The Seaforth News, 1926-09-02, Page 7Forte the _;,1•
'. 1i
'"NOTHING TO DO"
BY LUCY RAN DAL I'. a(MFORT,
"Oh, dear]" Said 'l addle Hall. "'I
wish I Fie* what to do!"
Hadd:e was kneeling upon one of
the velvet -cushioned chairs in her
mother's boudoir, and looking out of.
"the window,' with her e:bows on the
le g'+eand ber plump chin supported
• in her hands,_
Close beside her stood Patty Lynn,
who had come to play with her, and a
'very fortunate pair of allele girls they
were,. It was only eleven o'clock, and
they had exhausted their resources
a!'ileady,
The big French doll,with eyes that
would open and ;phut, and a blue satin
dress with real buttons and button-
holes, was thrown. aside; the ohina
tea -set was discarded; the automaton
railway -train had had a collision with
the box of building b'_ocke,and the
big baby house, with the four furnish-
ed roans, had somehow lest its
charms!
"Couldn't we play puzzles?" sug-
gested' Patty.
' "I'm tired of pbzales," said•Haddie.
"Let's tell stories!"
"Ola, I don't know any stories!"
sighed the rich little girl. "Come up
here, Patty, and I'll watch for another
to come home. Perhaps she wiR bring
us some new toy."
So Patty drew- up a second chair,
and climbed up to a level with her
friend; and there they watched tile
elegant. cars roll by, and the gaily
dressed passerby promenade 'along the
street.
"There's a little girl with a basket'
on her arra!" said, Haddie.
"She has got matches and shoe-
strings in it," said Haddie.
"No; I think they're apples," said
,"Haddie. "Oh, Patty! Wouldn't it be
.fun for you and me to go and se'l'l ap-
ples and matches?"
"Noe I don't think it wou:d," said
honest little Patty.
"But on:y for • a 'little while, I
mean," explained Haddie. "Not for
always. And then, when— Oh, Patty!"
She clutched at her companion's
arm, with a cry of a:'arm and dismay,
for that very instant, a horse, attach-
ed to a butcher's cart, in its headlong
way, ]mocked down the little girlwith
the basket, and the wheels passed over
her prostrate form.
Patty dropped down on thefloor,
and hid her face in her hands.
' "Is' she killed, Haddie?'!- she falter-
ed. "Is she killed?"
"No; I don't think she's killed," said
Haddie, who had bravely kept her post
at the window. ``There's a crowd of
people 'round, and now they're lifting
her up. I wonder where they're going
to carry her? Poor little girl! she
wasn't any bigger than you or me,
Patty! I'm real sorry for her. Aren't:
you?,"
And the little girls talked about this
street accident for some time: But
when they could think of nothing more
to say about it, up came the old ques-
tion again, what were they to del
But, in a few minutes, old Miss
Midget came in—a pleasant lady in
spectacles, 'whom a the children liked.
"Wel, Heddle," Said she, "how are
yen getting on?"
"Oh, dear, Miss Midget," said Had -
die, dolefully, "I don't know what to
dol" r
"Bless me! said Miss Midget,
"that's a serious trouble, I think. I
could find something for you to do."
"Is it work?" said Haddie,
"Weal, yes," said Miss Midget; "I,
suppose people would call it work."
I know," said Patty. "It's pasting
a picture scrap -book for the litt:o
children in the 'Home'." I
"No," said Miss alddget; "you are
mistaken this time,"
"0,r looking up some of our broken
toys to glue and mend up for the
'Nursery Ward'?" suggested paddle.
"Wrong again, said Miss Midget.
"How would you like to be nurses in a
hospital?"
Patty and Haddie opened their eyes'
very wide. • I
"But we are too iitt:e," raid they,
"Not e bit too little for the sort of
work I want," said Miss Midget. "I
don't mean a grown' folks' hos'pital-II
mean a children's hospital.". I
"Where?" said Haddie. I
"Illi te51 you, ellildren," said Mies :c
Midget, "Thane was a little girl run
over and bad•y hurt on" this very
venue, not n-oee than an hour ago."
"Yes!" cried Patty anal Haddie in
chorus. "We saw her. And did you
hear about it, Miss Midget?"
"I was at the hospital, dear, when
they brought herin," said good Miss
Midget. "But the wards were all full,
and •there was neo room for her. So I
lied her carried to Mrs. Budge's house.
:I;knew-Mrs, Budge had an upper room.
a that ehe wanted to let, so I engaged
'the 1'0'0111 for a month. Doctor Cheyne,
of the hospital, came with me and set
her broken leg ,and arm, and we will.
visit her once a day.
"But now the question is, how to get
nurses., Old Mother Budge is too in-
firm to -go up,and down stairs, and I
can only spare, a few minutes daily.
We want some one to give -the ehdld
her medicine, : to bathe the wounded
limbs, to read to, her and amuse her,
aired—" -
"Oh, Miss Midget," cried Haddie,
with her face •brightening, "couldn't I
go?"
"And me, too?" eagerly added
Patty.
"Wil you each of you give two
hours a day to this,poor, friendless
and namleess child?" said Miss Mid-
get. "Mind, I' don't promise you any
reward. I know two other little girls
who will help . rue, and -between us all
I think we can get the child well cared
for."
We could read fairy stolties to her,"
said Haddie, gleefully.
"We could show her how to put the
dissected maps together," said Patty.
"She 'could do that, Miss Midget, you
know, with one hand."
"Yes,"; added Haddie, "anti Since we
joined the Children's Cooking Club we
learned to make je:lies and nice Little
dishes that perhaps she would like!"
"There's no `perhaps' about it," said
Miss Midget; "of course sheiil like'em.
Well 'girlie, if your mothers are will-
ing, I' 7 call for you this afternoon,
and weal organize our hospital at
once."
There was no more complaint about
"nothing to do." Haddie and Patty
went at once to the play -room to select
out such toys and books as they
thought best adapted to their par-
ticular emergency, and to tell "Marie
Antoinette," the big French doll, that
she needn't expect them back at pres-
ent. And there was so much to plan
and arrange for that the moments
seemed actually to fly by as if they
had wings. •o,
Poor iitt:e Mary Higgs, the hurt
child, lay all bandaged and splintered
on the bed in Mrs. Budge's up -stairs
room. The sun was shining bri:liant-
ly in atthe uncurtained window, flies
buzzed about, and one by one the big
tears rolled down Mary's cheeks and
splashed on the pi:low,
For Mary had no one to care for her
as other girls 'have. She was a des-
olate orphan, out of an asylum, and
had earned her scanty 'living hereto-
fore by selling matches, buttons, tapes,
and such small wares. But the woman
in whose house she had sheltered hoe -
self at night absolutely deolirked to re-
ceive her in her trouble.
"She's nothing to me," said Mrs.
Prout, "and I've got my own family
to look arter."
So -that Mary coulcl hardly believe
her eyes when the two little girls came
with their basket of fruit and their
packageoftoys and books.
"We have come to take care of you,"
said Haddie.
"We are your, nurses," said Patty.
"Miss Midget cent us, Are you hun-
gry? Would you Nike a drink of cool
water? There's to be a lump of ice
delivered here directly and Aunt Julia
has lent us her ice -cooler to keep it in.
"And oli how bright the sunshine
is. I-Iaddie,`if you stay here, I':1': run
home and gat sa1110 cloth and a needle
and thread to.make curtains. I'm sure
we could hem them ourselves and sew
REG'L.AR FELLERS—By Gene Byrnes. -
(S DOryT MINK
i1 CARE 70 emit
HERE TO EAT ACIAIN1',
0 DONT THINK' THEY
1REA7 YOU VERY NICE
AND THING'S ARE • G O
.THE DAVID COPPERFiLLD LIBRARY
In Johnson Street, London, in the house in which. Charles,Dickene lived as a
little boy. It was opened as a library.for poor children but financial support
has not been sufficient: Every evening when the children come they have a
wash '• and get clean overalls to put over their tattered clothes.
on little brass rings such as the up-
holsterers put on Aunt Julia's curtains
to slip back and forward.
So off she trotted while Haddie seat-
ed herself beside the sick -bed.
"Do you feel very bad?" asked she,
in a gentle voice, as she stroked
Mary's hair. •
."Not so very," said Mary. "It don't
hurt so much when 1 Cie still; but my
head aches."
"I must bathe it with cold water,"
said Haddie, like the most experienced
nurse in the world; "and I wi,:l unpack
one of the story -books, eo that you can
read."
PoorMaryturned very red.
"I can't read," said she. "Nobody
ever taught me."
"But we'll teach you how," said
Haddie, cheerfu-.y. It will pass away
the time."
And so' our little girls, who were so
puzzled for something to do, found an
engrossing occupation until school
commenced again—nursing Mary
Higgs and teaching her to read.
Many was the story they told her,
and the game they invented to while
away the weary hours; and when, at
last, she was able to go out to work
again, they found her a, place as nurse
to- a little blue-eyed baby, which af-
forded her a good home.
Lions to the Den.
Wine—"There's no doubt, dear, your
callers are social lions."
Hubby—"Oh, I know that—have
them shoii•n to my den."
. Japan Has Mother's Day.
Japan 11as, taken over this year the
American custom of a national obser-
yence of "Mother's Day," the eelebra-
tion coinciding with the birthday of
the Empress. The day has been de.
clared` a'national holiday
•
DID `(OU
NOTICE HOW
SURLY l'HE
WA1TSR WAG?.;
King George Buys 'Half
of a Tame Rabbit
King George recently became the
owner of a half share of Wilfred, a
tame rabbit. He bought his share
from b Timdinson,. Son of the rector
of Bolton Abbey,' where the Ring has
been grouse shooting as a guest of the
Duke of Devonshire.
Bob's •sister,'Kathleen, six, bas had
along illness. The king, on his way
to the moors, each morning passed her
window. One day the King said he
wished to see Kathleen and she was
brought into the hallway. She told
the Ring she felt well, but was un-
happy, because Wilfred was going to
be sold by her brother Bob. •
The next day the King's equerry
visited the rectory and tried toeuake a
deal with Bob. It then developed that
Kathleen owned a half share of the
rabbit, anyway, but Bob was forcing
her to sell.
"Will you sell your share to the
Ring?" asked the equerry.
Bob agreed.
"How much is Wilfred worth?" the
equerry asked.
Bob said five shillings, equivalent to
$1,25,
The equerry gave Bob ten shillings..
"The King presents his half of the rab-
bit to Kathleen, She now has ell of
Wilfred and you have ten shillings,"
the equerry said.
Bob ran and brought back five shil-
lings change, which the equerry, as the
Ring's representative, refused,
English Doctor Demonstrates'
Remarkable Gain Possible
by Diet.
Investigations concerning diets for
boys of ,school age, carried out during'
tour years by Doctor. H. C. Corry Mann
on behalf of the Medical Research'
Council, have yielded startling...results.'
In a report, Dr. Mann says:
It is startling to learn that the ad-
ditlon of one pint of milk a day to a
diet which, by itself, satisfied the axe!
petite of growing boys, could convert
an average annual gain of weight of
3,85 pounds per boy into one of 6.99
pounds, and an annual average in
crease of height from 1.84 inches to
2,63 inches, This unmistakeable bet:
termeut in nutrition was proved to be
due to the qualities of milk as food,"
The paper from which a Bank of
England'note is made is so tough that
when folded it can sustain a weight
of fifty pounds.
TNISN'S EARLIEST HOME.
Lately our thoughts have been turn- ber how much Tennyson disliked lnac-
ing to Somersby Rectory, the home in ,curacy and how annoyed he was at the
whiclei Tennyson was born and lived young girl who saw nothing but a'
far nearly thirty years... poetic metaphor in the lines,—
Lincolnshire is often said to be one "For her feet have touched: the mead -
of the bleakest and least interesting' owe
counties in :England, bet It has a car-. And left the daisies rosy,"
tain beauty of its own. Its immense not realizing that as her feet "touched
open stretches, broken only by the the meadows" the dueler would cicee
graceful windmills with which the and •'so show only, What he calls else-
wbole country_ le dotted, give one an were, "their erl.maan nges.
impression of grandeur, while its sun- Somen•sby Rectory Isfrinota dream of
rises and sunsets are magnificent: At beauty, like the rose -covered -thatched
This time of year the hedges which bor- cottage in Somersetshire, in which
der Ile lanes are'overrun with wild. Coleridge spout part of his early life;
roses and fragile briony bells; and but it is as comfortable' house large
fragrant Svith honeysuckle, eglantine .enough to accommodate the twelve
and inoadowsweet and in spring with young Tennysons and their parents,'
primroses and violets• fee well as the very fine library in
Amidst suck surroundings three poet :Which Alfred reveled, as a boy. „ There
brothers wereborn between whom the .is what he •called a flat lawn and a
love was so strong Chet Frederick and., good garden. Its pastoral surround -
Charles r'ejoleed to find how far Al- ings'are picturesque ,for Lineolnshire.
feed's genius surpassed their own. In Here' Tennyson took his gull share of
"In Memoriam"' Tennyson says to his athletics and so developed his. physical
.brother Charles,— strength that Brookfield rare laugh -
"For us the same cold stfeanelet curl'd iugly said to him, "It is not fair that
Through all its eddying coves, the same you should be I-Iercules as well as
A.11 winds that roam the twilight came Apollo." In 1837 the Tennysons were
In whispers of the beauteous world-" obliged to
"The same cold atreamilot" is the "Leave the well -beloved place.
brook with which we are all so fa- Where first we gazed upon the sky,"
F1 still "chatters" as it "flows and just before they went a voice wills;
to join the brimming ,river" and its Dere(' to the poet,
fairy forelands are still "set with wil- "Here thy boyhood sung
low -weed and mallow." Tenuyson's Long since its matin song, and heard
The low love language of the bird,
In native hasels tassel -hung,"
A flood of recollection comes over him
did' we shall .see that this poem is not, and he leaves bis birthplace with "pure
as some have thought, a fancy picture, regret." Ho had far mare beautiful
but an exact description. homes afterward, but rover one that
To digress for a moment we remain- he lovedao well
perfect accuracy as to every detail in
nature is shown in this :early ,poem.
If we follow the Somersby brook as he
Those Who Sing as They
Pass.
The coming and going of birds. in
spring and again in autunnn is one of
the wonders of nature, They Have
their times and seasons. You can al -
meet tell the day and the month by
their arrivals and depaatures. A calen-
dar drawn up a hundred years ago is
no bawl guide even to -day. How they
find their way through the uncharted
air spaces is beyond our comprehen-
sion. They will travel thousands of
miles and yet find their way back to
the same district and even to the samc
nesting pace.; Some break their jour-
ney, and we may find them in our
neighborhood,
Burroughs In one place calls atten-
tion to an interesting difference in
these birds that thus break their jour-
ney. "Some of then," he says, pass-
im north in spring are provokingly
silent, Every April I see the hermit
thrush hopping about, the woods and
in case of a sudden snowstorm seeking
shelter about the outbuildings, but T
never hear even a"fragment of his wild
silvery strain. The white crowned
sparrow passes in silence. I see the
bird for a few days about the same
date each year but he will not reveal
to 'me his song."
By way of contrast the white-
throated sparrow is decidedly musical
in passing, both spring and fall. He
sings on his way up and on his way
down. Nearly all the warblers sing in
passing and are to be heard in orchard
and grove and wood, as they pause to
feed on their northward journey.
It is an interesting difference, not
confined to birds. There are people
who, like the hermit thrush, pass in
silence. They have no songs for the
roast Others, like the warblers, scat-
ter songs as they go. And theirs sure-
ly is the more excellent way. •
One of Browning's loveliest poems
is of one who thus sang as she passed.
She was only a poor Italian girl weav-
er, who had just one day's holiday in
the year. She sprang out of bed re-
solved to make the most of its sunny
hours. So happy was she in the day'§
gift that she went down the road sing-
ing. That song of hers, all unknown
to the singer, fell on certain ears with
holy rebuke and inspirartion. It came
into the lives of the hearers like a new
dawn,
"Pippa Passes" is a beautiful poem
and Browning thought it worth while
to use his great genius to glorify that
song of the 11tt1,e ragged girl singing
out her trustful joy as she passed.
It is a worthy ambition to be count-
ed in this glorious company of those
who sing es they pass.
The firet cheat of paYer is.atatej to
have been made from :the bark of a
mulberry tree in A.D. 76.
DMD 9
7HE LOOK HE.
ems ME JUST
NOW WAS snQuaH
TO BORE A HOLE
) B` lCK WALt-.
UN
oats_ ,,,_r„.„ -f
•
Two Horses.
The breeze blows gaily over the field
and hill;
Blue shadows of :high clouds flit fast
across
The laughing, sunlit country. ,
Acres of grass bow all at once, and
change
Their depth and hue, Pike water swept
by wind.
Over the rustling hedge two heads ap-
pear—
Wild, noble heads of horses; sharp
ears pricked,
Black tangled manes free flying in the
gale,
And dark brown eyes lit with a spark
of youth—
A pair of unsbod Clydesdales, fluffy
still
About the tail, gigantic baby beasts!
Speak to them --see, their quivering
nostrils stretch,
Their quick ears point, their eyes, half-
atartled, flash;
Now lift a sudden arm, and they are
off—
With one great 'plunge and fling, tails,
manes astieane;
Around the field they race, while dy-
ing clods
Leap from their hoofs, that, thunder-
ing, shake the earth!
—W, Kersley Holmes.
Just the Thing.
plonk—"Whatcira' doin' now?"
Giraffe -"Got a job as a radio
tower!"
Four to the Good.
"Thanks for that crate of chickens
you sent," wrote Farmer Brown.
"They arrived safely, but on the way
Lome, the trapdoor came open, and
they all got out, I chased them aseuud
the neighborhood and captured only
ten of therm, but thanks just the
same."
"I' sent just six," wrote back Farmer
Jones,
Jimmie Figures It Was Worth it.
NO tAt
pop'. Y'oteeelrA
GUS -t 4BK
HE &AVE Vi
WHEN i WE T BACK
n? BIE TAKE
Ate PICKED UP'n g.
owner YOU FORGOT
AN LEFT @,Oflti
THERE1
- -.f.•,1'--%noJ
(Cepyriphi 1026, by The Sell vedieete Incl - 151'icN4,O
WELL -REMEMBERED
FIELDS
There is a certain well -remembered
field in France. .A wide etreamr flowed
through it, and on the hanks, were lit-
tle cherry trees in full white bloom
and, pruned in the prim Franca way,
stood a row of tall poplars. ' The grass
was powdered with a thousand delicate
flowers, above towered the rounded
head of a mountain, for this field lay
M Auvergne, Name of magic! yet of
all its treasures the most precious ho
inem:ory is that field,' lying so freehly.
fair in the sunshine,. with the air of
pleasant pictorial.artffleiality so often
to be found in a French landscape.
Another field in France was seen at
dusk. The grass was summer grown,
coarse and long. The trees hung from
the hedges in heavy black foliage, A
great panorama of rolling country lay
below, and -the field seemed but a lone
le spot soon to he blotted out by the
night, with no sound of bird or insect.
Suddenly 11 was discovered that the
grass was thick with the purple of
wild columbine, resting at the feet;
like a flock of clerk plumaged doves.
Impossible to forget such largesse
found in a field at twilightt
Fields of the. East,
Once, long ago, fields were seen
from the door of a tent pitched in. an
eastern' land; mango trees, with their
cloying scent of cream -colored blos-
soms, giviug shade to the little en-
campment. Beyond the grove the Holds
stretched to a far horizon with hedges
of prickly pear and aloe., Prominent
in the general bareness rose the brick
wells wbere all daylong bullocks drew
up the creeking buc1et of water. In
the cool of the evening the English
strangers in that Iand walked forth,
and again the heritage of the fields
was theirs in the quietude, the joy of
the open sky, and the fanning breeze.
Not yet was a blade visible, but the
hope of it was there; expectancy was
abroad in those wide acres under the
eastern moon. Soon the peasant would
claim the reward of his toil, and the
strange broad-leaved harvest w•ou5d
coThever thefleids lanof d.
Switzerland are always
prepared for pageantry. Pastures
whits with narcissus that slope above
a lake of dazzling' blue ringed with
snow mountains. In the rarefied air ct
the high Alps one steps, as it were, in-
to a brilliant picture painted with a
brush dripping with lambent color.
The ground is scarcely seen for flow-
ers, the air is musical with cowbells,
the sky is a cloudless blue, In Swit-
zerland the fields are a fit setting for
quaint tales of childhood; for the
Gretchen with braided hair, who drives
a cow with a golden bell, and for the
youngest son who starts on his adven-
tures with an empty wallet and a kind-
ly heart. There under the cherry trees
lies the chalet, with its roof of rich
reds and browns; the forest glows with
blossom and berry; glacial streams
brawl under their low bridges, making
music all night, and surely at sunset
a towered city glows from the pinnacle
on the mountain's brow!
The Glory of England.
In England the fields lie beneath
more tranquil skies, and are • often.
shadowed by a passing cloud. But who
that -is English can ever forget the.
English fields! Springtime with a
golden sea of cowslips, and ,not far
away the old ruins of Farleigh Castle
stooping under a great bump of ivy
in the sunshine that has poured over
it for hundreds of years. Its legends
are almost forgotten, its armor rusts
in the ancient keep, but every spring
hrings the same wide -spreading beauty
of scented flowers. One stands in the
deep hush of noonday and feels the
very heart of England beating in the •
miles, of sun -drenched fields, in their
fragrance, in the bird -song, in the soli-
tude. An insect whirrs, quivering, in-
to the smalit air. Everywhere larks
are singing. Beyond a hedge thin
smoke rises from a rattle cottage. At
your feet 'the colored counties" Ile.
There are people who find it griev-
ous to pass the sanne milestone every
day. To others each corner hides
some glad surprise. For these the
gate to a field opens to new adven-
tures,
More Milk, Less Meat
to Add Eight Years to Life
•
By drinking more milk and eating
less meat, Mall could add eight years
to the "part of his life worth most to
himself and to the world," I -I. C. Sher -
mean, professor of cheinistl•y at Colum-
bia University, told the Institute of
Politics, Williamstown, Mass,
The adequate diet determined by re-
cent research work in nutrition, he
said, prescribes more milk and less
meat to increase individual efficiency
and vitality. The public health move-
ment promisee to augment the life
plan by eight years, and this increase
could be doubled, Prof. Sherman
thinks, by auniversal shift in diet.
To Make a Prairie.
To make a prairie It takes a clover"
and one 'bee,
One clover, and a bee,
And revery,
The revery alone will do
If bees are few.
Emily Dickinson.
The name of the street' ivllere the
Bank of England stands was original~
ly Three -needle Street. The property
was owned by the Needlemakers' C,p,
whose arras were three needles,