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

Page 12 text:

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

Page 11 text:

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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The Old Girl 4 TWO VIEWS OLLEGE opened yesterday- Friday. lt is now Saturday morning, nearly time for luncheon. Apparently Middle Hall has been left to the tender mercies of the small groups of lonely, painfully verdant Freshmen who stand or sit here and there, as if not knowing what better to do, vaguely waiting for something to happen. A carriage stops outside and a tall girl steps out of the door as it is flung open. As she comes up into the hall, looking neither to her right nor to her left, her authoritative manner, her air of familiarity with the place, and her supreme indifference to the looks of curiosity which are her only greeting, all prove that she is something apart from the common mortals that surround her. Surely she is the President of the College, or anyway one of the Trustees, whispers one Freshman to another, who, merely shaking her head in reply, stands gazing at the dark stairway up which her I-lighness has vanished. While the Freshman is still looking up into the darkness, she sees coming down the stairs another girl whom she recognizes as a Sophomore, but whom she has not yet met. Almost overcome by fright, she yet ventures to ask, Will you please tell me if the lady who just went up stairs is the President? The Sophomore gives one gasp, shrieks, Noll and as she rushes up stairs again to spread abroad the latest Freshman break, she stops just long enough to say, Better luck to you the next time you see an Old Girl! 4 h c One year old! She wondered if all first anniversaries were as reflective as this one. It did not seem twelve months since she had put on her cap and gown for the last time and had stood in line waiting for her sheepskin. I-lers had not been what is known as a weepy class, yet only by counting the roses in a great jar at her side, had she been able to keep back the tears as she listened to those tender words beginning, Dear Children. All this was a year ago. To-day she had come back for her first alumnae reunion. Was she changed? Was the Alma Mater grown cold? No and yes. 'She had had a year of experience, as the teacher's agencies would say, and one must change with thatg but the Alma Mater, was she not the same kind, though sometimes unresponsive, personality who had welcomed her five years before? l-low well she remembered that first week in number thirteen, as she looked back at it now, and the fight she had made against homesickness. She smiled into the duskiness of the bare room. What is Freshman homesickness compared to that of the baby alumna? As a Freshman ll