The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 23 November 1916, Page 61

The Family Circle

THE MAGIC WORD. * There's the dearest little fairy That comes to visit me, Although she's rather taller Than a fairy ought to be. Besides, she's really chubby, And she has no ' fairy feet,' And I never saw her flying, Though she's mighty nice and sweet. But I'm sure she is a fairy, And not a humming bird, Because it's only fairies That have the Magic Word ! And she can do such wonders, Although she has no wings. She simply has to say IT, And get a lot of things ! Ice cream, sometimes, and candy, A ride around the town, A brand-new Sunday bonnet, Or a very dainty gown. The sweetest kiss from mother, . And her daddy's tightest squeeze — I. tell you it's like fairies When Betty whispers 'Please!' — Little Folks Monthly. A WINTER PICNIC. The red flannel flag dipped. 'A bite! A bite!' shouted Dick, and raced over the ice. He pulled in the line. Must. be a big one,' Dick panted, ' it's so heavy.' 'Fine a pickerel as ever 1 saw!' declared father, when it lay out on the ice. 'All of three pounds and a-half. Maybe four.' ' A whale of a fish !' crowed Dick. A whale isn't a fish,' laughed father, as they carried the pickerel to shore. 'lsn't? Why, it lives in the water. And swims,' Dick remonstrated. 'Takes more than that to make a fish.' Father skilfully turned one in the frying-pan. This was the best picnic Dick ever went —this one in January. They left home at sunrise for the pond in the pines. The ice was eighteen clear blue solid inches, and cutting holes through it with the heavy ice chisel was about the warmest, hardest exercise. Father did most of it, but Dick helped. Lines baited with live minnows went into the holes. A flag on each line signalled every nibble. When a fish took the bait, the little red flag fastened to the fish line jerked. The fish bit well, and kept them running, tending lines. At noon they sat on the beach, snugly sheltered from the wind by a great rock the sun shone warm, a camp-fire crackled at their feet, while they lunched on hot fried fish. Nothing ever tasted so good. ' What is a whale if it isn't a fish V Dick wanted to know with his second helping of pickerel—not the big one. Was there ever a fisherman who didn't want to exhibit his biggest ' Whales are animals, warm-blooded animals'—■ father helped himself to pickerel, crisp golden brown without, firm and white within, 'the largest creatures in the world.' ' Then what is the biggest fish V Dick began a mince turnover. , ? * Shark. ( Whale shark, more than fifty feet long. Except a few kinds of real whales, there's no creature

on land or sea bigger. Now I'm going round Pine Point ■to look at the lines there, while you tend the lines here. • If a flag dips, pull in the line, but be sure you don't go out of the tracks we've made on the pond. Old fishing holes skim over with thin ice and then the snow drifts across, and you can't tell they are there. You might step through a hidden hole and go down into the water.' ' I'll look out,' said Dick, briskly scouring the frying-pan with sand from the beach. Father strode off out of sight. Dick was packing up the remains of the lunch, when he saw a man comiug across the pond. " He carried a pack on his back and was headed toward the log cabin on the shore. Dick knew he must be the trapper who lived in the cabin. As Dick watched, the man suddenly sunk down until only his head and shoulders were above the ice. He had gone through a hole into the water ! 'Father!' Dick shouted. 'Help! Come quick!' and ran to the man, calling lustily for help as he went. But he took care to keep in the beaten path. 'l'm coming !' called father. The man struggled to lift himself above the ice, but could no move than keep from going entirely under. His wet mittens froze to the ice and helped him hold on. How Dick wished he was strong enough to pull him out! ' Father will get you,' Dick encouraged the man. 'Hold on!' Father was. not far off, and reached the hole almost as soon as Dick. He grasped the man's numb hands and dragged him out on the ice. His wet clothes began to freeze, and father hurried him to the log cabin. Dick built a roaring fire in the cabin stove, and soon the man was dry and warm. 'Can't think how I came to be so careless,' the trapper said. ' I cut that hole through the ice myself, and then forgot it. Can't be careless in the woods, hoy,' lie said soberly to Dick. ' Remember that. I never could have got out if it hadn't been for your father.' When Dick went, the trapper gave him a great handful of spruce gum that he had dug himself. Dick and father gathered in all the lines, with a fish at the end of a good many of them. Then they threw snow over the camp fire to quench it, and started homo with their catch of fish. ' A winter picnic is the very best, kind of one,' said Dick happily, burrowing down into the warm fur robes of the sleigh as the horse trotted into the clear winter sunset. ' And wasn't it lucky for the trapper we went, o-day !' UP TO DATE. ' You seem deeply attached to your little playmate.' ' Her doll saved my doll's life,' exclaimed the doctor's daughter. ' How was that?' ' She consented to a transfusion of sawdust.' HIS NUMBER. Teacher: 'l'm surprised at you, Sammy Wicks, that you cannot tell me when Christopher Columbus discovered America. What does the chapter heading of the week's lesson read?' Sammy : ' Columbus, 1492.' Teacher: Well, isn't that plain enough. Did you never see it before?' Sammy: ' Yes'm, yes'm ; but I always thought it. was his telephone number.' AS BORN. Wild of eye, a man burst" into a barber's shop. ' You remember selling me some patent hair restorer last week, you hoary-headed old swindler?' he roared angrily. ' Swore it would restore my head to its original state, didn't you?'

'And didn't it?' asked the barber, as lie went on shaving another customer calmly. < )-= 'Didn't it?' snorted the enraged man. 'You obtained ray money under false pretences. Why, it even removed the little hair I had left, and now I'm as bald as the pavement !' ; a ' Then there's no false pretence about it,' said the barber. 'I said it would restore your head to its original state, and you know, sir, most of us are born bald!' THE .AMERICAN NAVY. ■ The United States of America has thirty-five completed battleships, nearly forty cruisers, sixty torpedoboat destroyers, twenty-one torpedo-boats, thirty-one submarines, and thirty-one gunboats. It will be remembered that last year it was agreed by Congress to embark upon a five years' naval building programme, to include ten battleships and six battle-cruisers, with a proportionate number of submarines, destroyers, etc., the whole to cost £100,000,000. On the latest type of American Dreadnought an entirely new method of propulsion—a combination of steam, oil, and electric engines—is used. America possesses a fine type of the super-Dreadnought in the Nevada, which mounts ten 14in guns. She has a speed of twenty-one knots, and is driven entirely by oil fire boilers. The California, 32,000 tons, is the latest vessel. She was launched in October last. The United States builds her Dreadnoughts in pairs. The new York and her sister ship, the Texas, were the first to mount 14in guns. All American warships, under the requirements of law, are built within the country and on home capital. The United States Navy is manned by voluntary enlistment, the total number of enlisted men in the Navy and marines being about 68,000. A peculiarity of America's Navy is that it contains no midshipmen, all middies at sea being immediately commissioned as ensigns. WHO she was. 'Tell me honestly,' said the novel reader to the novel writer, ' did you ever see a woman who stood and tapped the floor impatiently with her toe for several moments, as you describe'?' 'Yes,' was the thought fill reply, '1 did once.', ' Who was she?' ' She was a clog-dancer.' NOT LOUS. A certain employer of labor had received many complaints from his foreman as to one of the hands, who, though an excellent workman, and one whom it. was undesirable to dismiss altogether, could never bo induced to arrive at the proper time in the morning. So the employer, determining to expostulate with' the offender personally, arrived early one morning and laid in wait for him. In due time the dilatory one strolled in, and was accosted wrathfully. ' Do you know what time we begin work here in the morning?' ' No, sir,' was the calm reply. ' I know they're always at it when I get here.' THE GENTLE ROMANS. In nothing does the kindliness of the Romans show itself more than in their treatment of the dumb beasts who serve them (once wrote the distinguished American artist, W. W. Story). It is very rare to see in the streets of Rome those reckless and brutal exhibitions of violence and cruelty to animals that are but too often seen in England and America. The French system of vivisection is here, thank God ! unknown. This people is passionate, but not cruel in its nature. The Church,

too, takes animals under its protection, and. on the day* * dedicated to Sant' Antonio a celebration takes place which is characteristic, and, to my mind, full of humanity and good feeling, and calculated to produce a good effect on the people. This is the annual blessing of animals, which takes place on January 17, when all the horses, mules, and donkeys in Rome are taken to the Church of Sant' Antonio to receive a benediction. > The doors are thrown wide open, and the church and. f altar are splendid with candles, and the crowd pours in and out to see the pictures and make the sign of the Cross. The priest Stands at the door, and, with a broom dipped in holy water, sprinkles the animals, as they pass in procession before him, and gives them his benediction. All the horses in Rome are there; from the common hack to the high-bred steed of the prince some adorned with glittering trappings, some covered with scarlet cloth and tinsel, with red roses at each ear, and tufts of plumes of gay feathers nodding at their heads. The donkeys come, too, and often bray back their thanks to the priest. But see, there is a rustle in the —who comes now ? It is Gaetano, coachman of Prince Piombino, and prince of coachmen, mounted on an open car, and driving his magnificent team of fourteen horses with an easy skill which provokes plaudits of the crowd. Up he comes, the people opening before him, and, triumphantly receiving the benediction, passes on gallantly and sweeps around into the great piazza of Sta. Maria Maggiore, followed by the great black horses of the cardinals, with their heavy trappings and scarlet crests, lumbering up with their luxuriant coaches all glittering with golden carving, to receive the blessing of Sant' Antonio. All honor to thee, good saint, who blesseth, in thy large charity, not man alone, but that humble race who do his work and bear his burdens, and murmur not under his tyrannical inflictions—that inarticulate race who suffer in patient silence 'the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune!' Thy effigy shall be hung upon my stable walls, as it is in every stable in Rome. FRIGHTENED THE POET. The ethereal being with unshorn locks was shown into the editorial sanctum. ' I have written a poem on the dog,' he said. 1 Whose dog?' demanded the editor, fiercely. ' It is not any particular dog,' faltered the poet. ' Do you mean to say you took advantage of the, dog because it was not particular, and wrote your poem on it?' 'I am afraid you do not understand me. I wrote the poem regarding the dog ' ' But why were you regarding the dog at all ? What had it done that you should regard it?' ' If you will allow me to explain, I had been inspired by the dog's fidelity ' ' If the dog was faithful, why should you seek to hurt its feelings by writing a poem on it? And how did you manage to write a poem on it, at any rate? Did you have the poor brute shaved, and tattoo the verses on its back, or did you brand them on ? Perhaps you. ' But the poet had fled. THE COST OF POLITENESS. 'Remember, my son,' said the father, that politeness costs nothing.' * ' Oh, I don't know,' returned his hopeful. 'Did you ever try putting "Very respectfully yours" at- the end of a telegram ?' , i