The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 23 July 1914, Page 61

The Family Circle

TO A DAISY. Slight as thou art, thou art enough to hide Like all created things, secrets from me, And stand a barrier to eternity. And I, how can I praise thee well and wide From Adhere 1 dwell— upon the hither side? Thou little veil for so great mystery, When shall I penetrate all things and thee. And then look back ? For this I must abide, Till thou shalt grow and fold and be unfurled Literally between me and the world. Then I shall drink.from in beneath a spring, And from a poet’s side shall read his book. O daisy mine, what will it be to look From God’s side even of such a simple thing? Alice Meynell. ONLY A DREAM. ‘ Oh, dear me,’ exclaimed Nan Wethers, as she slammed a dish on the table, ‘ all I do is work, work, work! I’m just sick and tired of dishes, housework, children, and everything else! Don’t 1 wish I was rich?’ and she threw herself in the rocking chair. At such an outburst from gentle Nan, who was always so patient and kind, always the one to preach and make things easy when anything went wrong, her mother and brother turned in surprise. ‘Whew,’ whistled brother Tom. Then he added: ‘ If wishes were horses and horses were men,’ but he was silenced with a look from his mother, who remarked pleasantly ; ‘ I’m sorry, too, wo aren’t blessed with the riches of this world, but don’t you want to go on an errand down town for me?’ Nan dressed herself hurriedly. She herself was surprised and sorry at her outburst, but now that the words were said she felt they were true. When she returned from the city, her mother handed her a letter which read : ‘ Dear Nan, — ‘ It has just occurred to me that your nineteenth birthday will be next week and that you are quite grown up. Now you have just reached an age when a visit to the city will be most beneficial. Won’t you come to New York and stay with me for two months? Of course you will have every pleasure— automobiling, theatre parties, etc. ‘ Expecting an early acceptance, I remain, ‘ Your affectionate aunt, ‘Mary Holmes.’ Nan closed the letter in silence. Now was her chance. If she couldn’t have the pleasures all the time, she would at least have a taste of it. Sitting down at her desk, she penned a delighted acceptance, and as the excitement had somewhat turned her head she lay down on the bed. Suddenly she found herself entering the large, beautiful house of her aunt. The pompous dignity of the butler impressed her; the affectionate greeting of ■her aunt pleased her. In fact the novelty of everything was delightful. Having made the acquaintance of all her aunt’s friends, she settled down to a series of dinners, balls, and theatre parties. But soon she began to weary of so many pleasures. She missed the hurry and bustle of the early mornings. O, how she longed to get breakfast or hurry the children off to school. Well, taking it all together, she was homesick. Suddenly there was a crash and Nan opened her eyes to discover herself sitting on the floor in her own little room, gazing stupidly around her, and all at once her dream came back to her. Jumping up from the floor she ran out into the kitchen, and throwing herself into the arms of her bewildered mother she sobbed; ‘ Oh, mother, I’m not going to Aunt Mary’s. I’d rather stay home with you and the children—and work.’

NOT THE RIGHT THING. he other morning Mrs. Jones went to see her neighbor,* Mrs. Smith. It was obvious (that she was greatly upset about something. ‘ I’ll have to get rid of Fido,’ she burst out. ‘lie broke into the larder yesterday.’ Dear me!’ said Mrs. Smith, sympathetically. ‘Did he eat much?’ * J Mrs. Jones tried hard to speak calmly, while her eyes blazed with righteous wrath and burning indignation, as she replied : ‘ Every single thing except the dog biscuits!’ A GENIUS. A correspondent of the .1 civ 1 uric Sun quotes a remarkable tribute of a Negro preacher to a white preacher who had consented to occupy t lie black brother’s pulpit one Sunday. He said: ‘ Dis noted divine is one ob do greatest men ob do ago. He knows do unknowable, he kin do do undoablo, an’ lie kin unscrew do onscrutable !’ THE FOE OF GERMS. While it has long been known that tobacco smoke is a valuable preventative against infection during the epidemic of a contagious disease, it is only recently that an analysis of smoke-laden air in an East-end (London) district has been contrasted with- equally dense air in which tobacco fumes were lacking (says a writerin Tit Jilts). These analyses have shown that more.than one-half of the harmful germs had been destroyed by the tobacco smoke. This fact lias unconsciously been the means of preventing large loss of life, as was noted in lire recent, cholera epidemic in Germany, when workers in cigar factories were found to be immune to cholera, and wherein the victims were mainly from the non-smokers of the city. Experiments conducted in a cholera-stricken house, one floor of which was occupied with a cigar factory, led Professor Wcncke, of the Imperial Institute of Berlin, to the conclusion that the cholera germs cannot endure tobacco smoke. It was found that saliva containing virulent germs was completely sterilised by five minutes’exposure to tobacco smoke. It was further discovered that, although the water used in the tobacco factory, both for drinking water and in moistening the cigars, was full of septic bacteria, not a cigarmaker sickened, and the cigars themselves were free of the deadly peril. Determining to put the issue to a drastic test, a few tobacco leaves were moistened with water, a glass tumblerful of which contained over a million active germs, whereupon it was found that within twenty-four hours every one of the bacilli was dead. It has been a matter of common knowledge that inflammations of the mouth are fended off by the use of tobacco, and that unhealthy conditions of the mouth can never be traced to smoking, unless the habit is excessive. Now it appears that the smoker in a crowded room is truly a benefactor to humanity instead of the selfish brute some people would have us believe. DID NOT KNOW HER. At a meeting of clergymen, a curate was anxious to bring himself under the notice of the archbishop. He informed his Grace that he had recently seen a wonderful example of the ways of Providence. ‘ Your Grace,’ said the curate, ‘ my aunt intended taking a railway journey, but missed the train, owing to her cab being held up. That very train met with an accident, and many passengers were killed and injured. Was not that a wonderful intervention of Providence?’ The archbishop looked at the curate, and, after pausing for a moment, simply said : ‘ I didn’t know your aunt.’

OBEYING ORDERS. ‘Now, Alice,’ said Mrs. Bounce to her newest -domestic, * whilst I’m out just pare the potatoes and get them ready. 1 shall not be long gone.’ About an hour later Mrs. Bounce came back from her shopping expedition, bringing the meat that was ■destined to accompany the potatoes to the dinner table. Alice was calmly seated on the floor, and around her a goodly collection of the delectable tubers < 1,., 1 Cr°° d gracious!’ exclaimed the horrified mistress, What in the name of all that’s wonderful are you ‘doing V J ,_ .* P 0 * ma am replied the fair maid-of-all-work. Coin what ye told me, indeed. I’ve done the best J- could, too.’ Then she pointed to the potatoes. ‘ I’ve paired off all of ’em, ma’am,’ she mumbled, but, try as I will, 1 can’t find a mate for this little beggar.’’ AT THE RACES. Just before the big race of the day two men saluted each other -and entered into conversation A well-dressed young man in front soon spotted something glittering on the floor at their feet; he neatly dropped his handkerchief, and stooping down picked it up together with a half-sovereign, which ho transferred to an inside pocket. Very soon after one of the. men, on feeling in all his pockets, said : ‘ Bill, I’ve lost half a quid. I must have dropped it at the’ turnstiles. I’ll go and see.’ Bill then approached the ■well-dressed youim man and said : J Matey I saw you pick that half-sovereign up, and if you will give me five bob I’ll keep mum.’ The young man, after turning all colors of the rainbow, thereupon handed over five shillings, and thought, that he had made a good deal. But at’close ■ol racing his hopes were shattered. On looking at the half-sovereign lie discovered it to be a ‘ wronir ’mi,’ n THE RIGHT KIND OF PRIDE. Once at a boarding school some girls were trying to humiliate a new scholar whose hands were red and who looked as if she knew how to work. They were boasting of what they could do, apparently thinking she would he ashamed of being a working girl. ‘ Why,’ said one of them, ‘ I never did a stroke of work in my life.’ ‘You didn’t?’ said the country girl. ‘Don’t you know how to wash dishes?’ ‘ Oh, no, indeed !’ Can’t you cook ‘No.’ ‘Wash, iron, bake, or scrub?’ ‘No! No !’ said the girls, all at once. ‘We have servants to do those things.’ Can’t you sew?’ asked the country girl. _ Well,’ said one of them, ‘ I made an apron once,, but it was so poorly done that my mother had to rip it all out.’ ‘ Well,’ said the country girl. ‘ I would be ashamed' to be as helpless as you are— be like a baby and have someone to wait on me. You may talk about your father’s being worth money, but I’m worth something in myself. I cook, wash, sew, scrub, bake, and iron and milk and make butter, I am proud of what I can do, and never would think of boasting about what I can’t do.’ It is not the amount of money that measures your value. Our value lies in what we are, and not in what we possess. A woman may possess thousands yet be worth very little. Another may have only two strong hands and a firm intellect and be worth a great deal.