A Fable for Parents.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8046, 12 February 1906, Page 4

A Fable for Parents.

Thomas Bookman, V\i. D., was one ol those exceedingly clever men short and stout, spectacled and bewhiskeved—who find it dilliuulb to make both ends meet. As a piivato tutor he forced the old Greeks and Kuimins down'the small throats of the young who were mucin more eager fov dinner limit for the cla-sics.

Everything about Mr. Bookman was dingy and melancholy. The world in which ho lived was surrounded by creditors, who merely knew him as a debtor to be continually carried forward in their books. His ebildlen looked upon Him us a man of mystery, wofnlly deficient in small change ; while his wife realised that he possessed real ability and Jio income to speak of.

The only oasis in the Sahara o( the Bookman family was iaicretia, the eldest of the six daughters. She was an eminently practical giil. One day she said to her father.: " I have long been thinking of onr position, ami it seems to me that unless something is done at once we shall starve. There are six of us girls, and no one earning a cent. I have had an olfer of marriage from Fred Harris, our baker."

" What?" gasped Mr. Bookman, horror struck.

" Yes, lather; our baker." He is not a literary man, but he has a good business. If I marry him, you will loose both a daughter and a creditor. I think the other girls would do well to marry grocers, or butchers, or even mechauics-if not out on strike, of course." " This is terrible ' exclaimed the Ph.!), ' What madness 3 seized you, my daughter? "

"Xo madness, father; I am talking plain sense. I.isten to me for a minute. You know that we have never been over-fed, though perhaps over-educated. I will nevei marry a man connected with either education or literature. I have decided to marry Mr. Harris, and, if 1 want to read Plftto afterwards, I shall be able to do so near a good warm stove." " But, Lucielia, Socrates says —" '■ Bother Socrates, father, and all his tribe! " rejoined the young woman. "He would be arrested as a vagrant in these days. Fancy the poor old man stopping people on the streets, and asking their opinion on the tariff, bimetalistv,, or the Filipinos. Mother says she is williing to have me marry the baker, for it means unlimited bread and cake for the Bookman family."

For a minute or two Mr. Bookman was silent. He was thinking deeply, and along a line ol thought that was new to" him. - " I am becoming interested in what you say, my dear," he finally remarked. " But bread and cake are not the only necessaries Only this morning your mother told. me we are in need of coal again." " Well, father, before next 'winter comes, Jramicmay marry young llart;'the coal merchant of South-street; lie has called 011 her three times this week."

Father and daughter continued the conversation for more than an hour that dull March afternoon. Mr. Bookman began to see things in a different light, and gave his consent to Lucretia's marriage. That bright young woman urged her sisters to keep a sharp look out for business men, and before the montji of April was over she led the way by marrying Fred Harris. In June, Jennie married the coal merchant; and Lucinda, the second girl, became the wife of George Rose a neighboring butcher. Things looked brighter for the Bookman family. When the next winter set in, the private tutor's household included only himself and his wife, with three unmarried daughters, one of whom, Margaret, married a wholesale grocer at Christmas. In discussing withhiswifc the great change in the family's affairs, the head of the house thus expressed himself: " You see, my dear, how much wc are indebted to Lucretia's practical mind. If my 1 father had insisted on me becoming a black--1 smith, or a shoemaker, he would have been wiser; and I, no doubt, would now be better off. Think of the years I have spent in trying to lead the youth of this town round the uioss-covcred Parthenon, getting only small fees in return. But wc aro now connected with trade, and although lam no politician, I appreciate a free breakfast table. "The ancients,"he continued, warming to his subject, " seem to have satisfied their hunger with dialogues, but such airy nutriment as that i« not suited cither to this part of the globe or to the present age. We cannot live as Diogenes did, billing in a tub, and it would be useless to carry a lantern in search of an honest man. There would be no money in that. Of course the old philosophers lived in warm climates, where clothes were superfluous and the jail system very in* complete. They might talk by the hour, and meanwhile help themselves to their neighbors' fruit without comment. That sort of thing cannot be done now. The most wondrous flow of Hellenic eloquence that ever burst from the lips of Demosthenes would not secure a ton of coal from any dealer in this city. Our girls were wise to ally themselves with commerce, and I hope when the proper time conies, the other two will follow their sisters' good example," " Ye?, indeed," replied his wife. "Only yesterday I bought some combs from a Harvard graduate. He spoke so nicely, but seemed thoroughly disheartened. He said he is not tall enough to join the police, over nge for the army, and far too bilious to enter the navy. I think be said he took four scholarships, but he declared that if he failed to sell the dozen combs he had with bin*, before night, he would commit suicide." " Very sad, my dear," remarked Mr. Bookman. " Just listen to this little verse I wrote this afternoon : " Education is no good To take the place of daily food. Half a loaf and a level head Are better than learning without any bread 1 1 ' "Beautiful," said Mrs, Bookman, 41 and so true! " G. E. Streeter, in " Munsey."