The Family Circle

New Zealand Tablet, 6 April 1911, Page 645

The Family Circle

THE ATTIC Up in the attic where mother goes Is a trunk in a shadowed nook A trunk —and its lid she will oft unclose, As if it were a precious book. She kneels at its side on the attic boards And tenderly, soft and slow, She counts all the treasures she fondly hoards — The things of the long ago. A yellowing dress, once the sheerest white That shimmered in joyous pride She looks at it now with the girl's delight That was hers when she stood a bride. There is a ribbon of faded blue She keeps with the satin gown; Buckles and laceand a little shoe ; Sadly she lays it down. Up in the attic where mother goes Is a trunk in a shadowed place A trunk with the scent of a withered rose On the satin and shoe and lace. None of us touches its battered lid, But safe in its niche it stays Sacred to all that her heart has hid — Gold of the other days. THE HAPPY TODD CHILDREN ( Mamma, I just wish you would let us be as happy as the Todd children,' said Fanny Train very suddenly one day as her mother reached a snarl in her hair. 'Who are the Todd children, dear?' ' They live in the house across the way, mamma. You know they moved in last week.' 'Oh, our new neighbours! How do you know tho children, Fanny? I have seen them a few times, but never outside their gate,' said Mrs. Train. ' I have never talked to the children, but they seem so happy,' exclaimed Fanny. 'They wear their old clothes all day and play at anything they like and don't have to bother about being cleaned up at all. I wish we could do like that.' So do I,' said Bennie, who was struggling with his stockings. They do have the best time with their dog and everything. They make mud pies and their mamma never comes out to say a word to them,' he added. ' They don't have to worry about their clothes at all.' 'So you think that makes them happy?' asked their mamma. ' Maybe if you knew them well 'you would find they were not content all the time any more than other boys and girls are.' But the children were syre they were right. Day after day they watched the two little boys and the little girl in their old. clothes playing with their dog, and every day they felt sure they were the happiest children in town. One day-Bennie called to the little boy across the way, and he fan down to the iron gate to answer. ' You have awful good times, don't you said Bennie wistfully. Bennie had a nice yard to play in and a dog to play with, too, but the children across the way had so much better times, he thought. ' Indeed we do,' said the little boy, ' and to-day we are the happiest children in the whole 'world.' Just'then somebody called him to come to the house, and he could not tell why that day found them so much happier than usual. But that afternoon a wonderful thing happened. A gentleman came up to the iron gate, which was open by this time, wheeling an invalid's chair with a very pale lady in it, and three little children met them with 'shouts of joy. 'Our mamma is home from the hospital, so that's why we are so happy,' said the little boy. ' She isn's well, but she soon will be.' ' Then it wasn't because you could wear your old clothes every day and play in the dirt that you had such good times?' said Fanny, in surprise. r* 'Of course not. Mamma said if we kept well and happy it would help her get well, and we did. We had to wear our old clothes, because Mary wouldn't clean us up and let us wear our good ones. We're going to have better times.' And after that Fanny hadn't so much to say about snarls in her hair, and Bennie didn't look across the way so much and pity himself, for the children across the way were clean and well cared for after their mamma got home, and all together they had many joyous times that summer.'

TO MAKE LIFE HAPPY Here is something we all should bear ir mind. ' The way to make friends is to be friendly; the way to promote

fraternity is to be brotherly ; the way to secure harmony is to yield pleasantly to the will of the majority: the way to secure forgiveness is to be forgiving; the way to be happy is to make others happy; the way to regard an enemv is to return good for evil; the way to secure the respect or your brethren is to show deference to the opinion of your brothers and, instead of kicking at everything that is done, put your shoulder to the wheel and help roll it along; the way to make yourself a useful member of the world is to be useful, not fly off at a tangent in the showy procession in the sickroom and every place where anyone is in distress; the way to make your life bright is to carry sunshine with you; the way to be a true friend is to do unto others as you would have them do unto you.' WHAT BOYS SHOULD KNOW A philosopher (remarks the Catholic Sentin/d) has said that true education of boys is to 'teach them what they ought to know when they become men.' „,„ i VirSt "Ti r be * rue J and to b - e genuine. No education is worth anything that does not include this. A man would better not know how to read and be true and genuine in action rather than be learned in all sciences and in all languages and be at the same time false in heart and counterfeit in life. Second— To be pure in thought, language and lifepure in mind and body. ™ f Th i rdT be l i nselfisn ; to care for the feelings and comforts of others; to be generous, noble, and manly? This will include a genuine reverence for the aged and for things sacred. to „i •iJi OUr r T be ? elf ? eliant and self helpful even from childhood; to be industrious always and self-supporting at the earliest possible age Teach them that all honest work is honorable; that an idle life of dependence on others is disgraceful. 0 '■ tl lo J en a boy has learned these things, when he has made these ideas part of him, however .poor or however rich he has learned the most important things he .ought to know. FOLLOWED INSTRUCTIONS News agency companies play an important part in the production of the daily press. The manager of a new company .applied to the editor of a leading newspaper and solicited his patronage. The editor replied that he had special correspondents, in many parts of the world and also employed the services of two other news agencies J.he manager was persistent, and the editor yielded to his persuasions, but added: ' You must, take care that your news is always authentic and you need not trouble to send us trivial "cony " and leave out all "sea serpents" and such things ' Ihe manager, of course, agreed. Presently he sent to the newspaper the tragic announcement: 'The Bishop of Java found dead on the seashore ' 1 his statement duly appeared. , The friends of the Bishop were much startled and grieved, telegraphed expressions of sympathy to his relatives and inquired further details of his death. Replies speedily came that the Bishop was alive and well The editor received abusive letters, and, much annoyed sent for the manager of the agency, demanding an explanation of this false intelligence. *»<*««* The manager replied : T , '&?*> 1 d ° n,t ?? e , you have . anything to complain of. The full message which we received was, "The Bishop of Java found dead a sea serpent on the seashore'; but you told lis always to leave out sea serpents, and so we did We only carried out your instructions.' LETTER-WRITING +;™J firs + step in learning to.write letters is to devote time, thought, and attention to what may be called the technical and elementary rules in correspondence-legible handwriting, grammatical language, correct spelling and punctuat.on-and to see that one's letter is dated, signed, and addressed with care. ' Bl k utiU ' Letters that are neat in appearance and easy to read whilftw m ? C l the writ and - are P leas to recefve, while those that are untidy, with slovenly handwriting K e abad im P ression as to the characteristics of the S D • man " e / s in . correspondence mean not only polite expressions, but an intention not to give trouble in the perusal of one's letters. n It • P i a 1 i ? 1 J note -P a Per, rather thick and unruled, is correct It is folded once and enclosed in an envelope to fit Black ink is used. It is inexcusabale to write in pencil. Write th& across the page, and allow plenty of space between the lines There should be no crowding of words- liberality in the use of paper is a rigid rule. The address is written at the top of the page, towards the right The date is beneath it in numerals. A dictionary should be at hand if one is not sure of spelling. There must be a careful regard for commas periods, and capitals. fo commas, A letter to an acquaintance may begin, <Mv dear Mrs Brown,' or < Dear Mrs. Brown.' A business letter S - stranger should begin, 'Mrs. James White! Sear Madam £

Signatures are written in full. A prefix is never used. A married woman signs her name ' Mary Robinson,' not ' Mrs. William Robinson.' When writing to a stranger a woman should place beneath her signature, toward the left ' (Mrs.) William Robinson '; or ' (Miss) Ruth Gray,' as tho case may be, in order to indicate by what title she is to be addressed. The termination for a business letter should be ' Yours truly.' Between friends or acquaintances the close may be Yours sincerely,' or ' Sincerely yours.' Precision in placing a stamp is important. It should be placed perfectly straight in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope. Stamps put on crookedly, or upside down, show unpardonable carelessness on the part of a letterwriter. When writing to a stranger on one's own business that calls for a reply it is etiquette to enclose a stamp. Addresses are written in full on envelopes, and care is given to the proper spelling of names. _ Type-written letters are strictly for business communications. Postal cards should be used only for most matter-of-fact correspondence. TWO BOYS' COMPOSITIONS School compositions occasionally turn cut better, from a literary point of view ,than teachers anticipate. A South Island teacher asked her pupils to bring in ' three items of information ' about the river which flowed by their town ; and from one boy she received this model of concise composition : ' I have lived near it. , ' I have seated over it. ' I have fallen into it." Another teacher set her pupils at work on the subject: ' What should little boys not do in school ' and from one of them received the following effort: ' Little boys at school should not make faces at the teacher and should not study"'too hard cause it makes them near-sighted, and should not do long examples in arithmetic cause it uses up their pencils too fast.' THREE EUROPEAN CITIES The city of Ghent, in Belgium, is built on twenty-six islands. These islands are connected with each other by eighty bridges. The city has 300 streets and thirty public squares. It is noted for being the birthplace of Charles V. and John of Gaunt, whom Shakespeare called ' time honored Lancaster,' and as the scene of the pacification of Ghent, November 8, 1576, and of several insurrections, sieges, and executions of well-known personages. It is associated with American history by the treaty made there December 24, 1814, terminating the second war between England and the United States, known as the war of 1812. Amsterdam, in Holland, is built on piles driven far below the water into the earth. The city is intersected by many canals, which are spanned by nearly 300 bridges, and resembles Venice in the mingling of land and water, though it.is considerably larger than that city. The canals divide the city, which is about ten miles in circumference, into ninety islands. The city of Venice is built on eighthy islets, which are connected by nearly 400 bridges. Canals serve for streets in Venice, and boats, called gondolas, for carriages. The bridges are, as a rule, very steep, rising considerably in the middle, but have easy steps. The circumference of tho city is about eight miles. .The Venetians joined the Lombard league against the German Emperor, and in 1188 gained a great victory in defence of Pope Alexander 111. over the fleet of war vessels headed bv Otto, son of Frederick Barbarossa. In gratitude for this victory the Pope gave the Doge Ziani a ring and instituted the world-famous ceremony of Venice Marrying the Adriatic Sea.' In this ceremony the doge, as the chief ruler of Venice used to be termed, with appropriate ceremonies dropped a ring into the sea every year in recognition of the wealth and trade carried to Venice by the Adriatic. FAMILY FUN The Suspended Ecfi. Fasten four pieces of white cord to the four corners of a strip of white nettingsay, about eight inches long by five across, —mosquito netting will do. This done, soak the whole in a very strong brine, and let it dry thoroughly before beginning your experiment. It will also be necessary to have an egg from which the contents have been drawn, so that only the empty shell remains. When ready, placo a light cane or wooden stick on the backs of two chairs and tie tho four upper ends to the cane, so that the net will look somewhat like a hammock. Take the egg-shell and put it in the net. Now ask someone to strike a match, and apply it to the cords that hold the hammock. These will flame up, but the net will remain stationary, still holding the egg-shell. The salt preserves sufficient of the fibre to keep it so. The Shot Rabbit. This is a trick which can best be played on a billiard table. Take a glove, blow into it, and put it lightly on the table with the palm of the glove downwards and the fingers slightly bent. Then going to the end of the table shoot a ball sharply into the glove, which will turn a complete somersault, not unlike the flop of a rabbit when shot,