The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 29 April 1915, Page 61

The Family Circle

DROPPING A KIND WORD. Drop a word' of' cheer and kindness—just a flash and it is gone; But there's half a hundred ripples circling on and on and on, Bearing hope and joy and comfort on each splashing, dashing wave. Till , you scarce believe a volume of the one kind word you gave. Drop a word of cheer and kindness—in a minute you forget ; But here’s gladness still a-swelling, and there’s joy acircling yet, And you’ve rolled a wave of comfort whose sweet music can be heard. Over miles and miles of water— by dropping a kind word. PAID BOTH HIS DEBTS. A party of noblemen were amusing themselves shooting near Dijon, France. After a shot by the Marquis of Tours, aimed at something seen indistinctly in a thicket, a human cry was heard. The party rushed, to the point whence it proceeded and found a young girl of sixteen lying on the ground bleeding from a bullet wound in her side. From the opposite direction a man came hurrying, and when he saw .what had happened he took the girl up in his arms, and, shaking his fist at the huntsmen, cursed them for what had been done. you nobles who never toil, but feed on what we common people produce ? And, not content with wasting the fruits of our toil, you ruthlessly shoot our children without taking the trouble to discover that they are not birds. Wait, messieurs ! The day will come when we will crush you under our heels!’ ‘lt was an accident,’ replied the Marquis. ‘ Here; take this,’ throwing him a golden louis. ‘ Were-it not for your threats, 1 would make it ten times as much. Come,, messieurs. Let us go on.’ The party proceeded on their way, but had not gone a dozen yards- before the coin was sent spinning past the ear of the marquis. On© gentleman, a young fellow of twenty, remained behind. Kneeling beside the girl, he stanched the blood with his cambric handkerchief, then said to her father : ‘ Let us carry her to her home. lam a student in the Paris School of, Medicine. I will see what I can do for her.’ Henri Duriac. did not leave the home of Antoine Gamier until the daughter, Lizette, was out of danger. Indeed, he alone saved her life. Three weeks had elapsed when the young doctor said to Gamier: The crisis has passed. Any physician can now attend to the dressing-of the wound.’ Doctor,’ replied the father, why have you taken this trouble? You are noble.’ ‘ Yes, but I am a man.’ * You have given me the life of my daughter. Some day I may repay you,’ * I do not need money, and I trust that I may never need your assistance,’ replied the young surgeon. * * * * * Eighteen years later - cam© the reign of terror. Henri 1 Duriac, now. Count Duriac, was about to be arrested, - but succeeded - in escaping across the border. Count Duriac had been married; and his wife and her daughter,' Louise,, were about to follow him when they received a warning not to attempt to do so. -, , ■ Mme. Duriac, though beloved by all the province in which she lived, was at last arrested, and with her daughter taken to the conciergerie in Paris.

One day they were led out to be tried.... For what? For being of noble, birth. ~ A man sat behind a rude table ready to act as judge and jury and send-prisoners to the guillotine. ■ Mme.. Duriac" and. Louise sat waiting their, turn, watching the people who were pronounced ‘ traitors_ to France ’ marched away to die. ; A portly man; who showed by his dress and; bearing that he-was an aristocrat, stood before this self-constituted tribunal. ‘Your name?’ asked the judge. , ‘ ' - ‘ ‘ I am the Marquis of Tours.’ The judge flushed. - ‘Do you remember, - marquis, hunting for birds and shooting a maiden V The marquis paled, but said nothing. ‘ Traitor to France said the judge. ‘Take him away !’ • Next ■; -■ - ■’ ■ ‘ These,’ said a gendarme, ‘are the Countess Duriac and her daughter.’ The judge started. Madame, ’he said, you are accused of being a traitor to France. What is your defence?’ * I make no defence. Defence would be useless.’ ‘ H’m !’ said the judge. . ‘ Take these women to the little jail in Rue St. Jacques and bring them here tomorrow for sentence. The executioner is too busy to-day to attend to them.’ - ” That night a muffled figure appeared before the little jail in Rue St. Jacques and presented an order for Mme. and Louise Duriac. Throwing a mantle over each to conceal her features and especially her attire of a gentlewoman, he led them through some of the narrow streets of Paris. Stopping suddenly beside a'carriage and opening the door, he bade them enter. ' Not doubting for a moment that they were going to the guillotine, they obeyed, and their conductor mounted the box beside the coachman, and they were driven beyond the barrier. Stopping now and again for fresh horses, they travelled until at last they heard the splashing' of waves. Then they were put into a boat. ‘Take this letter to Count Duriac, madam©,’; - said their conductor, ‘and tell him that the man who gave it to you may soon be executed as a traitor to France.’ The prisoners were rowed to an English vessel standing off the coast, and in an hour were sailing for England. Once on board Mme. Duriac opened the letter to her husband and read : —Eighteen years ago a fiend shot my daughter, and a noble saved her for me. I have sent the fiend to the guillotine, and I send the noble two lives for the one he gave me.’ A NOBLE RIVAL. : . We have very few anecdotes of the great Raphael. The young, sad-faced painter of Madonnas is associated for the most part with his incomparable masterpieces, and not with sprightly happenings over which we can laugh or chat. There is, however, one incident in his life of which you may care to hear. . . - Before he had completed the frescoes in the chapels of Santa Maria della Pace he received five hundred scudi. When the last- of the series was done, he informed the treasurer that there was more money due him. 1 . ; ‘ I think you have had enough,’ said the-treasurer. * But I haven’t.’ . ‘You can’t have any more.’ ’ jr ‘But if some good judge should say I had earned more ?’ . ‘ Then I would give it. Appoint your own judge, and let him be one that knows what a painting is.’ ‘No; you yourself shall appoint the c judge, said Raphael. ; ... . > ; . Here was the treasurer’s opportunity. Michael Angelo, he-reasoned, was jealous of Raphael, and wouldput a low estimate on his work. . ;' ■ N - * I choose Michael Angelo,’ he said. r j J j' * Very well,’ v answered Raphael. - - . --- V. Together the treasurer and the great sculptor - went 0 ' ■ ■ -,»v * t- -

to examine the frescoes. Michael Angelo took one look at them and stolid spellbound. • . The treasurer, thinking him indignant at Raphael's effrontery in asking so. much for such indifferent paintings,. said: ‘ Well, what do you think ?’ / I think a great deal. I think, in the first place, that /we are looking at the most magnificent work imaginable. I think, too, that it is worth paying for.' The treasurer began to be frightened. How. much, for instance,' he asked, * would you call the head of that sibyl worth ?’ ‘ About one hundred scudi.’ ‘And the others?’ ‘ Each of them quite as much.’ Thereupon the -treasurer hied to the wealthy merchant who had undertaken the contract for frescoing the chapels, and told him the decision of the umpire. ‘Give him three hundred scudi at once,’ said the merchant; ‘and be very polite to him. Why, if we have to pay for the heads at that rate, paying for the drapery will ruin us!’ So Raphael got bis price through the generosity of his great rival. AN ABSENT-MINDED PHILOSOPHER. One day Sir Isaac Newton, finding the room rather cold,, drew his chair close to the grate. The fire soon began to burn furiously, and the philosopher found himself growing uncomfortable; but, being engrossed in some speculative problem, he endured the heat until there was grave danger of setting fire to his dressinggown. Then he rang the bell, and his servant appeared. James, at once.’ ‘But, my dear master,’ answered the man, * would not it be easier for you to draw back your chair ?’ •* < ‘ Upon my word,’ said Sir Isaac, with a bland smile, ‘ I never thought of that! ’ The philosopher had a favorite cat, for which he had a large hole cut in his study door, so that she might pass in and out as she pleased. When, however, the family-circle was enlarged by a number of kittens, the good man was dismayed. \‘ I want the kittens to run in and out just as their mother does,’ he said to his servant; ‘and the hole in the door is quite too large for them to go through. So make a small hole, James, that will just fit the kittens.’ And James, smiling to himself, did as he was told. HIS ADVICE. During the dinner-hour on board the steamer the other day a passenger was much disturbed by the vulgar way in which the man who sat next to him ate his meal. At last, after watching him pick a bone in a very primitive fashion, he could control his feelings no longer, and, turning to the offending party, he said : ‘ Don’t you think you would be more comfortable if you took that out, on the mat . RATIONS REDUCED. Sir Leopold McClintock, the Arctic explorer, was once giving an account of his experiences amid the icefields of"the north. * We certainly would have travelled much farther,’ he explained, ‘ had not our dogs given out at the critical time.’ f But,’ exclaimed the lady, who had been listening very attentively, ‘ I thought the Eskimo dogs were perfectly tireless creatures.’ Sir Leopold’s face wore a whimsically gloomy ex* pression as he replied : v \ ' ‘ I—er—speak in a culinary sense, miss.’

I PREPARING FOR THE HARVEST. . A long wisp of artificial wheat that served as a trimming on the sweet girl’s hat was placed horizontally so that it tickled up and down the face of the man who sat next to her on the 'bus, until it came to a. resting place with the end nestling in his right ear. After the 'bus had travelled some distance the man was seen to remove from his pocket a large jack-knife, which he proceeded to strop on the palm of a horny hand. - ' - - £ , Excitedly the girl inquired : • A - ‘Why are you doing that?’ < ‘lf them oats gits in my ear agin,’ the man ejaculated, ‘there’s goin’ to be a harvest.’ * ■ BOYS WE LIKE. The boy who never makes fun of old age, no matter now decrepit or unfortunate or evil it may be. God’s hand rests lovingly on the aged head, ' ' Cheating is contemptible anywhere and at any age. His play should strengthen, not weaken, his character. The boy who never calls anybody bad names, no matter what anybody calls him. The boy who is never cruel. The boy who never lies. Even white lies leave black spots on the character. The boy who never makes fun of a companion because of a misfortune he could not help. The boy who never hesitates to say ‘No ’ when asked to do a wrong thing. The boy who never quarrels. ‘ The boy who never forgets that God made him to be a joyous, loving, helpful being. PITY THE BAKER. Little Willie, after flattening his nose against the outside of the baker’s window for about half an hour, at last entered, with his mind evidently made up. ‘ I want to know,’ he said, in a determined yet hopeful voice, ‘ how much those wedding cakes are ?’ 1 Well,’ answered that enterprising tradesman, ,‘ I have them at all prices. Tell your mother I can do her a beauty for four pounds. The cheapest is two pounds.’ Willie sighed. ‘ Ah, well,’ he murmured, in a resigned voice, ‘ let’s have one of those ha’penny gingerbread rabbits/ PEACE, PERFECT PEACE. ‘ It is the duty of everyone to "make at least one person happy during the week,’ said the Sunday school teacher. Now, have you done so, Johnny?’ ‘Yes,’ said Johnny, promptly. ‘ That’s right; What did you do V ‘ I went to see my aunt, and she’s always happy when I go home.’ BEYOND HIS COMPREHENSION. A party of New Yorkers were hunting in Georgia, and had as an attendant an old negro, whose fondness for big words is characteristic of the race. One >of the hunters, knowing the old negro’s bent, remarked to him : * Uncle Mose, the indentations in terra firma in this locality render travelling in a vehicular conveyance without springs decidedly objectionable - and painful anatomically. Don’t you think so?’ ~ Uncle Mose scratched his left ear a moment, and replied, with a slow shake of his woolly head: v. * Mistah Gawge, the exuberance ob you’ words am bey on’ mah jury diction.’ - ;