Page 8 - 1917 May - To Dragma

204 TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI TO DRAG MA OF ALPHA OMICRON PI 205

THE ANNIVERSARY CONVENTION JOYS OF T H E MOTHER*

The soldiers are guarding the bridge near me; the morning paper A toast at the ninth reunion of Brawn, '02
bears the marks of the censor; War has come to us. Regardless
of the justice of our cause, regardless of the right and wrong of any- BY MAUDE E . C. COVELL, B, '02
war, this is a time when we need most to conserve our ideals. I n
the dreamy rare days of June, within the shadows of the Blue Ridge What are our joys? Oh, who can say?
and under Virginia's southern sky we are to gather from Maine to Folly it is to try to show
Texas, from New York to California, and there pledge again our A l l the joys that a mother feels.
loyalty to the ideals of Alpha Omicron Pi. I f you are not a Only a mother can really know.
romanticist, or an idealist, perhaps, come to Convention and there
learn of other things than glittering gold and shining silver. Have you ever heard it said
That in one's first motherhood
Convention, 1917, means the twentieth anniversary of Alpha She reaches nearer the Heavenly shore
Omicron Pi. We are growing old, and growing big. I n 1915 we Than she has ever been before?
met in California. Now when we meet in Virginia we shall have
installed five, perhaps six, new active chapters and four or five A glimpse of Heaven she catches then
alumnae chapters, an increase of nearly fifty per cent in two years. Which is denied to other men;
That is a record to be congratulated upon, and we are proud of i t ; A joy and soulfelt holiness
but we want to meet and welcome and get to know our new sisters, as That none but she can ever guess.
well as plan to continue our steady progress. A time of rejoicing
over more than our age is Convention, 1917, to be. Our size, our When thro' the first months of that life
rising importance, will never dawn upon us until we come to Con- Which seems with wonders, O, so rife!
vention. The people who are coming, the great things to be done, She sees the opening of a soul
the learning to know ourselves as we are, will make this Convention As petals of a flower unfold.
the greatest one ever "held. To work and play and sing together, to
teach and learn from one another is our part. For a few days it will She marvels more and more to feel
be That part of her is here unfolding,
And that the great plan of all ages
"Ours to hold Right in her child she is beholding.
Earth's only Paradise,
Virginia" Who can ever tell the joy
That she feels when hearing "Ma-Ma"
and to know Alpha Omicron Pi more intimately than she has ever Spoken first by girl or boy
been known before. Followed very soon by "Da-Da"?

LUCY R. SOMERVILLE, K , 16, Oh, you cannot understand,
And I have not the power to tell
Convention Manager. A l l the joy the mother feels.
Only mothers know f u l l well.
"Make me to be a torch for feet that grope
Down truth's dim trail; to bear for wistful eyes No better wish I have for you
Who have not known a mother's joy
Comfort of light; to bid great beacons blaze Than that sometime God will send you
And kindle altar fires of sacrifice. Darling girl or bouncing boy.

Let me set souls aflame with unquenchable zeal (•This is sent as an echo to the Home Number by one of the Home-Makers
For high endeavors, causes true and high,
of A o n.)
So would I live to quicken and inspire,
So would I , thus consumed, burn out and die."