The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 15 December 1910, Page 2081

The Family Circle

THE RECIPROCITY OF SMILES Sometimes I wonder why they smile so pleasantly at me, And pat my head when they pass by as friendly as can be; Sometimes I wonder why they stop to tell me How-d'-do, And ask me then how old I am and where I'm going to; And ask me can I spare a curl and say they used to know A little girl that looked, like me, oh, years and years ago; And I told mamma how they smiled and asked her why they do, So she said if you smile at folks they always smile at you. I never knew I smiled at them when they were going by; I guess it smiled all by itself and that's the reason why; I just look up from playing if it's any one I know, And they most always smile at me and maybe say Hello; And I can smile at anyone, no matter who or where, Because I'm just a little girl with lots of them to spare; And mamma said we ought to smile at folks, and if you do Most always they feel better and they smile right back at you.' , And when so many smile at me and ask me for a curl It" makes me think most everybody likes a little girl; And once when I was playing and a man was going by He smiled at me and then he rubbed some dust out of his eye, Because it made it water so, and said he used to know A little girl up in his yard who used to smile just so; And then I asked why don't she now, and then he said, ' You see-—' And then he rubbed his eye again and only smiled at me. NOT WHAT THEY EXPECTED 'lf I could have my wish,' Jack was saying as Mrs. Porter came out on the porch, ' I'd wish that I could do as I. pleased all one day—just have a good time. I wouldn't wish for a doll with real hair or a toy piano,' and he looked at the girls as if to say their wishes were very foolish. It was a rainy day and the children were playing quiet games after getting tired of the toys and dolls. ' That would be nice,' agreed Emily. ' Mamma, we are playing the Wishing Game. Cousin Florence wants a toy piano and I wished for a doll with real hair. What is your wish ?' ' I'll think about it and tell you later,' said Mrs. Porter threading her needle. ' You go on with your game while I think.' ' 1 only have one wish to-day,' went on Jack. 'lf I could do as I pleased a whole clay I'd be perfectly happy. It's always "Jack don't," and "You musn't "do that, •lack," from morning till night.' ' Well, it seems to me it wouldn't be so very hard to manage a Do-as-you-please day,' said Mrs. Porter. ' 0 course it would depend upon whether you wanted to. get into mischief or not. I think to-morrow you may all try doing as you please, if you will promise not to want to do • things that will injure you or any one else.' The children were all excited and promised very readily to keep out of mischief. Then they began to plan what they would do the next day, and the rainy afternoon passed very quickly. ' I shall stay in bed till 'way late,' said Emily, ' and then get up to play the rest of the day. 1 won't have to do a single thing all day, will I, mamma?' ' Nothing but the things you want to do.' 'And I shall wear my best dress and my white shoes,' said Florence. ' I think I'll take my new pink parasol and go walking, or maybe play with Geraldine Mignonette where folks can see me. I don't like to save my best dresses. I like to wear them all the time.' 'Pooh! Such ways to have good times!' cried Jack. ' I'm going to have a lot of fun.' The next day Emily stayed in bed till ten o'clock, but Jack and Florence were down early. Jack ate his breakfast without washing his hands or face and then ran away to play with his chum Fred by the river Florence came daintily down the stairs in her pretty new dress, holding her pink parasol carefully over her best hat, and started out for a walk, wheeling her best doll in the new carriage Uncle James had given her. f ' Auntie, did you think it was going to rain ?' asked < Florence, coming home wet and bedraggled an hour later ■ AVhy didn't you tell me?' ' But, my dear, the other day when I told you it was going to rain you cried and pouted, and, besides, this is do-as-you-please day, you know.' Jack came in tired and warm and dirty after a very happy morning, but when he saw Aunt Molly at the table m her white dress lie said he would eat iii the kitchen rather than wash his hands. He left his dinner for a moment and the cat upset his ice cream, so that he thought he had better go to the table the next time. Emily fared better than any of the rest, for she had a long, happy day

with her dolls and her books and-her little friend from next door, but she was glad when evening came. 'Well, how did you like it? Shall we try it again?' asked Mrs. Porter, as they gathered about her chair in the twilight. , \ ' I don't want to,' said Jack quickly. It's no fun doing as you please.' 4 1 don't want to try it again,' said Emily. ' I had a good time to-day, but I'm sorry I didn't help mamma. It's all right in the day time, but when evening comes and mamma is very tired, I'm sorry I didn't do a thing but please myself. Don't let us do it again, mamma.' ' I don't want to do as I please, either,' said Florence. ■ I spoiled my parasol and my new dress, and Geraldine Mignonette looks like a fright. I'm not going to pout alter this when Auntie wants me to stay at home.' ' Well, we won't try it to-morrow,' said Mrs. Porter, • but the next time you are naughty and must be punished wo might try another do-as-you-please day.' That was last summer, but none of the children have ever asked for another whole day to please themselves. Of course they often want their own way in many things, but when somebody says, 'do as you please,' there is a general laugh, and everything gets straightened out in a hurry. 50ME YOUTHFUL « DUNCES ' In front of Trinity College, Dublin, in heroic bronze stands the statue of Oliver Goldsmith. This institution is proud to claim him as one of her intellectual sons, yet he was. once hooted out of her halls as a dunce; mocked taunted, reviled, called 'pock-marked Oliver,' and many other unsavory epithets, until life became unbearable and he,had to take refuge in flight. \ Oliver, 'the blockhead,' became one of the greatest masters of the English languages, one of the sweetest poets and among the grandest essayists. Many of Goldsmith's illustrious countrymen were treated in the same way Irishmen who in after years by their talents sent their names ringing round the world, were taunted with their stupidity in the beginning. It is claimed that in his boyhood Shakespeare, was so stupid that he did not know enough to come in out of the rain. Perhaps through this stupidity he got so wet that he became the great intellectual ocean whose waves touch the shores of all thought Around the shoulders of art Michel Angelo wrapped the fairest draperies, yet at first he was so deficient as not to know how to mix colors. Sir Walter Scott's mother called him/ a blockhead.' He had not a spark of romance in him as a boy, yet he became the greatest' romance writer of his age. THE ROOM FULL An Irishman went to England in search of work, and when shown bis room in the boarding-house the landlady remarked : ' There's your bed, Pat, and there are two more to sleep with you, but they won't be in till late, so don't be alarmed.' ' They'ro welcome,' replied Pat. ' Before retiring, Pat locked his bedroom door, and during the night was roused by a great knocking 'Who's there?' asked Pat. 'We are the lodgers. Open.' ' No room for ye,' replied Pat. 'How many of you are in the room?' they asked ' Enough,' said Pat. ' There's myself, Paddy Murphy a man come over from Ireland, a man looking for work a man with a wife and six children, an' a Tipperary man too! ■ ' By this time they had fled. A POSER A St. Louis paper reports the following interesting dialogue:— ... & ' Pa.' ' Yes.' 'l've been reading in that book vou gave me for a present about some strange things. It seems that man cannot create something out of nothing. ' Yes, that's true. Men may take ore and make iron out of it, or sand and convert it into glass, or wood and make paper out of it, but it is not within the range of human possibilities to make even so much as a pinhead out of nothing. There must always be the original element to use as a basis.' b 'And it says that men cannot remove from this earth anything that is found upon it, no matter how many times they may transform it from one thing to another ' hat also is an everlasting truth. Everything 'comes from the earth in the beginning and returns to the earth in the end. The tree that is converted into paper came out of the earth, and finally it finds its way back into +h« earth, either as ashes or decaying matter. Not o much as a grain of salt can be removed or absolutely obliterated by man Everything that man uses returns in one SS ?Joduc°ed' r ' ° nginal 6lemeilt from whki ™ w ™

'Pa.' ' Yes.' What becomes of the light when you blow it out?' Oh, don't bother me any more! This is the third time I've tried to read this article. Now, I don't want to be interrupted again.' GETTING THE CORRECT TIME The following story is told by Captain Lyons, who was in charge of a telescope at Helouan, Egypt. He said he noticed that every day at noon a gun was fired, and he was anxious to know how the system worked. Accordingly, he interviewed the gunner and asked him how he knew when to give the signal. ' Oh, I look at my watch,' said the official. 'And how do you correct your watch?' ' I take it to the maker in Cairo, and he tells me the error.' Then Captain Lyons interviewed the watchmaker in Cairo, and asked him how he checked the error in the watch. ' I get the correct time from the gun,' replied the craftsman. THEY WERE QUITS A city fellow while hunting went out into the country one day and lost his way, and as he was standing by a cross-road he saw a farmer a little way off. He walked over to the farmer and 'said, ' Say, Pat, which road leads me to the station?' 'How do you know my name is Pat?' asked the farmer. 'I. guessed it,' said the fellow. 'Well,' replied the farmer, 'then guess the way to the station.' THE BOY'S POETRY The annual school concert took place at Stumptown in the North Island last week, and was attended by settlers for miles around. Johnny Smith recited one stanza of the 'Psalm of Life to the delight of bis proud mother, and amid the plaudits of the audience. Here is a phonetic record of Johnny's effort: ' Liza Grape men allry mind us Weaken maka Liza Blime, Andy Parting Lee B. Hindus Footbrin Johnny Sands a time!' CHICKEN TALK The poultry editor of a country paper received this letter from a poetical- summer cottager: ' Dear Editor, —What shall Ido ? Each morn when I enter my hen-house I find two or three fowls lying on their backs, their feet in the air, and their souls in fields Elysian. What is the matter?' The prosaic editor sent the following reply by return mail: ' Dear Friend, —The principal trouble with vour hens seems to be that they are dead. The best thing you can do for them is to give them a decent burial.' FAMILY FUN The Pressure of the Air as Shown by a Wine-Glass.— Place a card on. a wine-glass filled with water, then invert the glass; the water will not escape, the pressure of the atmosphere on the outside of the card being sufficient to support the water. Weight of the Air Proved by a Pair of Bellows.— Shut the nozzle and valve-hole of" a pair of bellows, and ' after having squeezed the air out of them, if they are perfectly air-tight, we shall find that a very great force, even some hundreds of pounds, is necessarv for separating the boards. They are kept together by the weight of the heavy air which surrounds them in the same manner as if they were surrounded by water. Elasticity of the Air.—This can be shown by a beautiful philosophical toy which may be easily constructed. Procure a glass jar; mould three or four little figures in wax and make them hollow within, and having each a minute open in <* at the heel, by which water may pass in and out. Place them in the jar, and adjust them by the quantity of water admitted to them, so that in specific gravity they differ a little from each other. The mouth of the 'jar should now be covered with a piece of skin or Indiarubber, and then it the hand be pressed upon the top. of the mouth of the jar, the figures will be seen to rise or descend as the pressure is gentle or heavy, rising and falling, or standing * still, according to the pressure made. The reason for this is, that the pressure on the top of the jar condenses the air between the cover and the water surface- this condensation then presses on the water below, and influences it through its whole extent, compressing also the air in the figures, forcing as much more water into them as to render them heavier than water, and therefore heavy enough to