A boy, about ten or eleven years of age, was once with his father visiting a store. There the boy saw some skates, and much wished his father to buy him a pair. Some of his companions were going that very day to skate, and he much wished to go with them. After some hesitation his father said,
“No, my son it is not best for you that you should have them.” Sadly disappointed the boy returned home.
On the evening of that same day his father called his son and told him to get ready for a walk. They bent their steps towards the pond where the skating was to take place. As they approached, they saw at a house near the pond a crowd of people, talking tether in little groups. They passed the people and entered the house, and there on the floor lay three rolls in blankets.
The father lifted up one of the blankets and there the boy saw one of his playmates dead; another roll was opened, and there was another companion; and so of the third.
This was what the father had feared, and the boy was thankful that he did not have his own way instead of his father’s, and he tells the story now that he is a man, that boys and girls may learn to give up their own will, for that of their parents’.
ML 03/24/1946