Year: 1861




When [ was little boy at school, and car
ried my dinner in a satchel made Of calico,
some Of my school-mates carried theirs in
fashionable willow baskets, and sometimes
teased Inc because / carried mine in poke
felt vexed, but reconcied myself with the
recollection that if did carry calico poke,
mother made it, In less than twenty-five
years after that time, one Of these same
schoolmates was happy to avail himself of the
privilege OF sending his children to my school
to receive gratuitous instruction, proffered in
view of his extreme poverty. His children
came to school without any dinner. They
had no nice willow basket; they needed no
calico poke.


William Foster ruled his copy.book with
pencil set in fine silver case. He said he
would not carry such an ugly club of pen
Gil as mine. | compared the pencils his
was the handsomest, but no better than mine.
| had q good lead pencil, hammered out of a
piece Of lead. Mother made it, and was
satisfied with it. After we grew up to be
men, William Foster came to me to calculate
interest on small note at six per cent per
annum he carried pencil worth four cents.


had no gum elastic ball !; but l had one
made Of woolen ravelngs and covered with
leather Mother made it,


When in my twenty second year left home
to attend school in L.. There were in
the school some fast young men, the sons of
wealthy parents There we're others whose
good sense was not annihilated by pecuniary
advantages OF the former class was John
Stokes, who wore very fine broadcloth. My
best coat was not so fine; the cloth cost two
dollars and fifty cents yard; my mother
had traded tow check of our own manufac-
ture for it, while was working to assist my
father in raising his family she paid fifty
cents for getting the garment cut, and made
it herself. John Stokes came one day to my
desk, held ont his arm, compared his coat
with mine, and inquired ironically where |
got such a fine coat. | proudly told him,
My mother made it,


He teigned great surprise, and sarcasticaly
observed he had mistaken it for imported
goods; he wished he could get such fine
clothes, and wondered if mother would not
get him up fine coat A short time after
wards, while in tailors shop one morning
with felow-student, John Stokes fine coat
was brought in by lad, with instructions
to scour and press it, He was not in his
class that day; he had been seen the previ-
GUS night Oh Water street, rolling in the mud
drunk as Bacchus He left school in dis.
grace. He now lies in a drunkards grave.


boarded myself while attended school
here. walked nine miles home at the close
of each week, and returned on Monday morn
ing with nay loaf of bread under my arm.
1t would become stale before Friday evening,
hut always relished it when l recoIected
that mother made it,


am now so far advanced in life that my
friends begin to call me DID, But have not
lived long enough to learn why l should not
still respect my mother, and regard her affec-
tionately. She is quite advanced in years,
and has nearly lost her sight. She sits with
in few feet of me, sewing up rent in my
linen coat, while write this. She knows
not what am writing. She has been wild
ow eight years, and is still toiling for the well
fare of her children.


She has never studied grammar nor phil
osophy, nor music. These things we're sell
dom taught in her young days; but she knows
their value, and has toied many q hard day
to purchase books for her children, and sup.
port them at schosl. And shall | now curl
the lip in scorn, or blush in company, to hear
her substitute verb Of unity for one Of plu-
ralty, or pronounce word twenty years be.
hind the Websterian era? Never-no nev-
er! The old dilapidated grammar in my H.
brary might testify against her style; but
its testimony would be infinitely more terri
BILE against my ingratitudc. Irecolect we'll
when she rode seven miles, one cold winters
day, to sell produce and purchase that book
for me, when was little boy. Itrequired
u sacrifice, but mother made it.'-Home
Jou,mal


DRAFTS REPUDIArED.-The Western Chris