Old Grumble on Honour

Feilding Star, Volume VI, Issue 149, 2 June 1885, Page 3

Old Grumble on Honour

Of all the cardinal virtues, Honour is the easiest of acquisition. Unlike its more ardent and brilliant offspring heroism, Honour makes no demand on our abilities, puts no excessive strain upon our courage, and does not require such an utter disregard of danger from us before we can possess the virtue, No ! Honour is so cheap a quality that poor must be the soul who does not own some little tinge of it ; so poor that Grumble cannot conceive such poverty of principle to exist, but should such an abject wretch be crawling amongst society, how he must envy those who are so impregnated with it that all their actions are as transparent and as durable as the icicle, and shining as they do with as beautiful a lustre as the big bottles of brilliant waters in a chemist's window by gaslight. The abundance of this virtue is beyond conception. Grumble has read of there being fields of. it, but he gives this statement for what it is worth ; he has never been on, nor «yen seen one himself. Still to prove how common is this virtue, raise but the voice, touch but the pen in some public cause (provided always that the theme is a popular one), and Honours are so poured upon one that the weight of them becomes a burden j (so some would make believe). But Oh, Honour! I love thee as I feel myself bourne along by thy irresistible influence, and drifting gently towards that coveted spot where all thy points converge — the stqre house of pure and untainted Honour — the House of Representatives ! Grumble was aroused from this reverie by a sound falling upon his ear, shrill as the bugle's call, and saw a mottled-faced white-headed rooster of pure old Spanish blood — the pride of the poultry yard, the " rara avis " which was, in the opinion of Mrs Grumble, to take the champion prize at the forthcoming Poultry Show — stray into the garden and crow defiantly. It never crowed again; a clod of dirt struck it instantly and stretched it lifeless where it crowed. The rash deed done, its consequences affrighted Grumble. "Be sure your ein will find you out " came like a detonator upon his senses, but almost as suddenly the words "your sin" were changed to "Mrs Grumble," and it atood clear as the writing on the wall, " Be sure Mrs Grumble will find you out," as he observed her pick up the prostrate pet and hoard her plaintive cry of " Grumble, what has killed this "bird.?" " Sunstroke, my dear ! I saw it spin round three times and then fall down a corpse," was Grumble's untruthful answer. Then, ashamed of the volatile nature of his Honour, he withdrew ; and taking up that best of bo'iks, he read penitently the instructive story of Jacob, and as he read, the honourable conduct of that Patriarch solaced him, the beautiful illustration of brotherly love, and filial affection, and veneration, affected Grumble, and he read with interest how cleverly Jacob euchred Esau and came the double on his old father, passing off upon him a bit of goat as a dish of venison; and to make the deception perfect he put on a pair of kid gloves — not French kid, but kid with the hair on. Grumble thought some evil ought to have befallen him for cheating old Die, for it was as unpardonable an act as trying: to palm off a Cape sheep for New Zealand mutton. But no! Jacob came off all right, and bocame a great station holder. This happy result comforted Grumble, and all fear of detection fled when he saw Mrs G. undressing her pet by pulling its feathers off. Thus, with his conscience put straight by Jacob's example, he partook of the mess of pottage that rooster made, and ate of it with greater relish than did eren his wife, for he knew how that bird had died, while Mrs Grumble had her doubts upon the subject. This convinces Grumble that you should do unto others as you know they would do unto you — if they had the chance. Old Grumble.