Father Is Home

The warmth and friendliness of that huge room reached out and enfolded Annie in a soft embrace. Here was comfort and love, security from wind and weather. And her father was home. Everything took on a different color for Annie when her father was home. Margaret Friskey

Guiding the Team

Jansci was all eyes and ears now. Soon the wagon was rattling on the cobbled street. Father told him where to stop and, after the horses were hitched to a post, said, “Well done, boy!” This made Jansci feel still better. Praises from Father were few and far between, but they were all the more……

The Best Storyteller

Johanna’s father was a tall handsome man with a stern air and aloof ways, but his children knew that beneath this exterior he was full of sudden tenderness and secret kindness. They were proud of the appearance he made, stately in his tall hat and well pressed coat. They loved to listen to him telling……

Seeing Father’s Work

Father and son, hand in hand, picked their way firmly over the cobbles and disappeared as they turned into the crowded Fleet Street. The boy tightened the grip of his fat little hand on his father’s. Sam longed to ask him a dozen questions, but held his tongue in case he missed anything. Before he……

The Children’s Hour

BY HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW Between the dark and the daylight, When the night is beginning to lower, Comes a pause in the day’s occupations, That is known as the Children’s Hour. I hear in the chamber above me The patter of little feet, The sound of a door that is opened, And voices soft and……

A Happy Supper with Father Home

The door opened. Father Rämi came into the room. “Vaterli! A surprise! There is a surprise coming!” Anton darted to his father and took the wooden milk pail he carried. “Ho, there, little Sparrow!” Father Rämi ruffled up the boy’s yellow curls as he spoke. “Have you eaten all my supper, to surprise my hungry……

The Mothers

Father stretched out his big hand and put it over Mother’s. “Boys,” he said, “I want you to look at this wonderful, brave little mother of yours. Do you know who suffered most during the war? The mothers. Do you know who worked hardest? The mothers. And do you know who will get the least……

The Seed Mama Had Sown

So they had left, one by one, with hugs and promises and tears mingled in among the good-byes. But each had to go his own way. They were Mama’s children, taking up Mama’s mantle, trying to be a little more like her each day. Because what she had planted in their hearts had begun to……

Carol to Our Lady

FROM THE MIDDLE ENGLISH I sing of a maiden That is makeless, King of all kings To her son she chose. He came all so still There his mother was, As dew in April That falleth on the grass. He came all so still To his mother’s bower, As dew in April That falleth on……