Dade

“ I want to see the whole world. I am going to some day—I am really, Daddy, when I get to be a great author, or artist, or actress, or playwright—or whatever sort of a great person I turn out to be. I have a terrible wanderthirst; the very sight of a map makes me want to put on my hat and take an umbrella and start. ”

“ He is one whom I revere more than any other man, and love as a father. Besides, there are other things that bind me to him—his immeasurable wrongs, his matchless patience—wrongs inflicted by one who is my father; and I, as the son, feel it a holy duty, the holiest of all duties, to stand by that bedside and devote myself to him. He is your father, Miss Dalton, but you have never known him as I have known him—the soul of honor, the stainless gentleman, the ideal of chivalry and loyalty and truth. ”

“ Hours, days passed, and still he was there with his daddy; watchful, wistful, trembling at every sigh and at every look, shaken continually between a hope which relieved his mind and a discouragement which froze his heart. ”

“ I can't believe that I am really going to see you—I've been just thinking you so long that it hardly seems as though you are a tangible flesh-and-blood person.
You are awfully good, Daddy, to bother yourself with me, when you're not strong. ”

“ But Daddy's place among the gentle Knights and Ladies of the Rocking-chair was far and away above such as these whose thoughts, alert though they were and loyal, travelled forever backward to the sweet but worn fields of memory where every pleasure is a recognition and fashions do not change—a restful retreat for dreamers whose days of activity are done. ”

“ Uncle William, and Uncle Joshua, and of all the good and noble men I had ever seen or heard of in my life; but still—that wasn't quite like a father, was it? I thought a father must be much, much better than anything else in the world! He must be brave, he must be beautiful, he must be good! ”

“ There shall be no mine or thine with regard to him; if my wife is his mother, you at least have a claim to be called his father. We have one another, and our lives are bright; you are alone, and the boy has cheered you by his presence. ”

“ One of the day-schools I went to for a brief while as a youngster was that of the Reverend Edmund—“Daddy” we called him. Dear old Daddy he was to every boy who ever knew him. To say that Daddy was good is to say nothing of him. He was good in a wise, broad way, which is very uncommon. So many people become inhuman and small when they become good. Daddy was both good and human. There is no use in being good, virtuous and honourable, if you have no heart and lack the sympathetic understanding of badness. Daddy understood all things both good and bad. He knew humanity as it really is ”

“ Daddy—the infidel Daddy—stormed a good deal, and lamented himself still more, when these facts became known to him. Dora had become a superstitious, priest-ridden dolt, of no good to him or anyone else any more. What, indeed, was to become of him? Natural affection cannot stand against the priest. A daughter cannot love her father and go to confession. ”

“ Daddy is the one who buys the trinkets. He has a way of finding always the most curious and the most beautiful things, and the Hindoo women crowding about him, and the little girls, too, seem to have suspected his talent. After examining the wealth of a dozen arms, two silver bands are selected, which, after being carefully washed by a very particular Daddy, are snapped about the white wrists of the expectant girlies. He has not only a way with him for finding beautiful curios, but, alas! I must confess he has a decided talent also for discovering beautiful women. ”

“ Taught to drink by his dad, from a babe he was spoil'd,
Did the same as old Tom did, his father's own child.
With his face full of glee, at his father he leer'd,
Cock'd his eye with a squint at the blood on his beard;
Cries out, dad here's your health, as he took up the can,
Full of courage and liquor, my dad is the man. ”

“ It isn't the great big pleasures that count the most; it's making a great deal out of the little ones—I've discovered the true secret of happiness, Daddy, and that is to live in the now. Not to be for ever regretting the past, or anticipating the future ”

“ Happy these children, who in its fullest sense could understand the word "father!" to whom, from the dawn of their little lives, their father was what all fathers should be—the truest representative here on earth of that Father in heaven, who is at once justice, wisdom, and perfect love. ”

“ I don't know why I cast such a misty atmosphere over life. I hasten to assure you that I am young and happy and exuberant; and I trust you are the same. Youth has nothing to do with birthdays, only with alivedness of spirit, so even if your hair is grey, Daddy, you can still be a boy. ”

“ Not to have a present ready to wrap in many layers of paper and tie round and round and round again with knotty string, and to inscribe in your best round hand: "To dearest daddie from your lovingist little dorter Ettie," or "To dear old dad wishing you happy returns from his afecshonate son Frank," or "To Dad from me with Stan's love," would be to feel yourself an orphan and an outcast, abjectly unworthy of a father who played cricket with you and never refused to make a wooden substitute for any arm or leg your family of thirteen might have lost or broken. ”

“ His eldest girl, a sweet-faced modest young woman, is on her father's arm, the younger ones go in front—a little family band, of one heart and one mind. There is a sweet sense of peace and rest on the young faces, and a light on that of the father which tells of that other peace, which the world can neither give nor take away. ”

“ In my experience the father is usually the decisive and dangerous object of the child's phantasy, and if ever it happens to be the mother, I have been able to discover behind her a grandfather to whom she belonged in her heart. ”

“ The son answered, ‘But, daddy, I am this kind of astrologer: if I look at the sky, I see at once where anything is in the whole earth.’ On the fourth day the youngest son came to the beech and pulled out his knife, the other three being there no longer. He was glad, and said, ‘My brothers are already all at home.’ He also went home. When he came to his father, the father asked him what manner of handicraft he had learned. The son answered that he was a huntsman. ”

“ Any one, indeed, might perceive, with half an eye, that, had the real design of the "Daddy" been what it wished to appear, it (the "Daddy") might have expressed itself in terms more direct, more pungent, and altogether more to the purpose. ”

“ The happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness. I have no faith in misanthropes. (Fine 84 word! Just learned it.) You are not a misanthrope are you, Daddy?
I started to tell you about the campus. I wish you ’d come for a little visit and let me walk you about and say:
“That is the library. This is the gas plant, Daddy dear. The Gothic building on your left is the gymnasium, and the Tudor Romanesque beside it is the new infirmary.”
Oh, I ’m fine at showing people about. I ’ve done it all my life at the asylum, and I ’ve been doing it all day here. I have honestly. ”

“ All I can say at the present moment is this: that you are very young, and you are motherless, and—you are about, little Annie, to be fatherless. You are on the very eve of losing the noblest and best father that girl ever possessed. Your uncle has stood in the place of a father to you. ”

“ But father, on the other hand, although an excellent and loving parent, was, when in good spirits, given to hearty laughter—given to loud, eager words, to strong exercise, both physical and mental. He was, as a rule, a very active man, seldom staying still in one place, but bustling here, there, and everywhere. ”

“ For we have been such good friends, think I should treat them fair;
I’ll be too big for hair bows—oh, dear, what shall I do;
Well, I’ll go down to grandma’s, and settle it with you.
{35} Good-By, Daddy.
A scene so sad, so very sad, how can I e’er forget,
They seemed to know each other, whom they had not even met;
The friends of these brave soldiers, in sorrow bent and sore,
For fear these sons have parted, and will never see them more.
Just one more kiss for daddy, dear sweetheart, don’t be sad,
When I get to camp, dear, you shall daily hear from dad ”

“ I tell you, Lu, it’s just splendid to have a father you can talk to just as freely as if he was a boy like yourself—tell him all you think and feel, and see that he’s interested, and know that if your thoughts and feelings aren’t right he’ll show you it’s so without being angry or stern, or making you feel that he considers you a simpleton or a fool. ”

“ On the following night David walked into the Parlour about eight o'clock, hung up his hat with the air of an emperor, and looked round for Daddy.
'Look here, Daddy! I've got something to say to you, but not down here: you'll be letting out my private affairs, and I can't stand that.'
'Well, come upstairs then, you varmint! You're a poor sort of fellow, always suspecting your friends. Come up—come up with you! I'll humour you!'
And Daddy, bursting with curiosity, led the way upstairs to Dora's sitting-room. ”

“ The day after he wrote her a letter, of which I shall speak presently.
A few minutes after the nobleman had gone the mother sent for me to come to her, and after paying an eloquent tribute to my virtues, my generosity, and my unceasing kindness towards her family, she made the following proposal:
“As I feel sure that you have all the love of a father for my daughters, I wish you to become their father in reality! I offer you my hand and heart; become my husband, you will be their father, their lord and mine. ”

“ The entire endeavor to replace the real father by a more distinguished one is merely the expression of the child’s longing for the vanished happy time, when his father still appeared to be the strongest and greatest man, and the mother seemed the dearest and most beautiful woman. ”

“ I was walkin' on the level, but my spirits was climbin' hills and coastin' into valleys. First minute I would be stickin' out my chest and thinkin' how all-fired grand it would be to be a daddy, and the next minute I'd cave in like a frost-bitten squash and wonder how in creation I'd ever drag along as a widow-man. One minute I'd see myself sky-hootin' round with a fine kid on my arm, and the next I'd see myself alone, with Marthy gone. ”

“ How would you like to become the father—and a mere glance around you will show you that the chances are enormously in favour of such a thing happening—of a boy with spectacles and protruding front teeth who asks questions all the time? ”

“ Body o' me, he shall be thy father, I'll make him thy father, and thou shalt make me a father, and I'll make thee a mother, and we'll beget sons and daughters enough to put the weekly bills out of countenance. ”

“ And yet it must be won, the affection of this poor father, who, at the outset, meets nothing but misadventures; he must be captivated, captured, made to have a taste for the business, and not be left too long to play the part of a recruit.
Nature has provided for it, and the father rises to the rank of corporal the day the baby lisps his first syllables. ”

“ Soon he collected his thoughts, and quietly said to the maiden:—
"Let me speak, my child, and let me answer your questions.
"'Tis for your sake alone I have come,—why seek to conceal it?
For I happily live with two affectionate parents,
Whom I faithfully help to look after our house and possessions,
Being an only son, while numerous are our employments.
I look after the field work; the house is carefully managed
By my father; my mother the hostelry cheers and enlivens. ”

“ Dear Daddy,
He has gone, and we are missing him! When you get accustomed to people or places or ways of living, and then have them suddenly snatched away, it does leave an awfully empty, gnawing sort of sensation. I ’m finding Mrs. Semple’s conversation pretty unseasoned food.
College opens in two weeks and I shall be glad to begin work again. I have worked quite a lot this summer though—six short stories and seven poems. Those I sent to the magazines all came back with the most courteous promptitude. But I don’t mind. It ’s good practice. ”

“ Imagine my father’s happiness, sir! He was of humble birth. Through a happy combination of circumstances he had been able to take his degree at a university, and to marry a comparatively rich wife. Being an ambitious man, he looked upon every member of his family as a means to attain the social success for which he was longing. ”

“ The good old-fashioned mother and the good old-fashioned dad.
There are some who sigh for riches, there are some who yearn for fame,
And a few misguided people who no longer blush at shame;
But the world is full of mothers, and the world is full of dads;
Who are making sacrifices for their little girls and lads.
161
They are growing old together, arm in arm they walk along,
And their hearts with love are beating and their voices sweet with song ”

“ A brawny, large, and handsome man was the father, on whose shoulder the little fellow was riding, while a demure, pale-faced sister of about ten, walked by the side of the two. Father and little sister might have been met with anywhere, any day, but the baby once in a lifetime. ”

“ There is something about the name, however, which conveys the idea of a giant. ‘Daddy,’ indeed, being the familiar appellation by which children occasionally designate their male parent, points, not so much to the paternal relationship of a giant with mankind, as to his size and proportions, which are as much larger than those of man as are the proportions and size of a father to those of his young children. ”

“ But it’s gonna get us away from here, Bill! We get outa de city—we go somew’eres in de Bronx—an’ den we give Millman a ring on de telephone—
David
Don’t telephone daddy; he’s always busy.
Slim
He won’t be busy dis time.
[He argues with Bill.]
David
You don’t know my daddy! My daddy is the busiest [Pg 40] man in the world! When he comes to see me, he says, “Exactly ten”—and that means exactly ten. When I want to see him I have to ask his secretary—and sometimes he can’t see me at all.
Bessie
Do yuh like dat? ”