The Farm Home

By Mrs. A.J. Wilder, Rocky Ridge Farm

“Now can we depend on you in this?” asked Mr. Jones. “Certainly you can,” replied Mr. Brown. “I’ll do it!”

“But you failed us before, you know,” continued Mr. Jones, “and it made us a lot of trouble. How would it be for you to put up a forfeit? Will you put up some money as security that you will not fail; will you bet on it?”

“No-o-o,” answered Mr. Brown. “I won’t bet on it but I’ll give you my word of honor.”

How much was Mr. Brown’s word worth? I would not want to risk much on it, Would you? He evidently considered it of less value than a littler cash. Now and then we hear of people whoses word is as good as their bond but far too often we find that “word of honor” is used carelessly and then forgotten or ignored.

Speaking to a friend of the difficulties of putting thru a plan we had in mind, I remarked that it was very difficult to do anything with a crowd any more, for so many would promise and then fail to keep the promise.

“I know,” she replied, “I do that way myself, it is so much easier to say ‘yes’ and then do as I please afterward.”

If my friend had realized how weak and unkind her reason was for disregarding her word, she would be more careful for she prides herself on her strength of character and is a very kind, lovable woman on the whole.

Mr. Brown and my friend had mistaken ideas of value. One’s word is of infinitely more worth than money. If money is lost, more money and just as good is to be had, but if you pledge your word and do not redeem it, you have lost something that cannot be replaced. It is intangible perhaps but ret nevertheless valuable to you. A person who cannot be depended upon, by others, in time becomes unable to depend upon himself. It seems in some subtle way to undermine and weaken the character when we do not hold ourselves strictly responsible for what we say.

And what a tangle it makes of all our undertaking when people do not keep their promises. How much pleasanter it would be and how much more would be accomplished if we did not give our word unless we intended to keeps it, so that we would all know what we could depend upon!

When we think of honor we always think of duty in connection with it. They seem to be inseparably linked together. The following incident illustrates this.

Albert Bebe, a French resident of San Francisco came home from the battle front in France. He had been in the trenches for two years and for four months in an advanced position, a “listening post” only 60 yards from the German trenches. Marie Bebe, the soldier’s little daughter, was very much excited over her father’s coming and objected to going to school the next morning. She thought she should be allowed to stay at home on the first day of her father’s visit. But her mother said: “No! Your father went to fight for France because it was his duty to go. You must go to school because that is your duty. Your father did his duty and you must do yours!” And Marie went to school.

If everybody did his duty as well in the smaller things, there would be no failures when the greater duties presented themselves.

Mrs. A.J. Wilder. "The Farm Home." Missouri Ruralist (October 5, 1919): 23.

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