who has
for her guide and counselor a loving mother to whom she can go for
light and wisdom with which to meet all the problems of life.

"Mother knows." Her earnest, loving words are to be cherished above
all others as many men and many women have learned after the long
miles and the busy years have crept between them and "the old folks at
home." Do not, O Girl! I pray you, ever grow impatient, as boys
sometimes do, to be set beyond the protecting care of

MOTHER'S APRON-STRINGS

When I was but a careless youth,
I thought the truly great
Were those who had attained, in truth,
To man's mature estate.
And none my soul so sadly tried
Or spoke such bitter things
As he who said that I was tied
To mother's apron-strings.

I loved my mother, yet it seemed
That I must break away
And find the broader world I dreamed
Beyond her presence lay.
But I have sighed and I have cried
O'er all the cruel stings
I would have missed had I been tied
To mother's apron-strings.

O happy, trustful girls and boys!
The mother's way is best.
She leads you 'mid the fairest joys,
Through paths of peace and rest.
If you would have the safest guide,
And drink from sweetest springs,
Oh, keep your hearts forever tied
To mother's apron-strings.

[Illustration: QUEEN VICTORIA]

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[Transcriber's Note: Sidenote quotations from the preceeding chapter are
gathered in this section.]

What can be expressed in words can be expressed in life.--Thoreau.

It is faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a
life worth looking at.--Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The habit of viewing things cheerfully, and of thinking about life
hopefully, may be made to grow up in us like any other habit.
--Smiles.

A laugh is worth a hundred groans in any state of the market.
--Charles Lamb.

The old days never come again, because they would be getting in the
way of the new, better days whose turn it is.--George MacDonald.

The man who has learned to take things as they come, and to let go as
they depart, has mastered one of the arts of cheerful and contented
living.--Anonymous.

Cheerfulness is the very flower of health.--Schopenhauer.

There are people who do not know how to waste their time alone, and
hence become the scourge of busy people.--D