The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, Volume LII, Issue 16, 6 May 1925, Page 61

T he Family Circle

-■:",:-: THE YEARS./// -///;■ C You ares growing so fast, little ; girl of mine, -, And you tell J ' i me-you :: want to grow; But the • years, you'll find, have •; a way z un- : : kind/, \": ;' -/ ' And they • take as weUas bestow. / /• / They give you fruits from the Knowledge tree, ■■/. .■ ,■ .'■;■•-. : /"-' - : ' '. /•• ' ; •/" And a woman's grace arid charm; But you lose your seat on your Daddy's knee/ / i Arid: your Mother's sheltering arm. , - You are getting so tall, little "girl of mine, ; And you're proud of the fact; I know; . ; t ßut the things you gain will be half in vain, :';;So much that is fair must go. /> ~ " Arid- the/wisdom arid stature may pleasant be. But the thorn their bloom that harms, / ; May lie in the loss of your Daddy's knee / -And your Mother's sheltering arms. ■■■-.; '"'■ You are child no more, little" girl of mine, ~ And the years have changed you sb; And my heart is sad, though it should be glad, "• r-r ' '- 1 -■'-'/"■ /-With . a grief you cannot know. ; For r one shall woo you away from me, Allured by your maiden charms, ; / And lonely will be your Daddy's knee And your Mother's sheltering arms. {■ v '•'//;' " : ''-. —Lacia Mitchell. ■• ? DAD TAKES A HAP » : ; • A SIMPLE MATHEMATICAL PROBLEM. Home lessons have had a good-deal said , ---"- for and against them, but, apart from their educational advantages or drawbacks, it if.;, never occurred to me that - they could be invested with - a humorous aspect which would make them richly precious, were it not for a story I heard related recently of a little girl who took a sum home and, unable to solve - the problem, appealed to her father for assistance. - * ■/ After vainly trying •:■ to help her . young daughter, the :/ mother said: : "John, .dear, ,: would you mind seeing if you can work out this problem. I've tried and tried, but it , *: won't come right." / - „ •5- John laid down his paper and smoothed a, • place on the library table. Mrs. John . brought in a well-thumbed arithmetic, an exercise-book in which were many leaves covered with figures, and a pencil./ The school- ;. girl followed with ? firm confidence in her , father's, ability to make all hidden things clear. /" '../..--. //';/■' r -"' : . /.. t John read the problem: a lion can eat a cow :in four hours, arid : a bear can eat the same cow in six hours, and. a tiger can eat . - the cow in eight hours, and a wolf can eat the cow eleven hours, how long will l it -\ take the wolf to. eat what is left of the cow after the lion has been eating for two hours, ..„.- the bear an' hour arid twenty minutes, and ;>; the tiger three-quarters of an hour?" - / : >. "Oh, it is/ a ridiculous thing,/ anyway," said John;; "but I'll do it in a jiffy. Why don't they give -children sums these days with!, some sense in them. /. When. I was young we had to find out how many cubic feet of

wood there were in a pile of a certain size, _ and how much a stone wall of a certain size would cost at so - much a foot, and other things of some practical value. But this is bringing the whole Zoo into 1 one's house, with ; trgers, bears, wolves, lions, cows." John's snort of contemptuous indignation could, be heard all over the house. . -■ ""■',' "I tried to work out the size of the cow, . because all" cows are not the same size," * said Mrs. John, humbly, "but I am afraid : mathematics are a little out of my line now. I'm horribly rusty, though one time I loved problems in arithmetic." "But the size of the cow has nothing to with it," said John, jutting out his chin in v a very characteristic manner. "It is plainly stated here that the lion can eat the cow in four hours. , The size of the,cow/ doesn't matter any more than its color. Now/ here is a cow," and he laid a pencil-down on the library table, while his young daughter gazed at him with round eyes of adm'iration. /"Now first we'll put down sixty and multiply it by four." /- . './■•' / "What do you waiit to multiply sixty by four for?" said Mrs/John. '/It doesn't say anything about.sixty in the example." /,.,./,■ |'l know, it doesn't,. he said testily, . but we have to reduce the whole thing to minutes before we get at the real basis of the arithmetical question." v _J ; .„'...: . < "How can you reduce the cow to minutes?" chirped. in Kathleen. ;...., -// ;,//i/ ; ".- ,:/ 7,C- ----,/ "Kathleen," admonished her fatherj> "you f- had better keep if you want :this example 'worked."/.Now," he continued with dignity, "having reduced . the four $ hours \ to minutes, we put down 240 minutes as.a-basis to work upon. Now, if a lion can eat a cow in 240 minutes, in two hours, which would be 120 minutes, he would eat half the cow, And now. welcome to the bear.'.' •/'/// "Our teacher worked it in •! her head,", observed, his daughter, "but she didn't use any minutes. She just set to work arid worked/it, but/I forget how she did it." : " / .', "It does not .make any difference what your teacher did," .said /her father pomp"ously. "The only way to work this problem v isj to 'get /at the > bottom of „ it, ~ and that's minutes. Teachers -are very wise, : but the dftnlt : know everything. Now. there is hall .'a cow.left for. the bear.. The«bear eats in an ._....hour and twenty, minutes,/_ which is 80 -minutes.; To eat his half of the cow/would tak( 180 minutes, so we put down the fractior - eighty/ oiie-hundred-and-eightieths. ' THer ,we go on' to the tiger." // ' ";/,;.'/ >■■* '"",' • "What is the eighty '"/ one-hundred-and eightieths for?" asked Mrs. John anxiously whilst i Kathleen chirped in : again to say ( thai . her .-> teacher, had / never once , used / thos< ■ figures.;, ./'..,,.- -.. .;'/ '• ~.,,;,« v "Don't get ahead of .the;; figures," sale John.peevishly. f 'You wait till it all- come : right. i; The'tiger can eat the cow in: eigh . ;hours,; which tis 'i 480 minutes. He begin • , where the bear left off and eats i for three quarters of •: an hour, * which 4 s >' 45. . minutes So! we put down forty-five four-hundred-and eightieths here, and go on to the wolf." '

" "But . how - much of the - cow" is left for s the , .wolf?"-asked- Mrs. John. " " * ".You"are always in too much of a hurry - except when you are dressing," observed her husband. "I've worked these problems' be- . V forehand I know exactly how to go about it. • : "Where were we? .-Oh, yes, at the wolf. He [.' eats/ the cow in eleven hours, which is . 660 - minutes." ' ' V "But," said Mrs. John,- "he has only to - finish the remains." "Our teacher never •• used any minutes at all," observed Kathleen / again/ "she said we should, do it in our'" heads." /' " " .-.-'.' "If I'm going to do this sum," said her,' father with some warmth, "I'm going to do ; it my way, and-if you-don't want it done, my way, why, do it your way and I'll go * '' back to my paper. I'm not doing the thing for amusement, for I've had a hard day's./'/ work and I'm tired. But I'm willing to do , V ) it for you if I'm allowed to do it the right \ way. , I've worked these examples . before " your teacher was born. The trouble is.,that you talked so much, the both of. you, that L ' I forgot to find out how much of the "cow . was left when-the bear got through. " Now, where is that sheet of paper with the bear's 1 eating time on it?" . : ■ , ... /" "I wouldn't work at it any longer," said /■ . bis wife after seeing her daughter to bed.-' "You're tired, and it's not important. You'd • ' better read your paper." , A But John's blood-was up dealing with these \ carnivorous animals. "I'm going to finish 5 ? it if it takes me the whole night. If you didn't want me to finish it, you had no business to start me on' it.'; Mrs. John went < to bed and at , twelve-thirty her : husband's " entry aroused her. ; "Did you work it,r John?" she asked sleepily. "Certainly,", he ;\- said. "It was as simple as clockwork. The wolf never got near the cow at all. How could he, with a \ion and a bear and a tiger '-Pistanding around? And they talk of modern methods!Loreto ; House,- Catholic ■ Eerald • of India. _ " _ GOGOS<M> ' -';'"'" : ROSARY TIME IN IRELAND. ', /" 'Tis Rosary time in Ireland, > -/ .'. And looking across the years, ', v A picture unfolds (before me-- ' / ■ 'Tis dimmed with mist of tears; ;...;For sure it lacks gorgeous setting, / ; . / No wealth of color it boasts, V;• But-Rosary time in Ireland f i :, Is envied by angel hosts. ' " '" ;' Ah, never was rank, or-station, /;. Or fame of glorious deeds; - ''". 'v\ As dear as this scene in Ireland, ' : - ■: When mother took down the beads; : *-. And readily would I barter v ■ The trophies the years have won,' To kneel by that hallowed fireside '-.'.. -\ ' j When the, day's rough task is done. > I care not for stately temples— Or glamor for service 'gramT; . I I'd rather one prayer in -Ireland, * 5 "For isn't it God's own land ?'"/,// t .-' The smell of the turf for, incense, ' 3- / ' And Love for the sacred light/ , - Ah, Rosary time in Ireland, "' ' ~ /*<o; My heart is with you to-night. • \" - From 'At the 'Gate ,of the Temple; by ■ " - Rev. s D. A. Casey.'"/' " •' ■

THE POISON CUP. "What j a lot o' cases o' people bein'poisoned through eatin' tinned food there's been lately, Mrs. 'Opking, Makes you nervous, don't r it?" .';—- "' '• :; ; '-'V "Aye," said Mrs. Hopkins,; shaking her head. "I wouldn't touch the stuff. My poof 'usband always said it was drinking tea out of a tin cup when 'e was- in the Army, what give 'im delirium ; trimins I" ■-■h THE STUMBLING BLOCK. - . A man who had obtained work in a railway yard was told off to mark some trucks. "Here's a bit of chalk," said the foreman. "Mark each of em eleven.": ( ;:;. Somel time afterwards \ the : : foreman came ■Tound again. There was a large "1" on the first truck. Nothing else; had been. done. The man stood -gazing up at the sky. "What does this mean?" asked the foreman.; "Only one truck doneand I said eleven, not one." ■ • • """" -■ - , "I know," said the man, "but I couldn't think which side of r the ' 1 '. the other ..." 1' goes!":; ' - ..; _ ~ .

❖<-x-«^<^

SMILE RAISERS.

y." But surely," : urged Jones, "seeing '-, is believing?" . ; "' " y " ".'_ "'\. .. ' "Not necessarily," replied Brown. "For instance, ; I see you every day." . ;, > , :; '■,"v ■"'''•' ••• " • " IB ■ '■:■•.. ~" ■- "Do you remember Mrs. Smith?" ..:;. ..'.• - "No, I can't say I do." . . • .. • ~.' '.- *V s "Oh, you must .remember herl She, was the plainest girl in the village. But I forgot; that was after you left.". .: «- >\ •- ' >• T. "Sambo, I don't understand how you can do all your work so quickly and so well." "I will tell you how it is. I stick de match of. enthusiasm to de fuse of -energy and. jes naturally explodes.". ->-•-..-. ,i ;;> ; ' : ' '•.:-'■'•: ■ V -- .\ : *'•;.;•-"•:•■-• '■ "■•.;£--.:. ;."■::-;,'. ■■ - , ■.'■.▼.._•;"•■ - ■- ■' f. •., ■ ■ During a lesson on the Deluge a teacher explained that when the Flood'came all living r creatures except those in the,Ark were drowned. > - ... . -,.\ ;;/.',.-.* I "And what happened.to the fish, miss?"■: she was asked. _ <■-£*?'■•- '." * Teacher: "Children, can any ;of you tell me what Jis the most dangerous part of 'a motor-car?", - „ K i; Tommy: "Yes, Miss. It's the driver."; ' * . . v .. ; r/ : ;v ; :-- : (- : ,- ; '( '. :. "Your baby ' seems very fond of you, Toin, old chap," remarked his friend one day. "Fond of me I should just think he is," replied Tom. [\ "Why, would you f believe it, he sleeps all day while I'm not at home, and r stays o-wake all night just to enjoy my so-ciety.":;-v::,'-'""".'l'::;'-:.::'.'; ".'.;-■ % '■ : -: :