The Wreath

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Paul's father is sick and out of work. For many weary days he has searched for employment, and finally gives up and takes to his bed. The same day Paul comes home from school with a note from his teacher that his son had played truant again. To the poor father's overwrought nerves, his son's mischievous shortcomings are a great burden, and the thought of his boy's lack of attention to his studies but adds fuel to the fever which is rapidly breaking down his once strong constitution. A few days later when Paul runs in from his pleasures, he finds that his father has finally succumbed, and throwing himself beside the bed, he sobs out his sorrow for his lack of filial attention, alas, too late. The sad little funeral party of just the mother and son go to the cemetery with the body of the man they loved so well, but the lack of work had decreased their little store of money to such an extent that they could not afford to buy even one poor wreath for the lonely grave. Heartbroken, they return to the desolate home. Paul now repentant, spends all his evenings in study, much to his mother's amazement. Night after night he burns the midnight oil in his endeavor to regain his lost ground with his fellow students, and every day he enters his father's room and offers up a prayer for his dead father's blessing on his efforts. Finally composition day arrives and Paul's essay has won first prize. He receives a big package of books and a laurel wreath is placed upon his brow. Overjoyed he rushes home to his mother and earnestly pleads her to accompany him to the lonely mound in the cemetery, and there as an offering to his beloved father, he places his hard-earned wreath upon the wooden cross which marks the spot beneath which lie the remains of all that they hold most dear.