is the
person to consider, and that her
mothers best chance of winning the
child's heart is to be generous now.
Life with a loving father and won
derful grandmother on a farm is a
child's ideal Of perfect happiness,
especially when it is contrasted with
the bleakness and bigness of institu-
ton life. Jean probably suffers from
constant association with the defec-
tive and afflicted children, and finds
the coziness of her grandmother ia
BILE delightful by comparison.
So I would give her up, If I were
Sally, as we all have to give up our
children sooner or later, and re-
joice that so pleasant and safe a
haven is ready for her, In a world
IN which so many hundreds of chill
dren are neither safe nor happy.
Let that be the arrangement for
the present, Sally. But be very sure
that the future holds changes that
you cannot possibly anticipate.
Try by keeping things serene now
and winning your little girls graft
tude, to be ready to take her back
when the time comes. When man
and woman split up child's life by
divorce, no matter how justifable
that divorce and how entirely the
fault lies on one side, they owe the
child the sacrifice or concession of
making its life as happy as posi-
Bile. It seems to me In this case
that Sally is the only one dissatis-
fed, and so il is for Sally to recon-
Gle herself to the situation, or rath-
CT face the truth, and make the best
of it.