HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1954-09-03, Page 201w
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THE TIMOR EXPOSITOR
ti
EXPOSITOR
Vistasheti 1860
:Ul li abe4 at Seaforth, Ontario, ev-
Thursday afternoon by 1VIclean
S.
A. Y. McLean, Editor .
Subscription rates, $2.50 a year in
puce; foreign $3.50 a year. Single
CRpies, 5 cents each.
Member of Canadian
eekly Newspapers
Association.
Advertising rates on application.
PHONE 41
Authorized as Second Class Mail:
Post Office Department, Ottawa
SEAFORTH, Friday, September 3
SEAFORTH LIONS SPONSOR
SAFE DRIVING ROADEO
As a further indication of the way
in which it adds to the welfare of
the community which it has served•
during the nearly thirty years it has
been in existence in Seaforth, the
Seaforth Lions Club has announced
plans for the holding of a safe driv-
ing roadeo at the Lions Park next
- +Uednesday evening. The purpose of
the event, which is similar to others
which have been held in a number of
• Ontario centres, is to evaluate the
driving skills of district motorists in
the expectation that the interest
which is aroused will have the effect
of making drivers more careful and
thereby reduce accidents.
Needless to say, district police
;favor the proposal and are assisting
in carrying out arrangements. Re-
•gardless of what some motorists may
think, they would much rather be in-
volved in assisting to carry out a pro-
gram which may result in fewer cas-
ualties than have to investigate even
one accident. In entering the com-
petition there is, of course, no obli-
gation on the part of a motorist. He
may or may not win, but the results
will have no effect on his driving lic-
ense. If, however, a competitor is
found to have acquired bad driving
habits, it is the hope of the Lions
Club that the contest will lead to. the
correction of them.
This newspaper from time "to time
has drawn attention to the hazard
that exists on the highways today
because of careless and selfish driv-
ing. Believing that the Lions Club
can accomplish valuable results in
.educating motorists in correct driv-
ing procedures, and in a desire to
further the work.' which the Club is
undertaking, the publishers are
donating a trophy to the Lions Club,
to be competed for each year by
motorist's entered in the Lions Safe
Driving Roadeo. It will be won by
the competitor who is•adjudged to be
the most capable driver.
It is to be hoped there will be a
;broad participation in the event on
the part of district motorists, and
that the lessons learned at the Safe
Driving Roadeo will be reflected in
a lessened highway accident toll in
the area.
ADS CAN BE NEWS
We were reminded of the practises
of early. Seaforth merchants as evi-
denced in files of The Expositor, of
seventy and eighty years ago, when
we read in the Wingham Advance -
Times recently that , modern adver-
tisers forget that advertisements
are news.
`tn the old_ days,' the Advance-
-Times pointed out, "when a merchant
received a new stock of goods, the
first thing he did was to place an ad
in the local, paper informing his cus-
tomers of the fact. It was a matter
of common courtesy to. the custom-
ers, and otherwise, he reasoned, how
would they know that he had the
goods for sale? Customers, con-
versely; watched the ads carefully to
see what was new in their local -
stores. Most merchants in those
days ran ,a weekly ad just to keep
their customers informed, and those
who did not were regarded, and quite
rightly, as poor merchandisers, who
were not very likely to succeed."
It goes on to say that although
*bus ,have changed, it's still a good
Idea to keep the news angle in mind
When writing an ad. If you have
olnething new' or novel, or of par
cu1arly good Wale it's news that
custorers wills want . to hear.
And the Advance -Times concludes by
indicating that it is news "that you
can convey easily, quickly and cheap-
ly through the medium of your local
newspaper." We concur.
SCHOOLS ARE OPEN—
SLOW DOWN
In only a few days now the doors
of district schools will have opened
and hundreds upon hundreds of
boys and girls will commence anoth-
er year of learning.
And in order to get to the schools
and back home again, the children
will travel along our streets and
from time to time cross your high-
ways. And here is where the trou-
ble starts.
Last year, for instance, in Ontario,
184 children in the grade school age
group (5-14 years) were killed in
traffic accidents; 4,487 Ontario chil-
dren were injured in accidents on
streets and highways.
Coupled as it is with the Labor
Day weekend, school opening is a
particularly dangerous period, and
is one which requires even more than
average caution on the part of
motorists.
Our schools, for the most part, are
doing an excellent job of training
school children to observe proper
precautions in traffic. Many cities
in Ontario have school children or-
ganized in safety patrols, which op-
erate under police supervision, and
give the youngsters a.certain amount
of supervised responsibility for their
own safety in traffic.
However, in the last analysis;' it is
always up to the motorist to exer-
cise the utmost precaution when
travelling through an area where
there are children playing.
Here are rules for parents and
motorists, recommended by the On-
tario Safety League:
Parents Should:
1: Set children a good example by
crossing streets only at intersections,
waiting for the signal, looking both
ways and for turning traffic before
crossing.
2. Find out what traffic education
your children are receiving at school
and co-ordinate your own instruction
with it. .
3. Impre s upon children the dan-
ger of pla-ing in the street or near
moving traffic. See that they play
only in approved play areas.
4. See that children are skilled in
using outdoor toys such as roller
skates, bicycles, scooters, tricycles
and wagons, and that the youngsters
practise .safety rules when using the
toys.
Motorists Should:
1. Keep a constant lookout for
children. Even when children are
clearly in view, their actions some-
times are unpredictable.
2. Near school areas be constantly
alert for signs, traffic police, signals,
school patrols and for children them-
selves.
3. Decrease speed and, increase
vigilance when driving near play-
grounds and residential areasand
other places where children are like-
ly to be found.
4. Don't compete with bike riders.
Be ready always to give them the
right-of-way.
5. Exercise special care when
backing in an area where children
are likely to be playing. , It is good
practice to get out of your car and
make spare there are no children near,
immediately before starting to back
up.
What Other Papers Say:
Cracker -Barrel Court
(Peterborough Examiner)
Magistrate Gee, of Victoria Coun-
ty, has retired. He presided over the
Lindsay court for 20 years, and of-
ten in those years held court in
Peterborough.
If a magistrate can be said to be
popular in his practice, Mr. Gee was.
Cracker-barrel quips and an old-
fashioned informality would give his
court an unusual affability. It has.
not been unknown for a man to re-
ceive from Mr. Gee a three-month
sentence with a smile on his lips. The
rule of Iaw was, by his experienced
hand, established as often as not 'by
rule of thumb as by a finger on a
Revd Statute.
SEEN IN THE COUNTY PAPERS
Has 92nd Birthday
Hearty birthday congratulations
are in order this week for Mr. R.
C. McGowan, of East Wawanosh
Township, who observes his 92nd
birthday on Tuesday, August 31.—
Blyth Standard.
On Extended Trip
Mrs. Ted Steinbach and son, Ed-
gar, and daughter, Miss Norma
Steinbach, and Miss Carol 'dlhiel
motored to Belleville last Thurs-
day, where the Misses Norma
Steinbach and Carol Thiel joined
Mr. and Mrs. James Hackett on a
two weeks' motor trip to Montreal,
Quebec and Cape Breton. We wish
them an enjoyable trip and safe re-
turn home.—Zurich Herald.
Wins Scholarship
Miss $etty Bowra, daughter of
Mr. and Mrs. George Bowra, has
received a scholarship for $100
from the Ahmeek Chapter of the
LO.D.R for the purpose of fur-
thering her education at Teachers'
College. This scholarship is award-
ed each year to the student with
the highest standing who is enter-
ing Teachers' College. Betty plans
to attend Stratford Teachers' Col-
lege this September. — Goderich
Signal -Star.'
Skunk Inspects Apartment Hall
A skunk left its trail through the
hallway of a second -storey Main
Street apartment building which it
inspected Wednesday night. The
striped animal plodded its way up
the stairs from the Main Street
entrance, waddled down the hall-
way past three apartment doors
while the occupants held their
breath in horror, then slunk down
the back steps to the ground and
disappeared. The smell drove the
dwellers out of their rooms for
several hours.—Exeter Times -Advo
tate,
Four Injured in Collision
Three Exeter teen-agers and a
Zurich district man are in South
Huron Hospital with minor injur-
ies received on Tuesday in a car
collision a mile west of 'Dashwood.
The three girls, Marilyn Skinner,
Patricia Tuckey and Trudy Pick-
ard, were on their Way to Grand
Bend for a swim when their car,
driven by Miss Tuckey, collided
with one driven by Mr. August
Masse, R.R. 3, Zurich. Miss Tuck-
ey who was thrown from the car,
was cut and bruised as were the
other glee- when thrown against
the windshield. M. 'Masse cut his
head and received other injuries.
All are in good condition, hospital
reports. --?Zurich Herald.
Reach 8,000 Mark
The total of visitor to the Hur-
on County Pioneer Museum in
Goderiche continues to mount.
Wednesday the museum welcomed
its 8,000th visitor, seven-year-old.
Margaret Boone, of R.R. 2, Scar-
boro. Curator J. H. Neill hopes to
see the attendance figure go above
the 9„000 mark this year and at
the rate visitors have been touring
the museum in recent weeks, he
should realize his goal soon. Mr.
Neill, by the way, had an inter-
esting exhibit at the Goderich
Trade Fair last week showing the
various method's of sawing wood
and one method of grinding grain.
Another part of the exhibit, a d'o11
rocking a model of an -early type
of cradle, helped the Kinette Club
considerably in the sale of tickets
on a draw for a doll. The Klnette
booth was directly beside the mus-
eum booth. When people came to
watch the cradle rocking display,
many of them stopped at the doll
draw booth to buy a ticket.—Gode-
rich Signal -Star,
CROSSROADS
(By James Scott)
TERRIBLE CHILDREN!
The other day I heard one of the
Ladies of the town say with consid-
erable bitterness, "Well, I for one
will certainly be glad when school
starts again! The children in this
neighborhood are getting just like
wild Indians. It'll be a good thing
to give them something to do and
keep them from getting into mis-
chief. I don't know what's got in-
to children nowadays!"
Of course you can hear words
like that any time at all. You can
hear fond mammas sigh with re-
lief that the young ones will be
back in the confines of the class-
room, and you can see wise olyl
heads all over -shakg dolefully
and wondering with the . lady 1
overheard, "I don't know what's
got into children nowadays!"
Well, I think I know the answer
to that. Nothing has got into to-
day's children that hasn't been put"
there by their parents. And what
has got into them is just about the
same salting of the Old Nick which
their parents' parents put into
their children.
After 1 heard that lady talking I
began casting my mind back to
my own schooldays. I liked going
back like that, and I remembered
a lot of things which had passed
into the limbo of my mind and
which I hadn't thought about for
years.
I remembered the classics mas-
ter we once had who 'hid behind
the classroom door waiting for a
student who had arritated him by
insisting that he had to leave the
room on a very important errand
at fifteen -minute intervals. When
the scholar came back on his last
trip, the irate teacher swung at
him from behind the door and
gave him a 'black eye!
I wonder what got into teachers
and pupils when I was a boy?
Then I recalled a time when . an
English teacher of ours, who had
very substantial equipment for sit-
ting down, bent over a desk to
correct some mistakes she had
spotted in a student's exercises in
grammar. The do diligent schol-
ars who sat on either side of the
aisle, just behind this tempting
target, looked at each other. (I
won't tell you who they, were; they
are now highly respectable fathers
with children of their own in this
community).
Anyway, they looked at the pro-
tuberance; they looked at each
other and a wicked gleam came in-
to their eyes. One was timid and
the other was a man of action. He
was also a couple of years older
and considerably larger. He picked'
up his ruler; he contemplated it
fondly; he caressed its sharp
edge and then! Wham!
Quick as a flash, even before the
outraged pedagogue could utter her
howl of anguish and indignity, this
bold student - passed the ruler
across the aisle to his timid friend'
who sat there, holding it stupidly
as if he didn't quite know how it
got there, when the teacher turn-
ed, saw him and . . . Well, you
can guess the rest.
Oh, those were terrible times all
right! Just think of the trickery,
the violence, the treachery, the
lack of morality and respect for
order and authority you can find in
just those two episodes I remem-
bered.
1 wonder what the world is com-
ing to?
Well, that was a longer time
ago than I like to admit. Quite a
lot has been happening in the
world since those days. Some of
it has been very bad and quite a
lot of it has been full of generos-
ity and goodwill and kindliness and
honesty.
And you know something? I will
stake my life on this: when these.
terrible youngsters of today grow
up they will commit just about the
same amount of good and evil as
all the generations which have
gone •before. They aren't any
worse now and `they won't be when
they ow up.
Farm News of Huron
nt rmittent rains again delayed
bar est operations particularly in
the north end of the county, Fail
wheat land is being prepared; in-
dications are for a reduced acre-
age of this crop.
Cash crops are making good
growth; 'however, there is some
rusting of the white bean crop.
Some early turnips have been ship-
ped with the growers receiving ,up
to $1.00 per bushel.
CanacliansEat More Eggs
Egg sales in the domestic mar-
ket
arket in Canada in the first six
months of 1954 exceeded those of
the corresponding period in 1953 by
178,000 cases. This .increase is
greater than the combined increas-
ed sales in the export market, and
the increased storage holding ov-
er those of a year ago, states the
Poultry Products Market Report,
Department of Agriculture, Ottawa.
Exports and storage stocks were
134,000 cases more in the first six
months of this year than last,
whereas, the sale for immediate
consumption were 178,000 eases
more.
Principal markets available' to
producers for market eggs are:
the export market, the frozen egg
market, storage, and outlets for
immediate consumption. In, the
first six months of this year there
were S5 per cent more shell eggs
sold in the export market than for
the same .period a year ago. Froz-
en egg production for the two per-
iods remained about the same -10,-
000 cases. Storage stocks of shell
eggs reached a high of 249,000 cas-
es this year, about eight per cent
more than the peak storage hold-
ings last year. However, the com-
bined total of eggs sold to these
three outlets represents only about
three weeks' egg marketing's. Ex-
ports, up to 85 per cent over a
year ago and starage holdings up
eight per cent, represent only
slightly more than average ma.r-
ketings for a'week.
t .
Winter Wheat. Yield Said
Second Highest In History
Field Crops Branch oi; the On-
tario Department ofculture
reports that Ontario farmers have
just harvested' a 23,000,000 bushel
wheat crop with an estimated
yield of 32.3 bushels per acre.
In spite of unfavorable weather
conditions,, the 1954 Ontario Win-
ter wheat crop has proven to be
the second highest In yield ever
harvested in Ontario. It is exceed-
ed only by 1953 yields,
Average, yields for the last 10 -
year period have exceeded the
previous 10+year ;periods by four
bushels per acre and the 10 years
previous to the First Great Wear by
eight bushels Der acre.
(Continued on Page 6)
Years Agone
Interesting items Picked From
The Huron Expositor of Twen-
tyilvs and Fifty Years .Ago
From The Huron Expositor
September 6, 1929
Master John Farquhar, Hetisaii,
who has been spending his sum-
mer holidays at the home of his
grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. J•
Cochrane, Hilisgreen, has returned
to his home again.
Rev. and Mrs. White and chil-
dren, Elimville, left on Saturday
to visit for a few days with rela-
tives in Windsor and Chatham.
Mrs. Seth Brown had the misfor-
tune to get her leg broken last
Thursday. She drove in from a
milp east of Staffa with a horse
and buggy and tied it in the Unit-
ed Church shed. When she came
to go home the lines became en-
tangled somehow, cramping the
buggy short and threw her to the
cement floor.
Messrs, George .Kerslake and
Sam Webb, Staffa, spent Sunday
and Monday at Hamilton and oth-
er points. Mrs. Kerslake came
home with them after spending a
few days there.
Mr. John Murray is busy with
men and teams grading the boun-
dary north of Manley, leading to
the C.P.R. station, which is a coun-
ty road, leading from Goderich to
Toronto, and will make 'a short
cut for motorists to Guelph and
Toronto.
Early Saturday morning the
house and nearly all the contents
on the farm of Mr. Leon Jeffrey,
Jr., at Blake, were destroyed by
fire, which started from a defec-
tive coal oil stove. Mr. Jeffrey
had lit the stove when he got up,
and went out to the barn to do
the chores. Mrs. Jeffrey smelled
smoke and on investigating found'
the back kitchen ablaze. Some dif-
ficulty was experienced in getting
the children out, who were still
sleeping. The loss to Mr. Jeffrey
is severe, although it is partly
covered by insurance.
Dr. I. Neal, of Peterboro, return-
edto his' home Saturday after
spending a week with his mother,
Mrs. William Neal, Walton.
Mrs. Bateman and little grand-
daughter, Iris Bateman, of Hamil-
ton, and Mrs. Isabel Bateman, of
Toronto, spent the holiday with
Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hoy, Wal-
ton,
Mr. and' Mrs William S. Gouin-
lock. sdn and daughter; Mrs. M.
M. Smallwood, three sons and
daughter and Mr, J. Simpson, of
Botania, N.Y., were weekend guests
at the 'Commercial Hotel. Mr.
Gouinlock and Mrs. Smallwood are
the son and daughter of the late
Dr. Gouinlock, one of the most
prominent of the early residents in
Seaforth.
Mrs. Lyle Hill and family have
returned to their home in Moose
Jaw after spending a few weeks
at the home of her parents, Mr.
and Mrs. I. Skelton.
•
From The Huron Expositor
September 2, 1904
The farm of Mr. Robert Mason,
on the Base Line, Hullett, and
which has this year been worked
by his son, has been rented to Mr.
.Jess Fisher, of Colborne, who gets
possession this fall. He takes it
for a term of -five years.
We are pleased. to learn Mrs.
Will R. Cluff, Toronto, who has
been spending the summer with
her husband at the home of Mr.
Cluff's parents in Tuekersmith, is
sufficiently recovered from her re-
cent illness to be able to be up
again.
The friends of Miss Annie Glass,
more especially those who were
her schoolmates in S.S. No. 9, Mc-
Killop, will be sorry to hear that
she has had lo undergo a serious
operation and is in a critical con-
dition. Miss Glass was married in
Manitoba some time ago and is
there at the present. Her mother
is also out there waiting on her.
Mr. George Thornton is perhaps
the oldest man in the Leadbury
section of McKillop, being over ,90
years of age, yet he can read witk-
out glasses, and did some harvest
work this year. He is a native of
Yorkshire, England.
Little Angela Crotty, violinist,
has returned to her home in Both-
well, after a few weeks' visit with
her uncle, Father McKeon, and her
aunt, Miss Crotty, St. 'Colu.mban.
Last May a young man from Ash-
field boarded a Lake Huron steam-
er at Goderich and set out for Port
Arthur. Nothing has been heard
of him since June 15, and now his
grandmother is very much worried
because she thinks some of the
Japanese shells have hit him. "Oh!
Worra! Worra!"
Rev. and Mrs. McLennan, who
have been spending the summer
months in Bayfield, have returned
home to Kippen. They like Bay-
field, but report the summer too
cool for real enjoyment at the
Iake. However, they are looking
much better for their outing.
Much sympathy is felt in Kippen
for Mr. John 'McGregor, who met
with a severe accident last .Satur-
day, and which resulted in one of
his legs having to be amputated.
He is still at the residence of Mr.
Simon McKenzie, in Tuckersm4th,.
where the accident occurred, and
where he will receive every atten-
tion that can possibly be given him
and his many friends will be great-
ly rejoihed to hear of his recov-
ery.
Mr, W. T. Box, Seaforth, has pur-
chased the cottage ° of Mr. John
Downey on Jarvis St., nearly op-
posite the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. James Scott, who has been
living in Texas for 80 years, visited,
his sister, Mrs. Robt. Maxwell, of
the Bluevale Road.
Hostess: "It looks like a storm.
You had better stay for dinner.
Caller: Oh! thanks, but I don't
think it's bad enough !or that."
SEPTEMBER 3, 1954
"Keeper of the Trees."
(By MR5. M. C. 0010)
(Continued from last week)
Perhaps it was the thought of
the slowly melting ice cream that
made him do the mile back to the
gravel pit in record, time. The Big
One was waiting on top of the
hank.
The tobacco?" he said. "You
didn't forget it?"
"Gosh, yes!" said Nels. "I did!"
The look on the Big One's face
caused Nels to ',hastily reverse his
idea of humor. -
"1 was only kidding. Here it
is."
"Kid!" said the Big One, solemn-
ly, as lie rolled one, "if you had'da,
your name woulda been Mud."
III
The last dinner was a gala affair.
They put the ice cream in the iron
pot and set it in the spring, from
whence it emerged almost as hard
as when the ,woman had lifted it
from the freezing unit. The Small
One went hunting for leeks and
came back, not only with Leeks,
but with water cress. There was
plenty for everybody. Even Nels
had all - the ice cream he could eat.
A wave of polar air was coming.
down from Northern Canada, but
in the hollow of the gravel pit
they knew nothing of it. Out of
the wind, the sun's rays were hot,
and the noonday siesta had to be
taken in the shade of the over-
hanging bank.
•Colin and Nels were to leave at
four o'clock, and a ride was cer-
tain the Small One assured them,
if they were at the roadside stand
any time between four -thirty and
five -thirty. The cars of •travelling
salesmen, heading for their head-
quarters in nearby towns and cit-
ies, would be thick upon the road;
gas trucks, Cocoa: Cola trucks, beer
trucks, getting a ride would be a
pushover. He almost wished he
and the Big One were going with
them, but their , destiny lay in
points east, or they thought it did.
And anyway, four people hitch-
hiking together was two too many,
A gasoline truck dropped Colin
and Nels at the MacKenzie farm
gate at exactly five -forty-five, and'
they knew instantly that the days
of easy living were over. They
were met at the door by a re-
proachfuI Janet and an envious
Karen.
"I don't know what we are go-
ing to do with you, Dad," declar-
ed Janet, as they came into the
kitchen where the table was spread
for supper. "I -really don't, Of all
the wild goose'chases that I ever
heard of, this beats them all. You
tell me right this minute where
you've been and what you've been
doing."
Colin lowered himself into his
old Morris chair—one of the things
Marion had -tried to take away
from him, but had been forced to
compromise by having it reuphol-
stered. Colin admitted to himself
that it really was a good deal more
comfortable - than Mrs. Allen's
maple blocks, or the stones in the
gravel pit.
"My dear Janet," he said, "you
may find it hard to believe, but
you are looking at two human be-
ings who have achieved their
heart's desire. 'And who among
us has his heart's desire; and hav-
ing it, "is satisfied?' We have not
only achieved it, but we are satis-
fied. Look well, my dear; you may
not gaze upon our ltke again." •
Janet began to wonder if her
father was going to be such a good
influence on Nels after all. When
it came to being queer, it looked
as though, it were six of one and
half a dozen of the. -other,
She .gave the Pilgrims a search-
ing look.
You look well, at all events. In
fact, I never saw either one of you
look better."
Nels grinned at her, a free and
open grin. He had. changed, and
she had to admit that it was for
the better. That stiff, defensive air
had left him and had been replac-
ed by an almost antic quality.
Antic! Nels!
"Sit into this table and eat, and
tell me what you've been doing and
where you've been. Heart's desire,
indeed!"
It was Colin who did the talk-
ing. Nels' time and attention, as
usual, being entirely taken up with
eating. He did not tell everything;
just gave Janet and Karen the
highlights. He omitted entirely
the fact that they had spent the
previous night sleeping in the open
with a couple of tramps. He touch-
ed upon the Armstrongs lightly,
Mrs. Allen lightly, but he recount-
ed their adventures at the Harpers
with gusto.
Karen had been growing more
and more envious as the tale pro-
ceeded.•
"You're nothing but a pair of
meanies!" she declared. "Grand-
dad, I'm your, granddaughter just
as much as Nels is your grandson,
and you have to take me along
next time. I':m just as hardy as
Nels, and,,, just as goad a sport,
too."
The same thought struck Nels
and Colin at the same moment.
They saw with memory's' eye the
Big One and the Small One stand-
ing naked in the gravel pit, while
the fire cast fantastic shadows of
their bodies on the gravelly banks.
Quite a sight for a sixteen -year-old
maiden. . Nels took a swallow of
water, while Colin took a gulp of
tea.
"We'll see, Karen," said Colin,
gravely. "It would be an experi-
ence for you all right."
"I'll say!" muttered Nels into
his water glass. •
Part Five
THE STORE . . . AND YOUNG
LOVE
I
The same spring that Nets was
earning the right way to plant
trees, snare suckers, end make a
proper bonfire, Karen . was not
standing atilt by any means.
Karen discovered Literature
with a capital L, and .particularly
Poetry with a capital P, and it
was in a fair way to ruin her as
a grocery clerk. She had alwaYet
been a reader; that is, an ordinary
child reader: but reading as a
Passion—that was different.
Whereas Janet had been reared
on Little Women, The Old Helmet,
and the Wide, Wide World, Karen -
read The Ranch Girds in the Rock-
ies, The Ranch Girls on the Plaine,
The Ranch Girls in the Woods, and.
half a score or more of the 'seame.
She had never taken a book or
poetry from the library shelves of
her own free will in her life.
And one sleepy Monday after-
noon, early in May, on the second'
floor of the Tanner high school,
Wordsworth walked out of the pag-
es of a book and became her friend.
'Miss Fenton—English and Home-
Economics—had been having a par-
ticularly trying time with the Eng-
lish literature class. They had•
plodded through 'The Cloud' with
somewhat foggy results, and 'To a
Skylark' had been even worse if"
that were possible. The way some
of those boys—the ones who could'
make themselves heard from home
plate to the farthest corner of the
ball field—muttered, "Hail to thee,
blithe spirit!" would have made
Shelly rise from the bed of the.
blue Mediterranean, sea weed,
clam shells, and all.
Miss Fenton gazed distractedly'
across the roomful of heads, brown,
black and flaxen, and fixed upon
one around which gleaming golden•
braids, smooth as silk, .were wound.
A ray of hope appeared on the
bleak horizon. There were days
when Karen Nelson grasped with
uncanny perspicacity a writer'e.
meaning, and read her assignment
with a depth of feeling that mader
her phlematic schoolmates stars
and mutter "Gosh!" This might'.
be one of the days.
"Karen," Miss Fenton was al-
most pleading. "Will you please
read for Oliver the first verse of
page 63. And Oliver, do listen."
Karen had an attractive voice;
low but musical, and when any-
thing moved her, there came into
it a deeper note, clear and resort,.
ant. She began:
"Nature never did betray the heart
that loved her;
'Tis her privilege, through all the
years of this our•.life,
To lead from joy to joy;
For she can so inform the mind,
that is within us,
So impress with quietness and
beauty,
And so freed with lofty thoughts,
That neither evil tongues, rash''
judgments, nor the sneers'
Of selfish men, nor greetings where
• no kindness is,
Nor all the dreary intercourse of
daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us, or'
disturb our cheerful thought
Faith. that all which we behold fps
full of blessings."
Half way through it Karen's
voice took on its deeper tone. ands
by the time she reached the last
line, 'And all which we behold is
foil of bltessings', the whole class
was sitting erect, looking startled.
"Gee, Miss Fenton!" exclaimed)
Karen, "that's swell. Why, that's
—that's beautiful! That's my
young n?brothel•, Nels—I mean—well:
--may. 1 read it again, Miss Fen-
"
Miss Fenton consented. It might'
be unconventional, but at any rate
Oliver was sitting up and taking
notice; something he hadn't done
all afternoon.
"But don't say 'swell', Karen, and
don't begin every sentence with
'Gee'."
Karen nodded abstractedly, and
read the verse through a second
time, this time really getting dowm
to it.
At the end of the second read-
ing, Karen's bright blue eyes turn-
ed to the window that looked out
on the soul -stirring spectacle of a.
Canadian spring day.
"Gee, Miss Fenton," she said,
wonderingly. "I've been looking
out of windows all my life and L
never really saw anything until to-
day"
Miss Fenton could not make up.
,her mind• which pupil was the hard-
est to do with --the one who didn't
respond to anything, or the one
who went all out.
Karen took her new-found vision,
home to her mother, and Janet lis-
tened smiling, as the .'verse was,
read for the third time.
"Wouldn't you think that Words-
worth knew Nels, Mother? And
lie died in 1850. I looked; it up. 1•
know you and Dad think Nels is
dumb because he gets zero in math,
and spelling sometimes, but in lots
of ways Nels is as smart as cam
be. Nels's mind is full of nice
thoughts, Mother. I know it is."
"For she can so inform the mind
that is within us,
So impress with quietness and:
beauty,
And so feed with lifty thoughts,
That neither evil Longues-"
Have you ever noticed, 'Mother,
that Nels never hears anything
mean about anyone? He doesn't
really. It just rolls off him like
water off a duck."
"Aren't you forgetting about.
Dave Menzies?" Janet inquired
with a little smile.
"Oh, Gee!" ,said Karen. "Yes, 1'
am. Oh, well—"
The year -Karen discovered Lit-
erature was an eventful one for
her, because that same year she
also discovered Love. The dscov-
Ary of Love was a more soul -shale
ing experience than the discovery
of Literature.
(Continued Next Week)
"Mr. Smith," said the lady at the'
church festival, "won't you buy a.
bouquet to present to the lady you
Iove?"
"That wouldn't be right, I'm a
married man."
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