The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 18 November 1920, Page 45

The Family Circle

IF YOU SHOULD PASS. If by my tomb some day you careless pass, . . A moment grieved by coming on my name. Ah! kneel awhile upon the tender grass By some short prayer, acquitting me of blame. If I reached not your pinnacle of right, Or fell below your standard of desire, If to my heart alone my hopes were white. And my soul built its own celestial fire. Then let your grief, be it a single tear, Upon your cheek in tender sorrow fall, Forget where I did fall; keep only dear The deeds for which you loved me over all. For ah! to hear, poor shade from life shut out, Unkindly tongues to trifle with my name, So that remembrance came half-chilled with doubt, In conversations less of praise than blame. For if thy charity be overstrained, And would bring slander where it cannot bless, Give me but silence where good friendship waned, Grant me the mercy of forgetfulness. Doha Sioeksox. WHEN CATHOLICS GIVE UP CONFESSION. When Catholics give up Confession the beginning of the end has come. There is only one reason; they will not give up sin. They may call their negligence by some other names; they may give this and that excuse; but deep down in their hearts they know well that there is something which God or His Church demands which they are unwilling to do. We know well that there are some fallen away Catholics who will resent the imputation that they are leading sinful lives. Lqt us tear off the mask. There is undoubtedly something wrong. If they have come to a stage where they do not believe there- is anything wrong their case is sad, indeed. It is a sign that they have already made a creed of their conduct, and that according to their tenets of the new creed they stand acquitted before the tribunal set up in their own conscience. — Catholic 'Bulletin. THE CONVENT GIRL. Apropos of the return homo to the realities of life, of the convent school graduate (says an exchange), a well-known Catholic educator spoke on the work which was waiting for these young people. They have a real and very admirable mission, whatever their home duties may be—and it is, to impress the effects of their careful religions training upon the world* about them. Of what use are all the years spent under the refining influences of convent life, if the recipients of those advantages do not make use of them to. the betterment, in some degree, of their associates of every-day life? The potent effect of a good example is well-known, and nothing is so much admired in a young girl as the gentle deference which marks her as a true ladythat much-abused word which is soon coming into its own again. The convent girl has learned, if she has learned anything—(for some there he, unfortunately, whom the influences do not reach) —the beauty of obedience to superiors, and the loveliness of her religion which is such a component part of the life about her; she has learned that time was made to be used not to he “spent”—a. Jesson which will come good in after life, if she does not except to frivol away her days in simply “having a good time.” THE FAITHFUL DOG. The best friend a man has in this world may turn against him and become his enemy. His son or his daughter, that he has reared with loving care, may prove ungrateful. Those who are nearest and dearest to us, those whom, we trust with our happiness and our good name, may become traitors to their faith. The one absolutely unselfish friend that man can have in this selfish world, the one that never deserts him, the one that never proves ungrateful or treacherous, is his dog. A man’s dog stands by him in prosperity and in poverty, in health and in sickness. He will sleep on the cold ground, where the wintry winds blow, ' and the snow drives fiercely, if only he may be near his master’s

side. He will lick the hand that has ho food to offer, and he will guard the sleep of his pauper master as if he were a prince When all other friends desert he remains, .hen uches take wings and reputation falls to pieces, he th o heaven s nt m I<)Ve aS the sun in its journey through

NEVER RAIL AT THE WORLD. Never rail at the world —it is just as we make it— W o see not the flower if we sow not• the seed; And as for ill-luck, why it’s just as we take it— Tie heart that’s in earnest no bars can impede. ion question the justice that governs man’s breast, nd say that the search for true friendship is vain; Rut, remember, this world, though it he not the best, Is the next to the best we shall ever attain. Never rail at the world, nor attempt to exalt that feeling which questions society’s claim; lor often poor friendship is less in the fault, Less changeable oft than the selfish who blame. limn neer by the changes of Rate be depress’d, Nor wear hke a fetter, Time’s sorrowful chain; Rut believe that this world, though it be not the best, is the next to the best we shall ever attain. SAVED VAIN. • -T S A X /® ars a "°’” said . Smithson, “I made up my mind that I was smoking too much. It didn’t seem to affect my health m the least, but I thought it a foolish waste of money, and I -decided to give it up.” “A very sensible idea,” remarked Rrownlow. So I thought at the time. I reckoned up as closely as l could how much I had been spending each day on cigars and tobacco That sum I set aside each ,morning, and started a banking account with it. I wanted to be able to show exactly how much I had saved bv not smoking.” “And how did it work ?”• inquired Rrownlow. “At the end of six years I had a hundred and fifty pounds in the bank.” “Good ! Could you let me ” “And a few days later,” interrupted Smithson “last Tuesday, in fact—the bank failed. You haven’t opt a cigar about you, have you?” SAFETY FIRST. “How’s that?” cried the bowler. Farmer Fairmeasure looked disgustedly at his flannelled leg and then at the wicket. Even ho had to admit that it wps a clear case of l.b.w. . t]l ° youthful umpire, to the astonishment of all piped, “Not out!” “Well, well!” exclaimed the jolly farmer.' “If that isn’t the luckiest let-off I’ve ever had!” He swiped a couple of hefty boundaries. Then the offending leg again obtruded between the ball, and the stumps. This time, surely, he was as out as a newlyhatched chicken. Rut the youthful umpire again hesitated. He glanced towards the wall which separated the field from the farmer’s orchard just as a head popped above it. Then a juvenile voice rang across the intervening space. “Aon can give him out now, Dick!” it cried. NUTS TO CRACK. Why is O the most charitable letter in the alphabet? —Recause it is found oftener than any other letter d-o-ing g-00-d. Why is a farmer surprised at the letter G? It converts oats into goats. When was R the first letter of the alphabet?—ln the days of No-a. Why is A like a honeysuckle? Recauso a R follows it. Why is the letter W like a scandal? — it makes ill will. Why is a schoolmistress like the letter C? —Recauso she forms lasses -into classes. '■ What vine is expressed by two letters?l-V, ■ Who is the most successful surveyor?A king, because ho is monarch „of all he surveys. When is an original idea like a clock? —When it strikes one. What cannot bo called a disinterested act of hospitality ?—Entertaining a hope. Why is . a man just imprisoned like’ a boat full of water? Both need bailing out. Why is the first chicken of a brood like a mainstay of a Recause it is little ahead of the main hatch. - : ; , '

''A $ v-d 5 Why is the letter R - held in high esteem?-—Because it is never found in sin, but always in industry, temperance, and virtue; it is the beginning of religiou and the end of war. v / A HOPELESS TASK. The sanitary inspector knocked sharply at the door, and it soon. opened. “How many people live here?” he -began. “Nobody lives here,” answered the daughter of the house; “we’re only staying for a short time.” “Blit how many are here?” “I’m here. Father’s gone for a walk, and mother is- ” ' “Stop, stop!” exclaimed the man, impatiently. “I want to know how many inmates are in this house. . How many people slept here last night?” “Well, you see,” was the reply, “I had the toothache dreadful, . and my, little brother had . the Stomachache,' and we all took on so much that nobody slept a ■wink.” ’ Then the inspector said he would call again. A NASTY ONE. .... A profiteer decided to build a mansion for himself. Having purchased an attractive site, he started the builders on his new home. While superintending operations one day ,a neighbor said to him: “I see you are spending a lot of money on that house ■of yours.” “Yes,” was the reply, “I want to make it a thoroughly fit place for a gentleman to live in.” “Oh, then you mean to let it, do you?” said the inquirer, in a sarcastic way. WHY HE WAS CROSS. ’Twas in Glasgow that a woman was travelling in a tramcar with a baby who would persist in crying as though his little heart would break. “Hush; laddie” the mother would keep on murmuring gently, only with difficulty restraining her irritation at the audible and unflattering comments of the other passengers anent her offspring. Soon the car reached George’s Cross, and the conductor called out loudly the name of the place: “George’s Cross! George’s Cross"!” Then the mother’s anger bubbled over, and she sprang up excitedly. “Of course, Georgie’s cross!” she cried, with flashing eyes. “And so would you be if you were cutting your back teeth!” SMILE RAISERS. John was -telling her about the members of his fooL ball team. “Now, there’s Brown,” said he; “in a few weeks’ time he’ll be our best man.” “Oh, Jack,” she gushed, “what a nice way to ask me!” He was an argumentative local councillor, and was crushing an opponent’s case. “Gentlemen,” he said, “you may say, with Councillor Smith, that this is a case of six ■of one and half a dozen of the other. But I say ‘No’ (pause for emphasis); ‘no, it is nothing of the sort. It is -exactly the contrary.’ ” “Yes,” said Tomson, “I work very hard. Why, I go to our well every morning and pull up 90 gallons of water.” “That’s nothing,” replied Jackson. “I take a boat out every morning and pull up the river!” The benevolent old gentleman had taken a friendly interest in his friend’s son. “Suppose,” he said one day, “that I should give you , a thousand pouifds, what would be the first thing you would do with it?” “Count it,” said the promising youth. if Showman; “An’ now, ladies and gents, there’s this ’ere halligator. Note the length. Fifteen feet from' the tip o’ the nose to the tip o’ the tail, and fifteen feet from the tip o’ the tail to the tip o’ the —thirty feet in all!”