FORTUNATELY the vast majority of men and women can look back to some time in their past history and think with a warm glow of happiness and gratitude of a place they called home. Upon analysis, it is clearly seen that above all things which help to make this beloved word "home" stand out, as though outlined with a halo of brightest light, is the presence there of a tender, loving earthly father and mother.
Many hold in memory's chambers a priceless picture of a first homecoming, when, perhaps after a prolonged absence from the beloved home circle, they began again to anticipate and plan a return. Frequently this experience comes in the years of what are known as schooldays—but not necessarily so. To many, where the education is carried on near the parental roof, the experience of first leaving home does not come until the days of childhood and early youth have fled, and maturity has lightly touched the heart and thought of the one who has gone away from the scenes of his earliest recollections.
In her personal experience, the writer can look back through a vista of years to many periods of joyous anticipation of going home; and sweeter than any other thought included in the many happy recollections of a return to the place of her birth and early youth is that of the incomparable happiness of once more being enfolded in the embrace of a devoted mother. To the vast majority of mortals, the mother-love that welcomes the child stands out far above all else as the crowning gladness in this sweet mental picture.
