Simpson College - Zenith Yearbook (Indianola, IA)

Page 14 text:

SUtna iflatrr anl %)cv Cfnlfcren. OME years ago, one with a mother’s heart in her breast, but with no home ties, adopted a large family of children. She had no capital to invest, little money indeed, but much love. She took a small house at first, but soon moved into a large one. She furnished but a few rooms. Her friends said to her, Why did you take so large a houscT You can’t furnish it all.” She answered. I can’t now, but I want room enough for my children and grandchildren, when they come home to visit me in after years, and they will furnish the house. Her friends laughed at her. “Don’t you know that adopted children are proverbially ungrateful? they said. 1 hey 11 all go off as soon as they’re grown, and that will be the last of them.” But she answered, I shall love them so well that they will love me in return. So the home was founded and the mother and children were happy there. Summers and winters, they kept as busy and as cheery as could be. But the mother’s slender resources began to fail. Her friends and neighbors helped her all they could, yet in spite of this, and her careful management it was hard to make both ends meet. One day—they always referred to it in hushed tones—the mother called the children in to the living room and said, My dear ones, you arc more precious to me than life. You are my life. And now my heart is breaking, for I fear I must give you up. Just because I love you, I will tell you that there arc homes where each of you can be received, and where you can have comforts, and even luxuries. If you stay with me you will have poor fare, poor quarters and hard work.” She paused, for her voice was choked. The children looked at her wonderingly. At last one said: “Mother, you don’t want us to go, do you?” No,” she answered. “Well, then, don’t you think that if we eat less, and spend as little as we can, we can keep together?” “Oh yes, let’s keep together,” cried the other children. And this became the watchword of that home. As for the mother, she thanked God and took courage. Yes, and soon their prospects began to brighten. The neighbors and the friends, and even the children contributed to the little store, and in all the years it has never failed. Among the many pleasant customs of that home, none was pleasanter than the coming together at the Children’s Hour” each day, into the old living room. The mother made this time so pleasant that the children all looked forward to it, and they grew to love the plain room where they had such good times together. Often they talked about fixing up the house”, as they expressed it, but t ey all agreed that they wanted to keep the living room unchanged. They loved everything in it—the old fashioned wall-paper, with it’s drop ceiling, the wooden chairs, the oiled floor, the rug in front of mother’s chair, the stand with mother s Bible on it, the old white curtains, the old pictures on the wall, one representing their first home, others recalling the great scenes ot the past and lifting their thoughts beyond their own personal interests. But the time came when some of the children had to go out into the world