A TWILIGHT STORY.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XXIV, Issue 1887, 13 April 1892, Page 5

A TWILIGHT STORY.

"Auntie, will you tell a story?" Bald my little niece of three, As the early winter twilight fell around us silently. So I answered to her pleading : " Once, when I was very small, With my papa and mamma I went out to make a call; And a lady, pleased to see us, gave me quite a large bouquet. Which I carried homeward proudly, smlliDg all along the way. " Soon I met two other children, clad In rags and sad of face, Who grew strangely, wildly joyous as I neared their standing place. Twas so good to see the flowers ! ' Give us one — oh, one !' they cried. But I passed them without speaking ; left them with their wish denied. Yet the mem'ry of their asking haunted me by night and day. 1 Give us one ! ' I heard them saying, even in my mirthful play. " Still I mourn, because tv childhood I refused to give a flower ; Did not make those others happy when I had It iv my power." Suddenly I ceased my story. Tears were in my niece's eyes — Tears of tenderness and pity— while she planned a Bweefc surprise : " I will send a flower to-morrow to those little children dear.'' Could I tell her that their childhood had been gone this many a year ? — ' Harper's Bazar.'

The loftiest spire in the world is that of the Cathedral of Ulm in Germany. The last stone has just been put in position, 513 years after the building waß begun, in 1377. The spire is 530 ft high, 18ft more than that of the Cathedral of Cologne. The latter was finishedin 1880, after having been 632 years in building. The two examples show that with patience almost anything can be accomplished.