A Nice Phone Call

Ever since the girls left home in a precipitous way four years ago, I have had an extreme inferiority complex about my abilities as a parent.

My eldest son, Nathanael, is away visiting some friends on Protection Island, and mother-like, I had to check up on him by phone. The phone was answered by the school chum's father, and I made my inquiries.

"Whatever you are doing with your kids, keep on doing it!" was the enthusiastic reply of the father. It appears that Nathanael has impressed with his good-natured optimism, his polite demeanor, and his helpfulness and consideration. These are things that thrill a mother's heart and which I would love to take credit for. But I know that one of the reasons that Nathanael is like this is because he takes after my father in a lot of ways, and not because I am such a model of patience and virtue.