In "The Dream Child,"
a foundling boy, drifting in through a storm in a dory, saves a
heart-broken mother from insanity. In "Jane's Baby," a
baby-cousin brings reconciliation between the two sisters,
Rosetta and Carlotta, who had not spoken for twenty years because
"the slack-twisted" Jacob married the younger of the two.
Happiness generally lights up the end of her stories, however
tragic they may set out to be. In "The Son of His Mother," Thyra
is a stern woman, as "immovable as a stone image." She had only
one son, whom she worshipped; "she never wanted a daughter, but
she pitied and despised all sonless women." She demanded
absolute obedience from Chester--not only obedience, but also
utter affection, and she hated his dog because the boy loved him:
"She could not share her love even with a dumb brute." When
Chester falls in love, she is relentless toward the beautiful
young girl and forces Chester to give her up. But a terrible
sorrow brings the old woman and the young girl into sympathy, and
unspeakable joy is born of the trial.
Happiness also comes to "The Brother who Failed." The Monroes
had all been successful in the eyes of the world except Robert:
one is a millionaire, another a college president, another a
famous singer. Robert overhears the old aunt, Isabel, call him a
total failure, but, at the family dinner, one after another
stands up and tells how Robert's quiet influence and unselfish
aid had started them in their brilliant careers, and the old
aunt, wiping the tears from her eyes, exclaims: "I guess there's
a kind of failure that's the best success.
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