Now what did this mother do? At once became frightened so that she
frightened him. He at once thought that something horrible was to
happen to him. Poor boy! The mother at once asked him if he had
received a blow on the breast? Of course he remembered such a blow.
Then this ignorant mother rushed to her family medical book――the curse
of many a home――and commenced to read up on cancer of the breast.
Then she rushed off to the doctor, leaving the book, which was at
once seized upon by the trembling and pale boy. Then he read his
doom――cancer of the breast; he had all the symptoms! At once he lost
what little heart he had left, and when the mother returned she made
matters worse by her fear and sympathy.
The doctor? He wasn’t at his office; would return the next day. That
boy spent the night in a fear which almost wrecked him. He could not
go to the doctor the next morning, he was so weak from fear. When the
doctor did come, instead of laughing at the whole matter, taking the
boy aside and telling him what the signs meant, he hemmed and looked
wise. Then he said he “thought it would pass away.” But it did not,
neither did the fear. The boy just escaped complete ruin of his health,
or perhaps a worse fate at his own hands, by a stroke of luck.
In the small city where he resided there were a number of Chinese
youths――sons of gentlemen――being educated. One of them, a chum of the
unfortunate boy, called to see what was the matter. Tearfully the boy
told him his pains and fear. The Chinese boy laughed loud and heartily.
Then HE told the boy the truth.
You see these foreign boys had a real knowledge of the truth given them
before being sent out into the world.
From that time onward this American boy never told his mother anything
about himself or his thoughts; he had to get what knowledge he wanted
from other sources, and as his Chinese friends soon went off to a large
prep. school, the later information came from older boys who only knew
the lies and untruths.
So never worry about these little pains or uncomfortable feelings. They
belong to your natural growth and are signs that you are becoming a man.
At about the same time hair will appear on various parts of your body.
It will make its appearance there before it will be seen on the face.
New and strange feelings will now be part of your mental life. You will
wonder about everything around you. What is life? where shall I go to
when dead? what is religion? am I fit to live? and all sorts of new and
queer ideas. Don’t bother about them; just go along doing your best
with the knowledge that all is coming out right when you do your best.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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