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Show When Sod Leaves Home iH By WINIFRED 3LACK. SO YOUR boy Is out of school nnd nothing will do but lie must go to the Big City and be a enrtooniet. H Jlc is clever, you say. and so say H Ills teachers, and he really can draw 1 such funny pictures of people that mmmW every one In town laughs over them, H and he doesn't take any interest in H anything on earth but pencils, paper H ideas. Shall you let him go? :mmm Where? When? VmW Ought you to sell your home and I H Ro with him to take care of him? 1 H is It right to let him go nmong strati- H seers? What if lie should fall? Who's going to tnkc care or him If he should be 111? How Is he going lo know what to say to the editors when he goes to see thorn? H l'Jcar me. what a mother vou are. H to be sure; what a rcculrir mother '1 from the very first letter or your ll liainc to the very Ht drop of Ink at the end of your signature! H Let him! Why, what else can vou dp but let him? lie Isn't yours, he's Yes. I itnow. I know vou've nursed him and walked lh- flo'or with him. nnd you've sat up at night and taken cU" of him through that spell of typhoid, when the doctor said thre H wasn't a cbnnee for him to pull through. You've cooked for him and mended for him and agonized for him 1 and hoped for him and lived for Let's see, it's nearly nineteen years H ago that you heard hie first feeble wall, wasn't it? Nineteen yearn! Mow 1 many parties did you stay at home from for his sakr; how many riresse; B have vou worn when yon really should Mmm have lind a new on. to save money H for his new suit? How main- times jH have you planned and thought and mWM worried to help hhn out of soiue fool- Ish boyish scrape? He is all vou B have, you say; -ill you llv. for. WpII then. In the name of justice, give him Ills chance to live. H Let him learn how few people. .HH there nre who will care a crtnt il whether he Is hungry or not. Let H him learn how many fellows Ihere 1 arc In the world wlio are twice at-clever at-clever as he; let him learn that th? only way to gel anything on earth is to work for II and work In dead mWM and desperate earnest. Let him go. Let him learn to be lonesome and neglected and made fun of; lot him learn to fight his mW own way. Give him room, give him time, give him freedom, or what he thinks is freedom. IH Your boy Is too big and too strong and too smart to be ruled by vou any longer, little mother; let htm go nnd rule himself, and let him go with a smile anil :t blessing. rngrnteful, selfish, cruel hearted? Not a bit of it: he's a boy, that's all. mW Some day he will be a man if you'll let him. Dependent upon you. Is he, und" IH it all? Can't find his own socks. IH and wouldn't know bow to buy n suit of clothes for himself if he hnd all the money of Croesus? He'll find the socks all right when he has to. and nbout that suit don't you worry. He'll get cheated a few times; he'll buy the wrong thing and have to wear it, and he'll lenrn. A cartoonist, eh? Poor bos, he II learn never- to say that word above i IH his breath. He'll lenrn to laugh at mWl his own work and to smile at his 1 own disappointments, and he'll learn IH to be thankful for a chance to be a plain, every day "dub." as they call them In the art rooms of the big papers. He'll be Joked for coming from a country town, and he'll le jH made fun of till there isn't nu ounce of conceit left In him. nnd sometimes he'll feel as If he'd give all the world Just to he little again and run home . jH and hide his face in your faded old MM dress and cry and have you comfort mM And then he'll fall In love with a mm girl who will do her worst to break mmm his lieart, and" he'll fall In love wfft , mmm a woman old enough to hi: Nils mm mother, and he'll spend every penny yWM ha makes buying prozents for some cold-hearted creature who will make mW. fun of him to his very face. mm And he'll ?et Into evil ways mayb mm for a while and walk along: the brink mM of the precipice. You'd hold your MM breath If you could see him, but he'll mM learn, he'll learn, and some day when M ho has learned boll come home and M tell you all about tt. mm And your faded face will look more MM beautiful to him than all the faces mm he lias seen in all his foolish dreams. mM and your tired voice will sound to MM him like the music of all tho angel mm choirs, and he'll bring you a new mM gown and make you buy a new pair ; mm of pretty shoes, and he'll take you to ' MM town with him to visit, j MM He'll Introduce you to all his pals. mm and his voice will have a queer thrill ' mm in It that will mnke the pals look up mm when he says "My mother." mm lfc'll tnkc you to the theater and Jmm to the park, and he'll show you the mm town nnd laugh at your old-fashioned mm Ideas vory tenderly. And he'll buv you a posy to wear ill your little plain gown, nnd he'll show you the place where he slept the time he got really down and out and hadn't the price of mm a night's lodging. mm He'll take you to dine nt the gav mm restaurant you read about in the magnrinc articles on "The Real Bo-hernia," Bo-hernia," and he'll let you hate all his enemies nnd love all his friends nnd mm be sweet to all bis sweethearts, and mm then you'll see that It was all worth while. The long struggle, the bitter mm anxieties, the cruel care all worth mm while a thousand times over, for ho's mm a man: the boy of yours a man. And you, the little, plain mother thn re at homo, you are the one who let mm him be a man. and helped him every step along the road, though he didn't mm know It and you didn't either, then. mm Good-bye. sou, the road Is wide. mm See how it winds along among the MM shadows there. Hark! What are MM those strange voices calling from tb dark woods along the way? Look! mm There's a rough place. I don't see how you'll get over It, but that's jmmm your affair, and not mint. I've mM walked the road, walked It in sun- MM shine, and In storm, walked it with mm bleeding feet and with a sore heart, IH walked It when the stars sang to- M ther for very joy MM What a thirsty road St Is, and how mM hungry you'll be sometimes; how nch- mm lng with weariness. But It's your road, your own road take It and mm walk It like a mnn. No. there are no tears In my Ayes. mM See. I am smiling. Thore'x tho open mm road, son take It Uka a man. mM |