d
brother arrived, was that, instead of continuing to live exclusively
by ourselves, it was considered necessary that we should have a
servant. It was with the greatest reluctance my mother could be
brought to admit a stranger into the family circle. She had been
everything and had done everything for her two boys. This was her
life, and she resented with all a strong woman's jealousy the
introduction of a stranger who was to be permitted to do anything
whatever in the home. She had cooked and served her boys, washed their
clothes and mended them, made their beds, cleaned their home. Who dare
rob her of those motherly privileges! But nevertheless we could not
escape the inevitable servant girl. One came, and others followed, and
with these came also the destruction of much of that genuine family
happiness which flows from exclusiveness. Being served by others is a
poor substitute for a mother's labor of love. The ostentatious meal
prepared by a strange cook whom one seldom sees, and served by hands
paid for the task, lacks the sweetness of that which a mother's hands
lay before you as the expression and proof of her devotion.

Among the manifold blessings I have to be thankful for is that neither
nurse nor governess was my companion in infancy. No wonder the
children of the poor are distinguished for the warmest affection and
the closest adherence to family ties and are characterized by a filial
regard far stronger than that of those who are mistakenly called more
fortunate in life. They have passed the impressionable years of
childhood and youth in constant loving contact with father and mother,
to each they are all in all, no third person coming between. The child
that has in his father a teacher, companion, and counselor, and whose
mother is to him a nurse, seamstress, governess, teacher, companion,
heroine, and saint all in one, has a heritage to which the child of
wealth remains a stranger.

There comes a time, although the fond mother cannot see it, when a
grown son has to put his arms around his saint and kissing her
tenderly try to explain to her that it would be much better were she
to let him help her in some ways; that, being out in the world among
men and dealing with affairs, he sometimes sees changes which it would
be desirable to make; that the mode of life delightful for young boys
should be changed in some respects and the house made suitable for
their friends to enter. Especially should the slaving m