And that's whatever!"
And The Old Cattleman even includes the raucous "Missis Rucker--as
troo a lady as ever baked a biscuit."
I should be the last man in the world to suggest that a young man
should keep himself "tied to his mother's apron-strings," as is the
saying of the people; and this is not what I mean when I again
earnestly suggest that he keep as close to his mother's opinions,
teachings, and influence as the circumstances of life will permit.
The same thing, as already pointed out, may be said with reference to
a man's wife--even more strongly, if possible. But the conversation
and opinion of any good woman are, as a practical matter and a measure
of worldly wisdom, simply beyond price. She is wise with that
sublimated reason called "woman's instinct."
There is, too, a human quality kept alive and growing in your
character by woman's association and influence that, as a matter of
business power in meeting the world and its problems, is far and away
beyond the value of the craft of the trickiest gamester of affairs,
business, or politics who ever lived.
It is a saying of the farmer folks among whom I was raised that such
and such a person "has principle," meaning that the person so
described is upright, trustworthy, judicious; that such a person's
attitude toward God and man and the world is correct.
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