The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume L, Issue 1, 4 January 1923, Page 53

The Family Circle

THE RETURN. And so at last 1 trod the ways I once had found so fair, To find the rose of memory ■■ v Had drooped and faded there. Noon on the strange-familiar # ways; A Dust, and the common things; Until at last the'' day spreads out For flight its lovely wings. « And let their golden shadows fall Across the fields I knew; And then the sudden splendor came As it was wont to do. Like the old smile across a face N Whose early charm is spent, . That light of unforgotten days Trembled —and cameand went ! When I forget the little house Wherein my time must end, I shah forget what neighbors mean, The yaluo of a friend. I shall forget the face of love. The spurid of mirth and song, i' When I forget the little house Where I. was glad so long. —Thko (1 isox. TRIBUTE TO THE NURSE. In addressing a class of graduate nurses recently, a Catholic Bishop paid this tribute to the noble profession; Your calling is one of the few professions in which a livelihood may be gained by works of mercy. For, if to visit the sick is a corporal work of mercy, how much more is it one to watch by their bedside day and night, to lift their limp bodies, to smooth the pillow under their aching heads, to wipe the cold sweat from their foreheads, to administer to them their food and medicine, to cheer them, to nurse them back to health, or at least, prepare them for a happy death? , “I was sick and you visited me,” the Divine Judge will say to the just on the last day. They shall answer; “Lord, when did we see Thee sick, and minister to Thee?” Then, answering. He shall say to them: “Amen, I say to you, as long as you did it to one of these My least brethren, you did it to Me.” ' The Good Samaritan. Martha has her praise and reward because she prepared for Christ His bodily food. You will prepare it for Him in person of His sick brethren. Wherever the ■ Gospel shall be preached Mary Magdalen’s name will be held in memory, because she washed and wiped the sacred feet of Jesus and anointed His body/ You follow her example whenever you bathe His feet, who ( :• .are the sick poor. Veronica wiped the sweat and blood off His face with // /a napkin. You-,do the same when you wipe the faces of . • .His brethren. ~ * •/.'/; Simon the Cyrenean helped Christ to carry His cross. You help His children to do so. . You are the Good Samaritan who poured wine and oil Into the bleeding wounds of the wayfarer who journeyed from Jerusalem down to Jericho, fell into the hands of robbers, was stripped of his raiment, was wounded and left half dead. - / .'/ / v In ! your profession you follow in the footsteps of Christ, | who went up and down the Holy Land healing the sick. / The work which you perform is so pleasing in the eyes . . of God that if was undertaken by the .greatest saints and " . by pious ladies of the highest birth and rank.

THE MUSIC,OF NATURE... Nature is full of music if 'wo but stop to listen to it. Wo are often adjured to keep’our eyes open; but let us keep our ears open, too, so that we may really hear the music that is being made all about us (said Miss Edith Howes, at a lecturette given before the St. Cecilia Musical Club, Dunedin). Everybody can enjoy the rhythmic surging of the sea, the lulling cadences of falling' waters, the wind in trees, the- wild music of a storm in the hills; but not everyone hears the quieter songs. You are sitting, perhaps, in a wide grassy paddock. There is no wind, only the hot sun - shining down. The world seems silent— so silent that you droop drowsily over your book. Suddenly you are wide awake, roused by •sounds, a multitude of sounds. You have unconsciously begun to really listen. The buzzing of flies, the humming of- honey bees, the droning of humble bees, the orchaestration of crickets, the high piping of a gnat—all these are there; with a hundred other softer and less distinguishable notes and rustlings and fluttering of wings. And then a skylark rises and soars, filling the air with ■throbbing melody. Bird songs! All day they ring about our gardens, and we scarcely notice them. A blackbird piping through the rain, a thrush fluting in the morning sunshine, a goldfinch or hedge sparrow trilling from a twig; any one of these is enough to fill one’s mind with gladness. And what a treasury of song is our bush, where the native birds still wreathe their inimitable melodies about the trees. The golden bell notes and exquisite calls and phrases of the bellbird and the tui are surely the highest development possible of Nature’s music, and the hour-long ecstasies of the little grey warbler charm one’s soul to happiness! It is a fascinating pastime for anyone with a hearing eai and a little knowledge of music to take down the bird songs of a district. Nothing teaches one so weli to really hear, no hobby is more delightful. EXAMINATION “HOWLERS.” Here are a few flowers of fancy, culled from a list of “howlers perpetrated during the Christmas examinations in. English schools: “Shakespeare wrote tragedies, comedies, find errors.” “Phillippa was a brave Queen. She married Edward I.” “Henry met Beckett on the altar steps, and severely massacred him.” “Martin Luther did not die a natural death, but was ex-communicated by a bull.” “A straight lino is one which, being continually produced, shall never end.” “ ‘Anno Domini 5 means ‘ after death.’ ” “The three estates of the realm are Buckingham Palace, Windsor Castle, and Balmoral.” “People go to Africa to hunt rhinostriches.” “The guilds were the ancestors of trade unions, but now only old women go there to sew.” OUT OF THE DEEPS. Out of the deeps hast thou brought me Well with my ship in hand. Out of the fog and out of the night, And into the Morning Land. Crested and crown’d the billow, t Oft with the vengeful spray, Under me all of the pitfalls, Over meAh, may I say! God! now the light green shoreline And the beacon light of love; Thy hand was my guiding compass My night-star watching above. „ N I have stemmed my ship’s last danger, Tho’ the rocks may remain below, I steer with my compas’d Godhead, I fear on no sea to go. I have reached earth’s sweetest haven Unshrouded by flaw or cloud, , . My shipmasts point fair heavens, The sunshine falls on her shroud. So, while I sail I know me , - . A hand guides my own at sea, .( A hand that will swing my ship to port ' ■ When my Lord hath need of me. J * t , -Dr. James Henderson, in the Catholic Bulletin.

FINDING WORK.® : ' ; X The laziest man in the village was actually running. His hat was off, and his coat was flying in the wind. On and qn he sped, till— crash!—he collided with the portly vicar, and-picked himself up out of the roadway. “Why, what on earth has made you run, and so' fast, Sam?” asked the vicar. “Can’t wait,”- gasped Sam, “I ’eard of some work.” “And did you get the job?” the vicar asked. “I don’t know,” replied the man. “I only just ’card of it. I’m going to find out.” “Well, good luck to you, Sam,” said the vicar. “What work is it?” “Some washing for my. wife!” ' NOT IN THE CONCRETE. The professor was putting the finishing touches on the sidewalk he was laying down.' Tommy, aged six, had been watching the proceedings with great interest, and at length, deeming the time right /or trial, started to cross before the mixture had time to dry. When the professor displayed some slight pique, a passer-by observed: “Why, professor, I thought you liked children?” “I like ’em all right in the abstract,” the professor replied, “but not in the concrete!” I DOUBTFUL. A tiresome lawyer, in arguing a complicated case, had looked up authorities dating back to Julius Caesar. He had dilated on his subject for more than an hour and a half, when he was pained to observe what seemed to him inattention on the bench. It was as he had feared—his lordship was unable to appreciate the nice points of his argument. “Begging your lordship’s pardon,” he said, “but do you follow me?” The judge shifted uneasily in his chair. “I have so far,” he answered, “but if I thought I could find my way back alone I’d turn around now.” <*><*X*X*X*> - ■ SMILE RAISERS. Small Boy; “Take me to the pictures, mother, will yer ?” Mother: “Now, haven’t yer just been an’ had yer hair cut? .You're always a-era vin’ after amusement.” " Husband: “How much did you spend to-day?” Wife: “£2 18s 6Jd.” . ‘ Husband (ironically); “Was that all?” Wife (with an injured air): “That was all I had.” V 1 “Mamma, teacher whipped a boy to-day for whispering in school.” “Well, that was right.” “But, mamma, he hollered ten times as loud as he whispered.” 9 Tourist: “It looks pretty good soil around here. What crops do the farmers grow in this section?” Native: “That all depends, stranger.” Tourist: “Depends on what?” Native: “On what sort- uv seed they puts in.” s? Mrs. Lowe; “I do wish I could get ,a good housemaid.” Mrs. Upp : “You might interview mine.. I think she’d be delighted to go to you.” “But why don’t you keep her?” “Oh! she won’t stay. She says she wants a place where she won’t have so much silver to clean ” ;■■ ■ v,•• .