Watching Big Brother

WATCHING BIG BROTHER By Pearl Spencer "Well, I tell you I'm never going to smoke when I grow up Bud never does, and I'm going to do exactly what he does." "He doesn't, but many other fellows do — " "Huh," broke in a second voice contemptuously, "and look at 'em. I betcha there ain't one of them that can do half the things Bud can. He can do anything in the world, even to — even to — driv- ing a railroad train." The boyish voices came in through the window with the soft evening air, and "Bud," the eighteen-year-old brother of his advocates, stirred in his chair uneasily. "Those kids make me tired," he growled, with a self-conscious grin, "I honestly believe they think I can do anything I decide to. I don't see, however, how they get it into their heads that I'm such a little angel. Who are they trying to convert to no smoking now?" "The neighbor boy," smiled his mother, "they think you're such a perfect piece of mankind that they are really offended if any one suggests that you have a flaw. I don't know what they would do if they should find you actually misbehaving. Instead of calling it mis- behavior, though, they would be most likely to think it the right thing to do." She smiled again, as he disappeared through the door. "He tries to pretend that he doesn't like it," she said, "but he's really as proud as he can be of their hero-worship." She would have realized even more how much he cared, had she seen him that night as "the bunch" passed cigarettes around gaily. "Bud" refused firmly, in spite of the insistence. "Can't do it, fellows, they make me sick." with the sunny grin that no one could ever resist. Inwardly he was grumbling, almost angrily, "Those kids would prob- ably go right out tomorrow and learn to smoke if they ever heard of me with a cigarette." Even to himself he would hardly admit that the real deterrent was the thought of the disappointed faces and dis- illusioned blue eyes that would face him if he yielded. "They'd probably never know," he thought, "but I guess I'll have to play up to the mark as near as I can, anyway." When eight-year-old Mack let an explosive invective out at the dinner table, he explained to his shocked family, "Oh, that's all right. Bud said that at the car last night." And "Bud" finds that the slips that were creeping into his vocabulary, must be pruned care- fully. And his sporting blood and training forbids anything but equal care, out of the hearing of his small judges, as in. And at times he finds it hard. "Talk about mother's apron strings," he groans, "they're not. in it with playing up to a reputation like those kids give me."

WATCHING BIG BROTHER 849 "Bud's new girl certainly uses lots of paint," was Dick's candid contribution, one evening, and though "Bud" strenuously declared that his little brothers need not bother about his girls, he privately decided that she must "put it on pretty thick" if even "the kids" noticed it at the first glance. And mother breathed a relieved sigh when his acquaintance with the "New" one of the rouge, died a sudden and peaceful death. But it keeps the little boys busy too. Mark submits peacefully to having his nails kept as clean as Bud's; Dicky, the underweight, drinks his quart of milk manfully, lest he may fall short of attaining to an equal six feet with his older brother. They both decide that "loud" ties are poor taste, even for little boys, and that a perfect gentleman would no more leave his mother or sister to bring the kindling in, than their hero would permit them to open the car door for themselves. To be sure, they use his hair oil, unless sternly for- bidden, to acquire a similarly perfect "pomp;" but, on the other hand, they submit to neck-washing with such mildness that their mother counts it a total good. "It seems." she laughs, "that all I had to do was to raise one boy for a model, and then to let him keep the others in their duties. They're lots more willing to tell the truth because you do, than be- cause it's their moral duty, you know." Bud responds as he always does to such praise, even in his mother's half serious vein, with declarations of the nuisances which the younger members of the family prove to be. But though he would not admit it to any one for the world, all the time that Mark and Dick are watching Big Brother, he, far more even than they, is watch- ing himself. Logan, Utah ^_ — - Mother! Dear Mother of Mine! Friend of my baby-hood, boy-hood and youth, Champion of honesty, virtue and truth, Mother! dear mother of mine! Friend of my man-hood, eternal friend, aye, — Her spirit and influence bless me each day, Mother! dear mother of mine! A friend in the "Mansions of Glory," is she, With the "Sanctified Hosts" she is pleading for me. Mother! dear mother of mine! She links me with heaven, with God and His will. She was always my friend and my friend she is still, Mother! dear mother of mine! Death cannot separate me from your love. For your love shall endure in the realms above. Mother! dear mother of mine! For time and through all eternity, Your love shall be mine for my mother you'll be. Mother! dear mother of mine! Lethbridge ..Alberta. Canada - DAVID H. ELTON