Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Paperscarriage, and she sat watching. It was a railway-carriagefrom Frankfort to Heidelberg.I saw at once that she was the mother of those children,and going to part from them. Perhaps I have triedparting with my own, and not found the business verypleasant. Perhaps I recollect driving down (with a certaintrunk and carpet-bag on the box) with my ownmother to the end of the avenue, where we waited—only a few minutes—until the whirring wheels of that“Defiance” coach were heard rolling towards us as certainas death. Twang goes the horn; up goes the trunk;down come the steps. Bah! I see the autumn evening: Ihear the wheels now: I smart the cruel smart again:and, boy or man, have never been able to bear the sightof people parting from their children.I thought these little men might be going to schoolfor the first time in their lives; and mamma might betaking them to the doctor, and would leave them withmany fond charges, and little wistful secrets of love,bidding the elder to protect his younger brother, andthe younger to be gentle, and to remember to pray toGod always for his mother, who would pray for her boytoo. Our party made friends with these young ones duringthe little journey; but the poor lady was too sad totalk except to the boys now and again, and sat in hercorner, pale, and silently looking at them.The next day, we saw the lady and her maid driving inthe direction of the railway-station, witout the boys.The parting had taken place, then. That night they wouldsleep among strangers. The little beds at home werevacant, and poor mother might go and look at them.Well, tears flow, and friends part, and mothers pray everynight all over the world. I dare say we went to seeHeidelberg Castle, and admired the vast shattered wallsand quaint gables; and the Neckar running its brightcourse through that charming scene of peace and beauty;and ate our dinner, and drank our wine with relish. Thepoor mother would eat but little Abendessen that night;and, as for the children—that first night at school—hard bed, hard words, strange boys bullying, and laughing,and jarring you with their hateful merriment—asfor the first night at a strange school, we most of us16