The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 14 March 1912, Page 61

The Family Circle

THE LIGHT OF HOME

My boy, thou wilt dream the world is fair, « And thy spirit will sigh to roam, , And thou must go, but, never, when there, Forget the light of home. Though pleasure may smile with a ray more bright, It dazzles to lead astray, Like the meteor’s flash, ’twill deepen the night, When thou treadest the lonely way. But the hearth of home has a constant flame, And pure as vestal-fire! ’Twill burn’twill burn for ever the same, For Nature feeds the pyre. The sea of ambition is tempest-tossed, And thy hopes may vanish like foam ; But when sails are shivered, and rudder lost, Then look to the light of home. And then, like a star through the midnight cloud, Thou shalt see the beacon bright; For never, till shining on thy shroud, Can be quenched its holy light.

THE TWENTIETH HUNDRED

t Elsie Darwin came skipping home from school. Mother always said that when Elsie came skipping down the street she knew that something nice had happened to her. Something nice had happened to-day, and it made Elsie feel very happy. So she skipped, and as she skipped she sang a little song.’ It was an old, old tune which she sang, but no one else had ever heard the words, for she had made them up herself. She hummed them very softly under her breath: . ? 1 I got a hundred, I got a hundred, I got a hundred in spelling to-day.’ It was not the first day Elsie had stood one hundred in spelling. Not at all. Indeed, she had had one hundred just seventeen times that month, and now there were only three more days to spell. If she could have one hundred three times more her name would go on the honor roll. Then think of the joy of showing father her report card. So Elsie skipped and sang her little song, ‘ I got a hundred, I got a hundred,’ till she reached home and could tell mother. Of course it would have been nice to surprise mother, too, but a little girl must have someone to talk things over with. , The next day was Wednesday, and Elsie skipped home from school that , afternoon. The next day was Thursday, and again Elsie skipped. * Now there is only one more day, mother,’ she said, * and I can surely get just one more. And won’t father be surprised! And won’t he be proud of me?’ Everyone in school was excited that Friday afternoon. The girls talked it over at recess. There were three girls in the class who had nineteen hundreds— Sadie Clark, Mabel Deland, and Elsie. " t ■ ‘You girls needn’t be so sure,’ Lucy Case said. You may make mistakes to-day. I was sure, too, when I had fifteen hundreds. I thought I could get five more, but I made a mistake that very day.’ i.' ‘ but we won’t make mistakes,’ said Sadie. ‘ Will we, Elsie?’ • We will study just as hard till we know every word. Won’t we, Sadie?’ ; *Of course we will, said Sadie. •- v Spelling class came just before school closed. Elsie could hardly sit still in her seat. Her little song kept running through her head. She was almost afraid she would sing it aloud. N

‘ I’ll get a hundred, I’ll get a hundred, I’ll get my twentieth hundred to-day.’ This is what she sang to herself now. ‘ Only three more words to write,’ she thought. Her feet were tapping up and down under her seat, keeping time to the song. Miss Morris pronounced the . eighteenth word, * Deceive.’ ' ' ■;■ , O, dear!’ thought Elsie. One of those horrid ie” words that I could never spell. But I know this one to-day.’ She wrote it down. Then there were two words more, and it was time to change papers. ’ Elsie smiled at Sadie as they exchanged, and Sadie smiled back at Elsie. The smiles meant that each little girl was sure. Mabel Deland was asked to spell. Just as she began, Elsie gave a quick glance down Sadie’s column of words. Yes, they were just like hers. No! Were they, after all? Elsie was looking at the eighteenth word. It did not look right. & ‘ Decei —decie ’ she said quickly to herself Sadie had ei ’ ‘ Can she be right ?’ she thought. And then the awful truth came to her. Sadie was right. She was wrong! Mabel was spelling, and Elsie must try to follow her. And, 0, whatever she did she must not cry ! Elsie marked 100 at the top of Sadie’s paper and gave it back to her. She tried to be brave and smile at Sadie, but it was hard to make the smile come. Sadie smiled back at her, however, as if everything were all right. Elsie took her paper. She looked at the eighteenth word. What had happened to it? It looked right now ! a • Then she understood. Sadie had made the little mark with her pencil, so that the i was turned into an e. The dot was just half-way between the two letters. And no one need ever know. And there at the top of her paper was the big one hundred mark. It is what I have worked for for a whole month,’ Elsie thought. ‘ And I can’t bear to fail at the very end. ■ :/ So, when Sadie and the others stood, Elsie stood with them. But when Miss Morris praised them for their good .work, . Elsie did not feel as glad about it as she had expected to. She didn’t feel like singing her little either. Instead she kept thinking of the' word she haxDmisspelled ‘ Deceive, deceive ’; she could think of nothing else, ■ ° ‘ Is there a commandment that says, “Thou shalt not deceive ?’ she wondered. She didn’t believe there was, but it sounded like one. Elsie slipped away from the other girls when school was out, and started home alone. , She didn’t skip at all to-night. ‘ I don’t care,’ she said to herself. ‘ I worked hard all month, and nqw my name is on the roll anyway, and I can tell father.’ That is what Elsie tried very hard to say to herself. But all the time another voice kept saying, ‘ Deceive deceive d-e-c-e-i-v-e, deceive.’ And, when she tried to think of telling father, as she planned, she knew that she could never do it while that voice rang in her ears. - b There was just one thing that she could do. She turned around and walked fast, almost Tan, ’ back to the school house. Then when Miss Morris understood all about it, and her name had been erased from the board, she started home once more. She did not skip nor sing, but the voice had stopped. . S* l6 told her mother when she reached home, and cried, too, with her head in mother’s lap, ■ ‘ Now it is all spoiled,’ she sobbed, ‘and there won’t be to tell father at all.’ ; ” ‘ I think I would tell him, dear, if I were you ’ mother said. ‘I think I would tell him the whole story.’ •• 9 Elsie did tell him as she sat on his knee after supper. And now you can’t be proud of me at all * she finished. ’

:■ But lam proud of my little girl,' he said, and I believe she has made me more happy than if she had told me of a twentieth hundred.'

HOW GOUNOD BECAME A MUSICIAN

When Gounod was at the school of one who was called the good Papa Pierson, he was constantly scribbling musical notes. One day the schoolmaster sent for him to come to his study. Your parents complain,’ said Pierson. They do not wish any musician in their family. You must be a professor.’ ‘Never!’ ‘ Your choice is between Greek and Latin.’ * But I will be a musician,’ Gounod said. : * You will? Give it up, I say; it is no profession at all. However, we will just see what you can do. Here’s pen and paper. Compose for me a new air to St. Joseph’s words, “ A peine au sortir de I’enfance”.’ It was the recitation hour. Before the bell sounded for the studies to begin again Gounod came back with the paper completely covered. ‘ Already!’ cried Pierson. ‘ Well, sing it, then.’ Gounod sang and accompanied himself and so deeply affected poor Papa Pierson that with tears he pressed him in his arms, and exclaimed : ‘ Oh, my dear boy ! henceforth they may say what they like, but a musician you shall be and nothing else.’

'Never!'

PAULINE'S VERSION

Pauline, who had been attending school for almost two weeks, was telling of the misbehaviour of some of her classmates. At her mother's question as to whether it had ever been necessary for the teacher to speak to her, Pauline answered quickly, 'O, no, mamma,' Then, ' She had to speak to all the class but me, this afternoon.' ' Why, what did she say?' 'O, she said, "Now, children, we'll wait until Pauline is in order." '

EXAMINATION BLUNDERS

The following is the latest list of school-boy howlers Lord Raleigh was the first man to see the invisible Armada. The . South of the U.S.A. grows oranges, figs, melons, and a great quantity of preserved fruits, especially tinned meats. The saddest thing King John did was to lose his crown in the laundry. The father of Henry IV. was John o’ Groats. The American war was started because the people would persist in sending their parcels through the post without stamps. Prince William was drowned in a butt of Malmsey wine; he never laughed again. Richard 11. is said to have been murdered by some historians; his real fate is uncertain.There are five continents— e, i, o, u. The tides are caused by the, sun drawing the water out and the moon drawing it in again. A circle is a line which meets its other end without ending. If the air contains more than 100 per cent, of, carbolic acid it is very injurious to health. Algebraical symbols are used when you don’t know what you are talking about. An angle is a triangle with only two sides. A circle is a straight line drawn as round as possible with a dot in the middle. The mechanical advantage of a long pump handle is that you can have someone to help you pump. St. Andrew is the patient saint of , Scotland. An old soldier is called a vegetarian. * A centipede is a French measure of length. The Home Office is where Home Rule is made. A Bishop without a diocese is called a Suffragette. In the houses of the poor the drains are in a fearful state and quite unfit for human, habitation. ,

BACK TALK ' TO NORBURY

Lord Norbury, 'damned to everlasting .fame for his brutal injustice to Robert Emmet, often got some biting 'back talk from ; the Irish prisoners at his dubious mercy. * '" ~- An old patriot, snowy-haired and bent with the weight of seventy years, was brought before the unjust judge, who sentenced the feeble prisoner to fourteen years' imprisonment with hard labor. The old gentleman bowed with a sad smile, and said ironically—' Your lordship is to be thanked most profoundly for. giving me so long a lease of life.' To another poor man Norbury cried violently Don't expect any mercy from me, scoundrel. I see the rogue in your face.' ' - '". / To which the doomed prisoner replied coolly ' I didn't know my face was a looking glass.'

NOT SO MAD

Some of the inmates of an asylum were engaged in sawing wood, and an attendant thought that one old man, who appeared to be working as hard as anybody, had not much to show for his labor. Approaching him, the attendant soon discovered the cause. The ,old man had turned the saw upside down, with the teeth in the air, and was working away with the back of the tool. ‘Here, I say, Jones,’ remarked the attendant, what are you doing % You’ll never cut wood in that fashion. Turn the saw over.’ ; The old man paused, and . stared at the attendant, ‘ Did you ever try to saw this way V .he asked. ' ' ‘ Well, no,’ replied the attendant, ‘of course' I haven’t.’ " , f Then hold thy noise, man,’ was the instant reply. ‘l’ve tried both ways, and’impressively— ‘ this is easier.’ '

WITH AND WITHOUT GEOGRAPHY

A little girl was well up in most of her studies except geography. The other day her teacher sent a note to her mother to see that the girl studied her lesson. The next few days showed no improvement, and the teacher asked whether she had delivered the note. 'Yes, ma'am,' was the reply. ' What did your mother say ' She said that she didn't know geography an' she got married, an' you know geography and you. haven't got married.' .

STRANGE LANGUAGE

A young man just returned from college was out cycling one day when suddenly he came to the top of a steep hill. While he was descending he lost control of his machine and was thrown. Two men came, and found him lying on the ground. When asked how it happened, he replied: 'Well, I came down that decline with the greatest velocity, and lost my centre of gravity, and was precipitated on the hard macadamized road.' ••/• ' Oh, come on ; let him alone,' replied one- of the men. 'He's a foreigner.'

FAMILY FUN

To Find the Width of a River.—The following directions are taken from Baden-Powell's book, Boy Scouting for Boys:— The way to estimate the. distance across a river is to take an object such as a rock or tree on the opposite bank. Start off at right angles to it from a given point A, and pace, say 90 yards along the bank. On arriving at 60 yards, plant a stick or stone at the place, which we will call B, ;and on arriving: at C, thirty ; yards beyond that— is ; 90 from the start—turn and walk inland," counting your step's until you bring the stick and the distant tree in line. The number of paces you have taken from the bank, will give you half the distance across the stream -