Show KEEPING UP WITH THE CHILDREN an 1 arnen arnatt t mother who detter than she knew linow she was a woman of middle age thin and plain with no claim to beauty except the eager dark eyes shining f from ra I 1 a wistful fire care lined face twenty years a ago she bad slipped her trustful hand into mgt that of another and counting the world well lost for the sake of her love lo 10 e and faith had entered upon a life of such toil privation and heroic endurance as only women in frontier settlements amid primitive con dit editions ions know 1 I have hn h n e tried my best she he said simply to keep up w ith tho the children rather father and I 1 resolved when our first boy was a baby that stint and scrape and contrive as we might wed well educate all that heaven sent us and we have boim what wo we could I 1 willing that my children should ket get ahead of me ive tried to study their lessons with them and to enter into their feelings I 1 dont want them to outstrip me in III the race this mother had ball been one of those to whom early rising and late retiring had bad been always essential in order that the tile routine of the housework should not hot suffer in that part of the country where she lived hired help for domestic purposes was almost unheard of women did their own work a neighbors daughter sometimes lending a helping hand in an exigency and the men of tho the family doing their share at need in her determined effort to keep step w with ith her children in their intellectual intellect uil dei development elop ment she had in another direction better than she knew tor for the chil dren boys and girla girls alike had early been pressed into her service and had bad as she explained taken hold bold of whatever wh ateer was to be done the I 1 ho boys could make beds and set tables as well w ell aa as draw water w ater and split wood the girls were facile housekeepers with a practical knowledge of cooking and laun dry work in american society as essential in fhe the outfit for life to the tile richest as its to the poorest though the living in the house holdaas hold was plain it was abundant and the ideal set before the family was something nobler than a mere strife for wealth everything was open and aboe above board docks Books were read and prized in common and so much was going on to interest everybody that there was no temptation to devour poisonous tidbits in secret so it came cam 0 to pa pass that the keeping u up with the children brought great good in its wa wake ke at last a day dawned when the mother felt aa as it if the first stone had been feet set in III a wall of separation two of her brood had found their wings A daughter way was go ing to college A son was entering upon a business career the little wistful woman yearned to keep pace v with ith thon both yearned perhaps to ordain the pathway of both as she always abw ays had hall done but it w was as inevitable that there should bo be so some me part ing of tile roads brave as she was she kept down a heartache under her cheery show how of courage alave comfort comforts dear said an aldei friend who had bad been through a similar ex prience the tile children will never outgrow you you had a twenty years start of them and you have so di disciplined ed your mind and trained your heart and elevated your own thoughts above the dally daily rut tho the fret and tho the stir that y you on dwell in a serene atmo atmosphere eliere favorable to expansion of every faculty they may acquire facts but they will fly like honey laden bees back to the hive the mother who has kept pace with her children from babyhood to adolescence will never lose loie them 11 Ilar pers bazar |