Rockford College - Recensio / Cupola Yearbook (Rockford, IL)

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Alma Mater l U . There was once a wise, earnest and kindly mother who lived in a grove of oaks on the banks of a great river. 'iNow, when this beautiful young mother began her life on the wooded bluff she was not very Wise, perhaps, in books or in the ways of the World, but her heart was pure and true and womanly. So she gave to her daughters all that she could of knowledge, which meant all that she herself had been able to gain, and she offered to them a still greater measure of the wis- dom that is of the heart and soul, of which she had a goodly store. Thus she lived on the banks of the river, and her daughters with her. And the daughters looking out to the sunset over the murmuring water and the waving forest beyond, wondered, as all young souls must wonder, what was waiting for them beyond the protecting grove. Then when the time came that they must go out in the world, they went half joyfully, half sorrowfullyg hoping, shrinkingg gazing eagerly into the great, wonderful world, yet looking back wistfully to the dear protecting mother, sitting quietly with the younger sisters who were yet with her. And the coming years proved that from the first the mother had given to her loved ones a full measure of the wisdom which she so valued, for none are more loyal to her than these eldest, who went out many years ago. So the years went on. The forest toward the sunset gave way to stern-looking factoriesg but the sunsets were still gold and crimson, and the peaceful river still glided past the brightness, to disappear in the mysterious shadows of the bend below. The beautiful mother grew more learned, and sometimes, perhaps, she looked severe and forbidding, but underneath it all, she still cherished the pure and the true and the womanly, and she still valued wisdom itself above rubies, and counted knowledge as the handmaid of wisdom. . And as the years passed there was also a change in the outward semblance of the maidens sitting in the oak grove. So it happened that some of the elder sisters, returning to drop a caress on the brow of the mother, said in their hearts, Surely, these merry girls have no need of us, no claim on us, for we are not of them. We will go away and remember the mother of our youth as one apart, one who has gone beyond our reach. And the maidens, pausing in the swing of their busy life, stopped and pondered, When we leave, will it be possible for us to forget our little part in the life of the mother? And can we ever forget to care for this story which we are help- ing to make? Surely not, truly, this sister can never have been a real soul daughter of our beautiful mother. But others of the elder daughters, returning, were wiser, and those whom the World counted best and greatest were among them. They looked beneath the changing surface and saw the 9

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same eager young spirit, still seeking knowledge in its varying forms, and above all, wisdom. And to these the younger sisters opened their hearts, and elder and younger grew to know and love each the other. So the mother, who lives through and in her daughters, was helped and cheered by the love and sympathy of her childreng and the scattered daughters, Wandering in spreading and dividing paths, were yet held together by a lasting bond and turned with ever increasing loyalty and grati- tude to Alma Mater. 1 - '--W ,Ili-'f - - --I 0 'Q' '29 Amin. l vw ' , Y Nb -I Q p K g 20 l Z 4i! , 'xfQ- ' 42 ' ' . Ai f'.i ' 44. 553.4 . ,YN Q 1 f , aj .4 at wi, V iew i' ' if we so 5 pw -at 53 fl -i f l I0