The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 5 September 1912, Page 61

The Family Circle

TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW Don’t tell me of to-morrow, That when a good deed’s to be done, Give me the man who’ll say, Let’s do the deed to-day.’ We may all command the present, ■ - If we act and never wait; "V But repentance is the phantom Of a past that comes too late. Don’t tell me of to-morrow, ' There is much to do to-day That can never be accomplished, If you throw the hours away. Every moment has its duty, Who the future can foretell ? Then, why put off till to-morrow, ~ What to-day can do as well? Don’t tell me of to-morrow, If we look upon the past, How much that we have left to do, We cannot do at last; To-day it is the only time For all on this frail earth; It takes an age to form a life, A moment gives it birth. CLAIRE’S THREE CALLERS Claire was darning stockings the other day when Milly came in, and Milly,. dropping down in the chair opposite, exclaimed in distress: ‘Oh, you haven’t got to do all those, have you?’ ‘ Every single one!’ Claire’s tone was grimly uncompromising. There would not be so many,’ she added a moment later, ‘ if I had done my darning last week. I’m not going to put it off another time.’ Milly lingered for twenty minutes keeping her distressed gaze fixed upon the clock, and squirming restlessly in her chair. Three times in those twenty minutes she asked plaintively; ‘ Aren’t you almost done, Claire. Don’t you think ' you could leave the others V And when both interrogations were persistently answered in the negative, she rose with a long-drawn sigh. ‘I think I’ll have to go, Claire. There’s so little to Saturday, anyway, and it seems a shame to waste it all. I’m so sorry you’ve got to finish all that dreadful darning.’ And as she went out of the room, Claire instinctively echoed her sigh, as if she really had been the martyr Milly seemed to think her. She stuck to her work, but it was a dogged persistence, with nothing cheerful or inspiring about it. Jane was the next girl to put her head in at the door. ‘ Stockings!’ she exclaimed, with a lift of her eyebrows. ‘ Well, I won’t wait for you, then. I finished mine this forenoon.’ The door closed, and Claire sighed again, this time a sigh of relief. She was thankful that Jane had not felt called upon to sit down and pity her, and ask her every minute or so how soon she expected to be through. When Stella came in smiling, she did not say anything about the stockings for two or three minutes. She settled herself in the chair Milly had vacated, and the two friends talked busily for five minutes, while Claire’s needle wove its way back and forth across the *V holes that were so slow in filling up. Then Stella remarked in a matter-of-fact tone: ‘Got another thimble?’ „ ‘ Never mind. You do enough darning at home. When you go visiting, you’re not looking for another chance.’ ‘The idea!’ laughed Stella. Why, it’s fun to darn stockings when you have somebody to talk to.

I’m not used to sitting with my hands folded. I really don’t like it.’ , £\ , '• ••

She caught' at a stocking which showed enormous apertures in toes and heels. ‘Jamie's, isn't it? Phil's look just the same. How do you suppose boys manage to wear them out so fast V After all, it did not take long to empty the big mending basket, and when Claire rolled up the last pair of stockings her face was as cloudless as the sky. Out of her three callers, one had made her work harder, the second had left her as she found her, while the third had com© to her aid, and made the task seem a pleasure. - • And from that little glimpse, it will not be difficult to arrive at a fair understanding of the nature of those three girls. REALISM Realism is claimed to a great extent by pavement artists. ‘ I drew a salmon so perfectly,’ said one, * that when the sun went round to my corner the fish kicked up such a smell and the sanitary inspector took my name. When I drew a kettle an old josser tripped over it and told a policeman that the spout hurt his leg. I sent a picture of an Irish terrier to the Hibernian Academy. They hung a painting of a Persian cat beside it, which was thoughtless. Next morning both animals were in the same frame and my dog-looked triumphant. I had to pay, and paint a muzzle on the dog as a precaution.' • OLD IRISH PROVERBS The ancient Irish Kings and Brehons (says the Catholic Standard and Times'), were men of great intelligence and wisdom, and the sayings of Fethill the Wise, Moran and Cormac Mac Art, were so many terse lessons of human wisdom, but it may be information to the majority of the Irish public of the present day to state that many of our proverbs in present use are merely paraphrases of the old Milesian sayings. Annexed we give a list of genuine Irish proverbs, from Hardman’s Irish Minstrelsy , which show the similarity between them and modern English proverbs: A blind man is no judge of colors. When the cat is out the mice will dance. Even a fool has luck. Fierceness is often hidden under beauty. There is often anger in a laugh. A good dress often hides a deceiver. Fame is more lasting than life. A foolish word is folly. Mild to the meek. Cat after kind. Hope consoles the persecuted. The satisfied forget the hungry. Long sleep renders a child inert. , Hurry without waste. Drunkenness is the brother of robbery. Hope is the physician of each misery. It is difficult to tame the proud. Idleness is the desire of a fool. Look before you leap. The end of a feast is better than the beginning of a quarrel. A wren in the hand is better than a crane out of it. He who is out, his supper cools. The memory of an old child is long. Everything is revealed by time. A cat can look at a king. Learning is the desire of the wise. Character is better than wealth. Without treasure, without friends. A hungry man is angry. No man is wise at all times. Every dear article is woman’s desire. Wisdom exceeds strength. Wine is sweet to pay for it bitter. Sleep is the image of death. »*•

Enough is a feast.

Death is the physician of/the poor. , Not every flatterer is a friend. - STORIES OF NATIVE SERVANTS Lord Roberts tells a good story of a native Indian servant who had been told to prepare a bath at a certain hour. A fierce attack was in the meantime delivered by the enemy, and in the thick of it the servant, who had made his way through the storm of bullets, suddenly appeared among the headquarters staff. ‘ Sahib,’ said he to his master, ‘your bath is ready.’ An even better story is told of a subaltern in Chitral, who was awakened one morning by a brother subaltern’s servant pulling at his foot. ‘ Sahib,’ whispered the servant, anticipating wrath, ‘ sahib, what am I to do? My master told me to wake him at -past 6, and he has not gone to bed till 7.’ HE GOT THE JOB Only a month ago a boy of seventeen went down town looking for a situation. He went into a large shop and asked if they wanted a boy. Said the proprietor: ‘ I suppose you think you can do about everything, don’t you ?’ No,’ said the boy ‘I can’t do anything; I have never been in a place. But I can try to do anything you tell me to do.’ ‘ How much wages do you want?’ ‘I won’t be worth much to start with. I will take what you will give me, and if . I improve, you will know what I am worth.’ The boy spoke so sensibly and showed such good principles that the proprietor took him in at once. Afterward he told the lad’s father that he really had more help than he needed, but could not afford to let such a boy go. THE STRENGTH OF THE ELEPHANT , No animal will face danger more readily, at man’s bidding, than the elephant. As an instance, take the following incident, which recently occurred in India. A small female elephant was charged by a buffalo in high grass, and her rider, in the hurry of the moment, and perhaps owing to the sudden stopping of the elephant, fired an explosive shell from his rifle, not only into-the buffalo, but into the elephant’s shoulder. The wound was so severe that it had not healed a year later. Yet the elephant stood firm, although it was gored by the buffalo, which was then killed by another gun. What is even more strange is that the elephant was not nervous of gun reports afterwards. When a number of elephants are shipped, a strong structure is erected on deck, and there they are stabled, chained by the feet. In an emergency they could easily walk away with their chains and the deck flooring, throwing the stable aside if it offered any impediment to their progress, as was shown in the case of the sinking ship Agra some years since. The Agra was swinging at anchor off Ceylon preparatory to her journeying to America, when she sprang a leak and quickly sank. The elephants set up a call, but there was no despair in the noise that followed. It was the business-like sound of crashing timber, and before the Agra had reached the bottom a herd of elephants were swimming to Ceylon. DODGIN’ THE MANAGER Mayor Brand " Whitlock, ■ of . Toledo, was talking about a certain trust magnate. ‘ He’s got a bad name,’ said the mayor-novelist. Hence he can’t get a square deal. He’s got as bad a name for a lawsuit as Dodgin had for a manager. Dodgin was the new manager of a biscuit concern. There was a workman at the concern who liked to sneak off to a shed at about 3 o’clock in the afternoon and smoke a pipe and look over the afternoon paper for half an hour or so. Well, one day as the workman sat reading and smoking in the shed,

Dodgin appeared. ‘Who are you?' Dodgin asked sternly, frowning at the idle workman. The workman frowned back. ‘Hug, who are you?’ said he. ‘l’m Dodgin, the new manager,’ was the reply. At this the workman smiled. ‘ So. am I,’ he said,’ heartily. ‘ Come in and have a smoke.’ GROUNDS FOR SUSPICION don’t know,’ was the reply, as the speaker ruefully twirled the contents of his cup, ‘ but there are certainly grounds for suspicion.’ SPELT DIFFERENTLY The new doctor, having had much to say about his cricketing was given a trial in the local team, but was out first ball to a swift and deadly ‘ yorker,’ . which he was obviously afraid to face. ‘ A demon bowler that, sir,’ remarked the man whose turn it was to go in next. . _ ‘Oh, not at all!’ said the doctor, loftily. . Quite ordinary, I assure you. I could have batted , him to Doomsday, but I’ve got an attack of traumatic neurasthenia this afternoon, and am badly off my play.’ The next player said nothing, but when he, too, returned to the pavilion, a victim to the first ball he received, the doctor said to him: What on earth were you doing, man, to let a simple ball like that beat you? You ought to have knocked it out of the field.’ ‘Yes, I know, sir but I am not very well myself, to-day.’ ‘ Indeed ! What are you suffering from?’ The same complaint as you, sir but we call it “blue funk” in this district.’ JUST IT’S WORTH Hostess (after presenting fan to prize-winner at whist drive): ‘Really, I’m afraid it’s hardly worth accepting Winner (appraising its worth): ‘ Oh, thank you so much ;it s just the kind of fan I wanted—one that I shouldn’t mind losing.’ THE BILLS THAT WORRIED HIM ‘ Doesn’t it make you feel sad and horrified to see women wearing the feathers of the poor little birds in their hats?’ Yes, it does seem barbarous,’ agreed the married man, ‘ and I should very much like to put a stop to it. It isn’t the feathers that worry me, though, so much as the bills'!’ ’ FAMILY FUN Arithmetic Boiled Down. The difference between - the cube of any number and the number itself is always the product of three consecutive numbers, and is also divisible by 6. Thus, the cube of 4 is 64. The difference is 60, which is the product of 3 x 4 x 5; and which also contains 6 ten times. A prime number is one that cannot be divided by any other number except itself and 1, without leaving a remainder, such as 3,5, or 7. If any prime number is divisible by 4 with a remainder of 1, the prime number will be found to be the sum of two squares Thus 13 is the sum of 4 and 9, which are the squares * of 2 and 3 respectively; and 29 is the sum of 4 and, 25, the squares of 2 and 5 respectively.