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It was graduation down in the Ozarks.  The honor graduate was a boy named Eddie.  He was the son of a farmer father and mother who had never been far away from home.  It was quite an event for them to travel by train to the college campus for the commencement.  But go they must, for their Eddie was to give the major address.  They came and sat on the very back seat, for they were self-conscious and embarrassed.  Father’s suit was shiny, and mother’s dress was very plain.  They sat in awed silence through the proceedings.  Eddie got up to speak, and he spoke with ease and eloquence, for he was a brilliant boy.  The father and mother felt they were seeing a different son from the one they had known on the farm.  Tears blinded them as their boy told what his home and country and school and church had meant to him, and how he and his classmates were now going out to save the things they loved.  When the speech ended, the old man, sentimental for the first time in years, grasped his wife’s hand and stammered, “Maw, that boy is the best crop we ever grew.”  How true!  Our best crop as parents is to “grow” good sons and daughters and send them out to make a better world.

Happiness Is Still Home Made, T, Cecil Myers, pages 66, 67