Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 12, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 December 1881 — KISSES ON INTEREST. [ARTICLE]

KISSES ON INTEREST.

An Old Man’s Curtain-lecture to the Young Lady Known|as“Sis.” From Peck’s Sun. Come here, Sis, and sit down beside me, and let me giveycu a little talking to. That is right. Sit clear at the other end of the sofa. It makes more room for my gout and corns, besides being a good habit for a young lady to become addicted to. Always pander to this habit, and you will in time find yourself walking through green meadows and beside the still waters of selfrespect. You mav be walking alone, to 6e sure, but will have fewer lawn drosses to do up on Monday morning. I wish to speak to you of your mother. It may be you have noticed a careworn look upon her face lately. Of course it has not bean brought there by auy act of yours, still it is your duty to chase it away. I don’t mean for you to run at and shake your skirts and tell it to "shoo,” as you would a hen, nor do I expect you to get on the other side of the fence and throw old oyster caas and pieces of barrel staves at it, as you did at the cow yesterday. But I waut you to get up to-morrow morning and get breakfast, and when your mother comes down and begins to express her surprise, go right up to her aDd kiss her on the mouth. You don’t imagine how it will brighten her dear face. Besides, you owe her a kiss or two. Awav back when you were a little girl she had kissed you when no one else was tempted by your fever-tainted breath and swollen race. You were not as attractive than as you arq now. And •long through those years of childish sunshine and shadows she was always ready to cure, by the magic of a mother’s kiss, the little, dirty, chubby hands whenever they were injured in those first skirmishes with this rough old world. And then the midnight kisses with which she has routed so many bad dreams, as she leaued above your restless pillow, have all been on interest these long, long years. Of oeurae she is not so pretty and. kissable as you are, but if you had done your share of the work during |hese last ten years the contrast would Pot be so marked. Her face has more wrinkles than yours, far more, aud yet if you were sick that face would appear to be more beautiful than an angel’s, as It hovered over you, watohing every opportunity to minister to your comiort, and every one of those wrinkles would seem to be bright wavelets of sun&hlue chasing each other over the dear old face. She will leave you one of these days. Those burdens, if not lifted from her shouldera, will break her down. Those rough, bard hands that have done so maDy uunecceseary things for you will be crqseed upon her lifeless breast. Those neglected lips that gave you your first baby kiss will be forever closed, and those sad, tired eyes will have opened in eternity, and then yon will appreciate your mother, but it will be too Ufa. There, there, don’t cry j

she has not left you yet. She is down iu the kitchen stringing beans for dinner, aud if you feel so badly you might go down and finish them, and let her change her dress and rest an hour before dinner. And after dinner you m : ght do up the dishes while she takes a little nap. 1 Then you might take down her hair and do it up for her. Yon need not wind it over your finger and fuss to make little spit curls as she used to do with yours, but • give it a good brushing and wind it up tenderly and gently, as if you enjoyed doing it for her. The young man down in the parlor can wait until you have performed these duties. If he expresses any impatience, you may explain to him that you feel under more obligations to your mother than you do to him. ,If this does pot seem to satisfy him, ask him how many times, he has got up in the middle of the night to warm nepermint for you when you were dying with the colic, or how many hqura he had earned you up and down the room just because you would not be quieted in any other way? Ask him to repeat Mother Hubbard backwards, and if he is unable to do it it will be a proof positive that he is not the one that has repeated it, and eXElained to you t. 700 times. Catechise im to find out whether he is the ono who gave you the black silk dress, and sat up at-night to make it while you were off have a good time. Corner him up and make him admit that he went without a new bonnet last winter that you might enjoy a sl2 one that you admired so much. Wring from him a confession that he has a stitch in his side, brought there by doing up your finery week after w’eek. Then show him out tbe-front door, put on a calico apron, and go out and help your mother pick currants for jelly, and I guarantee you think more of yourself, the world will think more of you, aud you will be happier and better for having done so.