Sowing and Reaping - A Temperance Story | Page 4

"Why not?"
"I would have dreaded hurting his feelings. Were you not afraid of
offending him?"
"I certainly shrank from the pain which I knew I must inflict, but
because I valued his welfare more than my own feelings, I was
constrained to be faithful to him. I told him that he was drifting where
he ought steer, that instead of holding the helm and rudder of his young
life, he was floating down the stream, and unless he stood firmly on the
side of temperance, that I never would clasp hands will him for life."
"But Belle, perhaps you have done him more harm than good; may be
you could have effected his reformation by consenting to marrying
him."
"Jeanette, were I the wife of a drunken man I do not think there is any
depth of degradation that I would not fathom with my love and pity in
trying to save him. I believe I would cling to him, if even his own
mother shrank from him. But I never would consent to [marry any
man?], whom I knew to be un[?]steady in his principles and a moderate
drinker. If his love for me and respect for himself were not strong
enough to reform him before marriage, I should despair of effecting it
afterwards, and with me in such a case discretion would be the better
part of valor."
"And so you have given Mr. Romaine a release?"
"Yes, he is free."
"And I think you have thrown away a splendid opportunity."
"I don't think so, the risk was too perilous. Oh Jeanette, I know by

mournful and bitter experience what it means to dwell beneath the
shadow of a home cursed by intemperance. I know what it is to see that
shadow deepen into the darkness of a drunkard's grave, and I dare not
run the fearful risk."
"And yet Belle this has cost you a great deal, I can see it in the wanness
of your face, in your eyes which in spite of yourself, are filled with
sudden tears, I know from the intonations of your voice that you are
suffering intensely."
"Yes Jeanette, I confess, it was like tearing up the roots of my life to
look at this question fairly and squarely in the face, and to say, no; but I
must learn to suffer and be strong, I am deeply pained, it is true, but I
do not regret the steps I have taken. The man who claims my love and
allegiance, must be a victor and not a slave. The reeling brain of a
drunkard is not a safe foundation on which to build up a new home."
"Well Belle, you may be right, but I think I would have risked it. I don't
think because Mr. Romaine drinks occasionally that I would have given
him up. Oh young men will sow their wild oats."
"And as we sow, so must we reap, and as to saying about young men
sowing their wild oats, I think it is full of pernicious license. A young
man has no more right to sow his wild oats than a young woman. God
never made one code of ethics for a man and another for a woman. And
it is the duty of all true women to demand of men the same standard of
morality that they do of woman."
"Ah Belle that is very fine in theory, but you would find it rather
difficult, if you tried to reduce your theory to practice."
"All that may be true, but the difficulty of a duty is not a valid excuse
for its non performance."
"My dear cousin it is not my role to be a reformer. I take things as I
find them and drift along the tide of circumstances."
"And is that your highest ideal of life? Why Jeanette such a life is not

worth living."
"Whether it is or not, I am living it and I rather enjoy it. Your vexing
problems of life never disturb me. I do not think I am called to turn this
great world 'right side up with care,' and so I float along singing as I go,
"I'd be a butterfly born in a bower Kissing every rose that is pleasant
and sweet, I'd never languish for wealth or for power I'd never sigh to
have slaves at my feet."
"Such a life would never suit me, life must mean to me more than ease,
luxury and indulgence, it must mean aspiration and consecration,
endeavor and achievement."
"Well, Belle, should we live twenty years longer, I would like to meet
you and see by comparing notes which of us shall have gathered the
most sunshine or shadow from life."
"Yes Jeanette we will meet in less than twenty years,