p. 16 | His Invitation

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Washington, D. C. · Oct 31, 1912

His Invitation

A YOUNG man who had got into the habit of spending all his evenings away from home was asked by his father if he had any engagement for Thanksgiving evening. The young man had nothing in particular.

“Well, I’d like to have you go somewhere with me,” replied his father.

“Where shall I meet you?”

“Father suggested the Columbia Hotel, at half past seven, and I was there,” the boy goes on to tell. “When he appeared, he said he wanted me to call with him on a lady; ‘one I knew quite well when I was a young man,’ he explained.

“We went out and started straight for home.

“ ‘She is staying at our house,’ he said.

“ ‘I thought it strange that he should have made the appointment for the Columbia under those circumstances, but said nothing.

“Well, we went in, and I was formally introduced to my mother and sister.

“The situation struck me as funny, and I started to laugh. My mother and sister shook hands with me, and my mother said she remembered me as a boy, but hadn’t seen much of me lately. Then she invited me to be seated.

“It wasn’t a bit funny then, although I can laugh over it now. I sat down, and she told me one or two anecdotes of my boyhood, at which we all laughed for a while. Then we played games for a while, and enjoyed some light refreshments that mother had prepared. When I finally retired, I was invited to call again. I went up-stairs doing a good deal of thinking.”—Selected.