A Common Failing | AdventAI

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 9, 1886

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 12, No. 47.

A Common Failing.

WHILE talking once with a lady who had passed her fourscore years, she said:—

"As I look back over my life, there is one thing that fills me with deep regret; that is, I never had the pleasure with my family that I should. I was always busy, my days were spent in sewing and housework, and my evenings in piecing quilts, and making rugs, and rag carpets. I never realized, until too late, how much the companionship of a mother is worth to her children. No sacrifice that I could make would be considered too great could I only have the privilege now, as I had then, of gathering them around me in pleasant companionship."

While living in England I once attended a funeral at a private house in a country neighborhood. I arrived early, and the only occupants of the room were two women who were strangers to me. This is the whispered conversation I heard about the deceased.

"Yes," said one, "Maria was a master housekeeper. I never so much as see a speck of dirt about this house in my life."

"Well," replied the other, "there ought not to be, for she was eternally a-cleaning. She never took no comfort in anything; no, and not a member of the family had any comfort. She worked till she got awful nervous and broken down; and, just 'twixt you and me, I believe that's what killed Maria."—Western Farmer.