POET LAUREATE’S STORIES

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 December 1934, Page 10

POET LAUREATE’S STORIES

BILL AND ALFONSO. Two thousand boys and girls from metropolitan secondary schools had the delightful experience of listening to the Poet Laureate, Mr J. Masefield, tell stories and read poems of his own composition at the Melbourne Town Hall. The event was arranged by the Free Kindergarten Union, to which all proceeds will go. Mr Masefield’s charm as a story teller lies chiefly in his sonorous voice and the inimitable distinction of his phraseology. His manner is simple to a striking degree, and he cares little about the “surprise ending” so long as the body of the tale is worth telling. This little story, which of course loses greatly in beingparaphrased, is a sample of the stories to which the children listened so raptly. Mr Masefield described it as “almost true.”

Seme 40 years ago there were two bad boys on a training ship on the River Mersey. Greatly longing to swim, one fine hot afternoon when they were confined to the ship for some iniquity they had perpetrated, they decided that Alfonso should “fall" overboard and Bill should jump in and save him. ’Phis nefarious plot was duly carried out, and in due course the alarm was sounded and a cutter was lowered which rescued the boys. The captain awaited them. They told their story. Alfonso was soundly berated and ordered to wear a lifebelt round his neck, eating, working, sleeping, for the next seven days, “to teacn him not to be such a fool in future.”

“It is a painful business to wear a lifebelt round your neck,” said Mr Masclield earnestly. “Do not ask me how I know, but I do know,” But how different was Bill’s treatment, he went on. Bill was thanked by the captain and cheered by the ship's company at muster that night. These acts of homage were shamefaced-

ly received by Bill, who thought that was the end of the business. It was . far from the end of the business, however. Very soon Bill received two ; letters, one from Alfonso’s mother, conveying the most extravagant ' thanks for Bill’s “heroic deed” in saving her darling boy, and accompanied 1 by an inscribed gold watch and chain; the other from Alfonso’s father, enclosing £5. Though Bill’s conscience smote him he accepted ..the gifts, because Alfonso insisted it was now too late to confess all. Bill’s act of deceit was to bring him surprising success through life. At the breaking-up ceremony he was astonished and dismayed to be presented with three different medals for his act of heroism. Moreover, the Lord Mayor of Liverpool, who presented the prizes, was so taken with Bill and his exploit that he offered him a berth in one of his ships and promised to make him a captain before he was twenty-one. Bill accepted the berth and had a distinguished career in the mercantile service, greatly helped by the lord mayor. He died full of honours, but history did not record what happened to Alfonso. “I thought of reading you my poem about locusts,” said Mr Masefield. “But a locust is a grasshopper, and since I told the story contained in that poem shortly after my arrival here, there has been a plague of grasshoppers. There is a suspicion that the plague is due to my presence here. I will not read the poem about the locusts.” i