Coming Down the Hill

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LI, Issue 50, 17 December 1924, Page 29

Coming Down the Hill

(By Pedestrian for the N.Z. Tablet.)

IV. When our -beautiful hills first decided to join hands and form a cordon around the limited space of level ground at their feet, they evidently planned, in their generosity, » to leave a gap for the sea to send up its k tide to the future city. When, then, we boast of our City Beautiful being surrounded by hills, Ave make a certain reservation, as the harbor oozes out in one direction and the expanse of open sea, in another direction, laughed in bygone ages at the puny efforts of the hills to shut jt out. Hills surround us, however, to such a degree that Ave can face nearly all the points of the compass when Ave are coming down into the city. Hence it happens that, sometimes as I. am making for the busy streets of an evening, the sun is sinking behind the hill at my back and is spreading an elongated picture of my outline upon the pathway 1 am treading. The other evening I was forced to contemplate the ungainly figure and to think of the evening of life which some ancient poet associated with the lengthening of the shadows. My commonplace meditation suddenly broke off, as I turned around a corner and, for a moment, escaped from my persistent companion. The sun. hoAvever, shone the next instant into the open mouth of a boy returning from a hard day's work. As my rubber heels prevented him from hearing my approach, and the sun's rays dimmed his sight, I had the advantage of examining the cavity during the continuance of the prolonged yawn. Not being a. medical man. it was not my duty to suggest to him a slight - operation on his tonsils. Should he ever read this diagnosis, however, he will save himself much pain in the future by submitting early to the minor trouble of opening his mouth to the surgeon's knife.' I gave no further consideration either to the still lengthening shadow or to the prevalence of juvenile tonsilitis, for the music of the little stream of water in the gutter arrested my attention. Some showers had fallen on the previous evening, but the water had not all come in from the higher levels yet. In flat cities the floAving ceases shortly after the rain has stopped. Here, however, we do things less abruptly. We are regarded in the North Island as a slow, even stodgy, people. Perhaps even the water on the hills deliberates before it decides upon entering the sewers. It comes, all the same, in due time; and, on this occasion, it sounded to my ears as if there was music in its gentle flow. Its course was parallel with mine, and so I was able to watch .its calm bearing in getting round obstacles that it was futile boldly to face. Some little boys tested the velocity of the stream with liny sticks and apparently showed a premature tendency to tf the betting mania. "I bet you anything # mine comes first," said the most adventurous one in a loud voice which may be heard elsewhere in the future, AAdien, the racing will be, but not in the American sense, "on the level." • A secondary schoolgirl came up the hill carrying a heavy bag of books in the right

hand while with her left she gently held down the leaf of her straw hat, and perceiving her young brother among the yachting party called out "Go home, Justin: you will get your feet wet," Her order received as much notice as if she had commanded the stream not to wet her brother's feet. It Avas only when a companion, addressing Justin as "Nigger" (most probably because his hair Avas Avhite as wool), directed his attention to the sisterly message that the lad took notice of an appeal that had some connection with coughing and similar disturbances. A young man and a lady-friend further down were advancing quite sloAvly up the hill. The more slowly they moved, as they clearly realised, the longer would be the ascent and the conversation. As I came close to them, however, the dialogue stonoed. Do you think, I asked myself, as if addressing them, that 1 would tell my readers anything f heard from you? The closure they imposed upon each other as well as the selfimposed closure showed a lack of confidence in my discretion and in my capacity for observing silence. It was left to me, therefore, to imagine what he was telling her that made her look so contented :—He told about the progress he was making in the office, the compliment paid him by the chief, the prospect of the head clerk being superannuated at the end of the year, and the hope of the vacant position falling to him (his immediate senior being a good sort of fellow but unreliable). That business sketch would have accounted for the serene smile upon the handsome face of his companion. She may he a Catholic girl, thought T. How would she look, I asked myself, if he told her that he practised no religion, that he regarded all Churches as tarred with the same brush, that he hoped to get pushed along by the Masonic body and that promises made to the sweetheart need not be kept to the wife? Had he told her that such Avas his creed, the little Catholic girl would' have instantly exchanged her look of serene satisfaction for one of resentment, and they would have come to the parting of the ways much earlier that evening in the metaphorical sense than in the literal sense. I don't remember seeing or thinking anything further that evening before I reached the plain. <X>