THE LONESOME HOME

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 9, Issue 541, 18 June 1920, Page 2

THE LONESOME HOME

AFTER THE WEDDING.

(By MEDITOR.)

The occasion of a wedding is one commonly characterised by joyousness and gentle raillery. Friends take a kindly, gladsome interest it the fortunes of the young aspirants who aie about to worship at Hymen's shrine; congratulatrons and presents (ill their hearts with gratitude and the glow of good-fellowship. Thi marital day arrives, and though the actual ceremony of marriage is a solemn diie—fittingly so—nevertheless th#re is" an atmosphere of joyousness all around. To the strains of the "Wedding March" the bride and bridegroom walk down the aisle ana out into their little world of admiring well-wishers. The wedding break-fast-table groans under the load oi good things prepared for the occasion; laughter and banter are the order of the day, and handsome speeches punctuate the hour while the generous toasts are being honoured. The nuptial pair take their departure, escorted to their conveyance by the same good friends and relatives with smiling faces—though the faces of mother and sisters may beam with smiles through their tears, for they cannot calmly contemplate the loss of the society of one who has, perhaps, been the angel of the household:

"Tears, idle tears, 1 know not what they mean; Tears from the depth of some divine despair, Arise in the heart and gather to the eyes When thinking of the dnys that are no more. "Fresh as a sunbeam glittering on a sail That brings our friends up from the underworld; Sad as the last which settles over one, And sinks with all we love beneath the verge."

The evening is devoted to music and song, but sooner or later the guests depart—leaving the parents to their loneliness in loneliness, which awful void is felt most keenly in such a case as occurred at Pukekohe recently, in which the last member of a family of nine left the home of her parents to go to a nev.' nest in company with her young husband. It seems hard, but nevertheless it is the inexorable law of Nature. Doth not the great Hook say that a man o* a woman shall leave father and mother ?

So mote it be. But picture the grey-haired father and/ mother at

- their fireside that night, andl mil - Ion? nights after, gazing into t.\e K 1 embers in the grate, bravely eodej i vouring to comfort and sustain eac • other in their hours of trial. J> .. house is strangely empty ««»Q • where once there was thei gladfttt . icing of healthy boys and giris,, « ■ at times even the anxiety of the s* Led. Chairs and other appnrteuug of the home, once in full and «u use, now seem to have no reason to existence, each familiar articles £crv ing only to remind the parents 0 the dear ones who once had we* them, and to accentuate ttoabrfjj of loving hearts, smiling faces, an willing hands. Ah! To those wh< have sympathetic imagination Jti. all so sad, and yet it is the law of life; it is &«*&<£% ed; an inscrutable P™ v, f ,rees that the average lot of! huuwg shall be to spend the evening of Wj much as they did the da * n n °at complete state entered uponi a«£ foot of the altar-alone! Yet there is some mitigation o this hardl lot in respect to daughters, whicn is best expressed in the My son is my son tilLheget^JK 1 But my daughter is mS all the days of her And after all there is n 0 be gained, tnough much JjHf]^ ™" tentment and peace of mtm may "*■ lost, by railing against »» >n*viiable. bow to which govern our very bemRBB ■*? Tngthat £&- ; ; "The wiser man fitlPJftQ God's plan As water fits vewei.