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in order to help you when you cried. For your sake she had often to take 
what she would much rather have done without, and deny herself what she 
would willingly have eaten or drank, so that you might suffer no harm 
while she was nursing you. On your account was she often anxious, un¬ 
easy, through fear of some accident befalling you. On your account she 
was often disturbed and tormented, and shed bitter tears if any misfortune 
befell you, and she suffered, too, if anything disagreeable happened to you. 
For you has your father as well as your mother, toiled and labored 
for so many years, in order to keep you respectably and to provide you with 
food and clothing. 
For you they have often taken the bit out of their own mouths and 
have deprived themselves of many conveniences and luxuries, and, perhaps , 
too, have lived sparingly and parsimoniously, in order that they might leave 
you something to set you up in life. For you have their minds often been 
tilled with anxiety and apprehension, lest any evil should overtake your 
soul or your body. For you have they spent the hard-earned money, that 
they put together with so much concern, that you might be educated, in¬ 
structed, and provided for. 
All your troubles, illnesses, and difficulties, have afflicted the hearts 
of your father and mother. 
Your sorrow was their sorrow. In a word, that you now exist, that 
you are alive, that you did not break your leg, or your arm, or your neck, 
when you were a child; that you are now grown up, that you have some 
property, and a position in life,—all these things you owe, under God, to 
no one more than to your father and mother. 
And what makes the benefit greater still, they did all this for you, 
from no other earthly motive than the purest, most disinterested, most 
heartfelt, and tenderest love and affection for you. 
There is not a grand, inspiring thought, 
There is not a truth by wisdom taught, 
There is not a feeling pure and high, 
That may not be read in a mother’s eye. 
