"When I lived among the Choctaw Indians, I held a consultation with one of their chiefs respecting the successive stages of their progress in the arts of civilized life; and among other things he informed me, that at their start they made a great mistake,--they only sent boys to school. These boys came home intelligent men; but they married uneducated and uncivilized wives, and the uniform result was, the children were all like their mothers. The father soon lost all his interest both in wife and children. 'And now,' said he 'if we would educate but one class of our children, we should choose the girls; for, when they become mothers, they educate their sons.'" 1409 MOTHER. Can'st thou, mother, for a moment think That we, thy children, when old age shall shed Its blanching honors on thy weary head, Could from our best of duties ever shrink? Sooner the sun from his high sphere should sink, Than we, ungrateful, leave thee in that day To pine in solitude thy life away, Or shun thee, tottering on the grave's cold brink. Banish the thought!--where'er our steps may roam, O'er smiling plains, or wastes without a tree Still will fond memory point our hearts to thee, And paint the pleasures of thy peaceful home; While duty bids us all thy griefs assuage And smoothe the pillow of thy sinking age. --_Henry Kirke White._ 1410 MY MOTHER. My mother! when I learned that thou wast dead, Say, wast thou conscious of the tears I shed? I heard the bells tolled on thy burial day, I saw the hearse that bore thee slow away; And, turning from my nursery window, drew A long, long sigh, and wept a last adieu! Thus many a sad to-morrow came and went, Till, all my stock of infant sorrow spent, I learned at last submission to my lot: But though I less deplored thee, ne'er forgot. --_Cowper._ 1411 An ounce of mother is worth more than a pound of clergy. --_Spanish Proverb._ 1412 A MOTHER'S EXAMPLE. It was a judicious resolution of a father, as well as a most pleasing compliment to his wife, when, on being asked by a friend what he intended to do with his girls, he replied: "I intend to apprentice them to their mother, that they may learn the art of improving time, and be fitted to become wives, mothers, heads of families, and useful members of society." Equally just, but very different, was the remark of an unhappy husband--his wife was vain and thoughtless--"It is hard to say, but if my girls are to have a chance of growing up good for anything, they must be sent out of the way of their mother's example." 1413 A MOTHER'S SORROWS.