EVERY INCH A MAN.

Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 485, 2 July 1890, Page 8

EVERY INCH A MAN.

She sat in the porch in (he sunshine As I went down tire street— A woman whose hair was silver. But whose face was blossom sweet, Making me think of a garden. Where, in ephe of the frost and snow Of bleak November weather, Late, fragile lililes grow. Ii eird a footstep behind me. And the sound of a inerrv laugh, And I knew the heart it came from Would he like a comforting staff In ihe time and hour of trouble, ; Hopeful and brave and strong ; One of the hear is to lean on When we think all things go wrong, I turned at the click of the gate latch, And met his manly looks, A face like his gives me pleasure, Like the page of a pleasant book. It told of a steadfast purpose, Of a brave and dareing will ; A face with a promise in it That I hope the years fulfil. He went up the pathway singing, j saw- the woman’s eyes Grow bright with a wordless welcome, As sunshine warms the skies, “ Each again- my own sweet mother,” He cried, and bent to kiss The loving face uplifted. For what some mothers miss. That boy will do to depend on: I hold that this is true, From lads in love with their mothers Our bravest heroes grew. Earth’s grandest hearts have been loving hearts Since time and earth began ; And the boy who kisses his mother Is every inch a man ! The comp, is the handiest man about a newspaper office. When a subscriber arrives with a club in one hand, an axe. in the other, carrying a gun, and with a brick in his breast pocket, the editor always hastens to assure him it v.uis the compositor. The editor knows very well that he wants to know who it was—the man who conies accompanied by those surroundings always does Want to know who it was, and the anxious journalist drops all other considcriitio'.s to convince him it was the compositor before he can advance to the club, and the brick and those, other argument-; he has about his person. - In this v.'av the cornn. >ooin,w ..in very useful ; besides,.he turns- ‘fiends’ into friends’, ‘tears’ into * been;,’ ‘ glum’ into Tmn/'ntc’ into ‘stew,’ and is the poor journalist’s wholesale provider.