MRS.'MARVEL AT HOME.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 311, 25 September 1908, Page 3

MRS.'MARVEL AT HOME.

It would be a''.mistake to suppose from the statement that Mrs. Marvel was at home that any social function or festivity was in progress at her house. Far from it. When . Mrs. Marvel is at home it simply means that Mrs. Marvel" is' working a good deal harder ,th'an on any other half-day. in the week, arid that she; is ndt; being paid for her services. .Yesterday,, afternoon a. chance visitor found her standing over ,her '• little kitchen table doing up,-little" white frocks for the children. " It .is fpr Dominion Day," said Mrs.-Marvel, ..with .the jolly, smile -that, the thought of holiday Celebrations, always brings to her good-, nat'ured .face: '."Dulcieis going tobe in the flag, and Fanny hopes shq will be,'though the . teachers have not promised her yet. You Bee she .is only, seven, but she is that big , , anyone- would take her to bo nine, and lam / cure She'd, riialie as nice a splash 'of.'white in it' as you'd wish'to see. They are quite wild : .about, it.' J lolly .Tiir ner wanted'to be in . it, too, .'but'her.mother wouldn't let her: 'No;' she 'says',; '.Molly is too young and too deli- • cste. ,-.Shc, is. not'-strong, enough to stand foi' nn hour and a half, and so I told Jier.' 1 But, mother,' says Molly; ' there'll be''the ambu- , lance if I feci faint.'" "Look at .that, Mrs. Turner," says I. . There's spirit for you. The child wants to . ill .the flag, and, she'd stand till she dropped, if you'd let her. That's what I call patriotism, and if she wero my daughter I'd let her be as patriotic as she liked. What if a little faint does happen once in.a way. ,Bless me, it's something for a child to remember nil her life. But Mrs. Turner, she says, ,"No; that's not what she calls patriotism, that's sheer vanity and showing off. 'A flag! says she, 'why not a rose or a forget-me-not ? ■ It would be much prettier, and easier to arrange, and it would mean just as much. What good does it do the Empire,' savs she, 'if my littlo girl gets ■ sick and ill through pretending to be a flag that ought not to be lying on the ground at all,' she says, 'but flying at the top. of a polo and dashing at pirates and robbers ; and rebels,-or defending the fort, like Luck-now. That's what aflag is for,' she says, 'not to drag along the ground.' . "But I tell her it is the idea of it that is so beautiful, and that ,we want to make jour children love the .flag, and what hotter way is there to make, them realise how grand the flag of England is than to stand for an hour and a half- being it.' 'That's what I tell Dulc.ie, and let her faint if'"she wants to.. I'll be proud, of the child for it. Sbo has been that bad with influenza that I have had to keep her at home for a fortnight, and Fanny says the hurts her, eyes, but. I say to them:,.' Your grandfather Svas',fi r i;oldior, my dears, . and he would have stopd for a day aiid 'a 'half to defend tho,flag, for a .week and a half,'maybe. And when he died they put. on his-tombstone a"~lJeautiful bit of Latin.' I always remember the first word of it. It was 'D.ulcie,' and that's why I called my eldest Duleie.. And what the Latin meant was this, that it is a lovely thing to die for the good of your country, and I mean that my children, shall realise it." , She gave a. final flourish of tho: iron, and held tip little frock for the visitor's inspection. "There,'' she said proudly, "won't that look nice in the flag?"