FROM MY NOTE BOOK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2622, 15 June 1904, Page 67

FROM MY NOTE BOOK.

1 I Friendship . . - - | [jet the canting liar pack! c Well T know, when I am gone, r ' How she mouths behind nay back. j '-The Vision of Sin.''— Tennyson. s When I \r?s a child my parents were v.-v.nt to tell me to believe only ha?f ot x -what I saw and nothing of what I heard. ■f Ifc used to puzzle me very much, for t J argued that it was of no use having eyes - and eais if they were not to be trusted. ' But, you Svee, I did not know the world * then— not that I fun boo&tful enough to ' think I know it now ; but at that time I = believed all people gcod and kind ai-d '' noble, because I hud never had any ex1 I pc-rkuces which proved them otherwise. Later on, when tlw disillusionment began, ? ' I fretted because my idols were being broken one after another and my faitk I! in humankind was getting shaken. Now ' I -begin to see Life rs ie really is, and I L * i am hoping to be able soon bo look on a i the fragments of idols — nobility of nature, 1 \ human kindness, gratitude, truthfulness, 1 I honesty — v. ith a calm face, and to pecepi, I everything that comes in the light of an \ • "expevien'-'e." 'Tis said that theie is no one living who is utterly without good — ' y ! no one go d'.praved but who luis some i .'aving tiait. Ido not deny it, but lam going to seL forth a character as I found il. and ioave my readers to judge for them«elve.«. f ain only jroing to deal with one , indiviJual of Pokfj- Hill as a choiacter ' a study, and Inm going xo call her thi Lily " , here, as the Lily, by its very purity, i-, „ something as remote from her nature as it I is j^os^rible to find. 1 j A hint, a v, Insper, hroatlnug low, ' j I may rot sptak of what I know. ' '"The Tv.'o Voices." — Tennyson. j i | I thought her very kind at fust, and if in r ' my deepest h^art the thought some imes i obtruded itself th it &he was a little ofH1 eious I chased that thought away ps some3 {hinq unkind and ur>woi'Uu-. >She 1 ivished f her kindnesses — nay. she vas deeply inui^i mint, and hurt if they weie not accepted. i I often observed vague smiles en the faces t \ of others at the mention of her name, but - I for friendship's pake ignored them, and for1 ! bore to inquire the leason. Gradually I , i began to wonder and doubt. The child2 like, innocent manner, the engaging fiee- , dom of speech, was merging into something l very different. It appeared as if all of t my neighbours of Poker Hill were somei thins not very nice. The H. 's kent a Yerj[

dirty house, and it was rcallv hrdly safe to eat anything that was cooked inside of it ; moreover, they were not quite what they appeared to be in every way. They might appear to be religious, but in reality they quarrelled most outrageously amongst themselves. Also, the way in which they talked of the poor old man 'behind his back was really disgraceful. Then the W.s, whom I had though quiet folk who never meddled with their neighbours, were even worse. Mrs W. was not clean, despite my belief — unless, indeed, it was when she expected visitors. She had been a horrid girl, and was a horrid woman, hardly fit, indeed, for one to know. Then Mrs M. (a kind, motherly soul I had thought he') was very much given to talk about her neighbours, and she was also very jealousminded. Besides, in days long ago her husband had actually struck her often — therefore she could not be quite nice. Mrs E. (whom I did not know) I was warned not to become acquainted with. She -was ically a terrible woman, and, in fact, no clean-minded person would want to know her. Several dangerous things were whis-pei-ed about her which nearly made my hair btand up on end, and I wished — and said so — that I had never made the acquaintance of Poker Hill. Mrs A., a quiet, industrious woman, iva«, it seemed, intensely dirty, and not at all straight, and Jier butter was decidedly '"smelling!" All of this information came by degrees, and I grew ■wrath with indignation to think that I was compelled to live amongst such terrible psople. My indignation grew stronger when I learned that at their last ladies' meeting they had pulled us to pieces most unmercifully. Seeing my indignation the Lily fanned the flame with still further gossip of what h?d been said of up, very cunningly worded, and mixed with Pome fresh gossip, till I felt like .some poor little animal surrounded by wild beasts. I felt a^wpys on my guard with these people, till at last some one of them opened my eyts I watched this delicate Lily, and listened to her talk when in their company and mine, and noted how she fawned on them, and her plausible speeches and modestly-dropped eyes ! I put two and two together, and though •••omewhat late in the day T made four of it, wi*h the result that I kept her at a, distance. Thus I learned the truth of things : it was the Lily who was full of faults and darkness, and who, because she was po, saw no goodness in others. What makes it seem all the more detestable on looking backward is that all of these people had been very good to her, so I afterwards learned, and especially at a time ■when &he most- needed it. I have mcl women who I have almost worshipped for their goodness of heart and nobility «i nature ; but this woman, when. I think of everythiiig, makes ray whole soul revolt, and I "am thankful that s-he has passed out of my life for ever. You may shut your door on a thief, but you c.mnct protect your chcracter from a scandalmonger.