well what she would say if she were with you today, and what she would have you do. She wants you first of all to be good—to be clean and honest and strong and self-controlled. She wants you to do the day's work manfully and well without whimpering and without complaint. She may never have said these things to you in so many words, but you know without the words' having been spoken.
If through your endeavor there should come to you honor or recognition, her heart will thrill with joy to you inconceivable; if unhappily you should encounter defeat or disgrace, the pain which she will suffer you will never quite understand. Her love and her faith will follow you through every diversity of experience, and no matter who deceive or turn against you, she can be counted on.
"My boy is a good boy," mothers say to me often in the innocence of their trust. "I know he hasn't a single bad habit."
