about me now, for I am getting old, and my warfare is nearly over;
but she may be getting things ready to rest me a bit. She knows I
have for a long time now been trying to keep the straight path, as
far as I could see it, though sometimes the grass and heather has
got the better of it, so that it was hard to find. But YOU must
remember, Cosmo, that it is not enough to be a good boy, as I shall
tell her you have always been: you've got to be a good man, and
that is a rather different and sometimes a harder thing. For, as
soon as a man has to do with other men, he finds they expect him to
do things they ought to be ashamed of doing themselves; and then he
has got to stand on his own honest legs, and not move an inch for
all their pushing and pulling; and especially where a man loves his
fellow man and likes to be on good terms with him, that is not
easy. The thing is just this, Cosmo--when you are a full-grown man,
you must be a good boy still--that's the difficulty. For a man to
be a boy, and a good boy still, he must be a thorough man. The man
that's not manly can never be a good boy to his mother. And you
can't keep true to your mother, except you remember Him who is
father and mother both to all of us. I wish my Marion were here to
teach you as she taught me. She taught me to pray, Cosmo, as I have
tried to teach you--when I was in any trouble, just to go into my
closet, and shut to the door, and pray to my Father who is in
secret--the same Father who loved you so much as to give you my
Marion for a mother. But I am getting old and tired, and shall soon
go where I hope to learn faster. Oh, my boy! hear your father who
loves you, and never do the thing you would be ashamed for your
mother or me to know. Remember, nothing drops out; everything hid
shall be revealed. But of all things, if ever you should fail or
fall, don't lie still because you are down: get up again--for God's
sake, for your mother's sake, for my sake--get up and try again.