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Show THE ONLY CHILD P EECY was an only child, which those who know say is only a shads worse than being the youngest sou. In Older to handicap him still further, his father died when he was ten and thus threw upon his mother the entire responsibility re-sponsibility of bringing Percy up properly. prop-erly. She, unselfish creature that moth-rs moth-rs always are, in trying to be both father and mother to him at the same time, came as near ruining him as a hard-working self-reliant woman can. He never had to get up in the morning morn-ing without being called several times, in fact, for mother seemed to enjoy the responsibility, of getting him out of bed, and he did not want to deprive de-prive her of a simple pleasure of this sort, which seemed to bring her so much satisfaction. He never denied himself anything, never was asked to do anything any-thing unpleasant a:?d never allowed to make any mistakes or to think things out for himself. "I want my boy to have everything he would have had if his father had lived," his mother used to say, and so be had everything and more. He never took any responsibility with regard to the conduct of their home and their business affairs. It was not wholly his fault for he was never allowed to. When he went to college she went with him in order that he might be properly looked after. She would not have had a happy moment unless she had known that he was being properly fed, that his clothes were in order, that his friends were gentlemanly and well bred, that his bed was sanitary and comfortable. If she had ever known that Percy had seen a bedbug she would have died "f shame and humiliation. humili-ation. If he was ever out of her sight, he was certainly never out of her mind. She called me one day during his j junior year : "Have you sejn Percy?" she asked. "He left me this morning without telling tell-ing me where he was going. He didn't come home to lunch, and I'm terrified for fear something nas happened to him. He never did such a thing in his life before." I didn't tel! her It was too bad he hadn't, but I thought it. "Don't you think Percy is a good ' boy?" she asked me one day. He was that all inu-lil, thank heaven. but he was more. He was hopelessly selfish and spoiled. He was without initiative, without self-reliance. He had little fis.rht in him. and he's never made a sacrifice. There is a lot for Percy to learn wjien he gets out in the world. j |