EDISON AND HIS MOTHER

New Zealand Tablet, 20 August 1908, Page 37

EDISON AND HIS MOTHER

I was always a careless boy (says Edison in his biography), and, with a mother of different mental calibre, I should probably have turned cut badly. But her firmness, her sweetness, her goodness, were potent powers to. keep me in the right path. I remember I used never to be able to get along at school. I don't know now what it was, but I was always at the foot of the class. I used to feel that the teachers never used to sympathise with me. and that my father thought that I was stupid, and at last I almost decided that I must really be a dunce. .My mother was always kind, always sympathetic, mid she never misunderstood or misjudged me. But I was afraid to tell her all my difficulties at school, ,for fear she, too, might lose her confidence in me. One day I overheard the teacher j tell the inspector that I was ' addled,' and it would not be' worth . while keeping me in school- any longer. I was so hurt by this last straw that I burst out crying, and went home and told my mother about it. Then I found out what a good thing a good mother was. She came out as my strong defender. Mother-love was aroused: mother-pride wounded to 'the quick She brought me back to the school and angrily told the teacher that he didn't know what he was" talking about, that I had -more brains than he himself, and a lot more. talk like that In fact, she was the most enthusiastic champion a boy ever had, and I determined right then *that I would be worthY of .her, and show her tffat lier confidence was not misplaced. My mother was the making of me. She was so true, -so sure of me;- and- I felt that I had someone to live for, someone I must .not disappoint. The memory of her will always be a blessin" to me. • **