A MOTHER’S MOST PRECIOUS JEWELS

New Zealand Tablet, 18 April 1912, Page 61

A MOTHER’S MOST PRECIOUS JEWELS

Many hundred years ago, in the qld city of Rome, two boys were standing in a summer house,. They were looking at their mother and her friend who were walking in the garden. . ‘ Did you ever see so handsome a lady as our 'mother’s friend asked the younger boy. ‘ She looks just like a queen!’ v : - • I : ‘ Yes, she is beautiful,’ said the older one. ‘ She wears a fine dress and beautiful jewels; but her face is neither noble nor kind. It is pur mother who looks like a queen.’........ That is true,’ replied the other. ‘There is no woman in Rome so like a queen as our own dear mother.’ So . Cornelia, their mother, came to speak with them. She was dressed in a plain white robe, and her hands and feet were bare. Her hair was coiled in long soft braids about her head, and a tender smile lit up. her face as she rested her hand on the shoulder of her eldest son. ‘ Boys,’ she said, * I have something to tell you.’ * What is it, mother ?’ they said, bowing low as Roman boys are taught to do, * Our friend has promised to dine with us,’ answered Cornelia. ‘ Then she is going to show us her wonderful casket of jewels of which you have heard so much.’ , .- < v v r " , ‘ Can it be,’ whispered the boys, as they followed their mother, ‘ that she has more jewels than those she is wearing?’ After dinner a servant brought in the casket. While the visitor opened it the boys drew close about her, admiring the different gems. She showed them strings of pearls as white as milk; a heap of rubies red as glowing coals; sapphires as blue. as. the summer sky ; and diamonds that sparkled like dewdrops in the sun. ' * How I wish you could have such beautiful things, mother!’ said the younger boy, while the lady was handing the casket back to her servant. At this the visitor turned to Cornelia, Is it true, my friend, that you are very poor?’ ‘No, lam not : poor,’ answered Cornelia. So saying she drew her two boys to her side. *My children are my most . precious jewels. They are worth more than all your gems.’ , The boys never forgot their mother’s pride in them. They strove to .be worthy of her noble words, and to live as her precious jewels. Good girls and boys who honor their father and mother are indeed their most precious jewels.