Here, in the sanctum sanctorum of the forest, I am made a member of
Nature's lodge, and the ants and bugs and beetles and flowers and plants
and trees are initiating me and telling me the secrets of the order. I
can only tell you, who are in the great busy world outside, the lessons
and morals. The real secrets I must not tell; you will receive them when
you, too, come to the hills and forests, and sit down on a rock alone
and go through the initiation.
You are invited to come in; your application is approved, and you are
eligible to membership.
Come to Nature's lodge-meeting and clear away the cobwebs from your
weary brain; get inspiration and be a man again.
Come--soothe and rest and build up those shredded, weakened, tired,
weary nerves. Let the sun put its coat of health on you, and let the
ozone put the red blood of strength in your veins.
[Sidenote: Rest and Recreate.]
Come and get perfect brain and body-resting sleep. Come to this
wonderful, happy, helpful lodge and get a store of energy, and an
abundance of vital ammunition with which to make the fight, when you go
back to your factory or office. The doctor can lance the carbuncle, but
Nature's outdoor medicine will prevent your having a carbuncle.
The doctor can stop a pain with a poison drug, but Nature's outdoor
medicine will prevent your having the disorder which makes the pain.
No, brother, you can't get health out of a bottle or a pill box. But you
_can_ get it from Mother Nature's laboratory, where she compounds air,
water, sunshine, beauty, music, thought; where she gives you exercise
and rest, health, happiness, all summed up into cashable assets for the
human in the shape of poise, efficiency and peace.
34.
[Sidenote: Mother.]
Mother, you are the one person in all the world whose kindness was never
the preface to a request. That's the sweetest tribute we can pay you,
and the most truthful one. It covers devotion, love, sentiment,
motherhood, and all the noble attributes that go to make the word
"Mother" the most hallowed, most sacred, most beautiful word in the
English language.
There are not words or sentences that can express to you what we think
of you or convey our appreciation of you.
You want our love; you have it. You should be told of our love; we tell
you. Appreciation and gratitude are payments on account, but with all
our appreciation and with our whole life's gratitude, the debt we are
under can never be paid.
"We have careful words for the stranger,
And smiles for the some-time guest--
But oft to our own the bitter tone,
Though we love our own the best."
We've hurt you, Mother, many times, by our thoughtlessness and by the
resentment we felt over your plans and your views about the things we
did, and you have had heartaches because of such actions of ours.
[Sidenote: The Mother Love.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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