was awful hard work.")
PERSONALS
Patrick Grayfur, Esq., caused his friends great
anxiety recently
by a prolonged
absence from home. When found he was very thin but
is now as fat and
conceited as ever.
On Wednesday, June 20th, Miss Olivia King was united in the bonds
of holy matrimony to Dr. Robert Seton of Halifax. Miss Sara
Stanley was bridesmaid, and Mr. Andrew Seton attended the groom.
The young couple received many handsome presents. Rev. Mr.
Marwood tied the
nuptial knot. After the
ceremony a substantial
repast was served in Mrs. Alex King's
well-known style and the
happy couple left for their new home in Nova Scotia. Their many
friends join in wishing them a very happy and
prosperous journey
through life.
A precious one from us is gone,
A voice we loved is stilled.
A place is
vacant in our home
That never can be filled.
(THE STORY GIRL: "Goodness, that sounds as if somebody had died.
I've seen that verse on a tombstone. WHO wrote that notice?"
FELICITY, WHO WROTE IT: "I think it is just as
appropriate to a
wedding as to a funeral!")
Our school concert came off on the evening of June 29th and was a
great success. We made ten dollars for the library.
We regret to
chronicle that Miss Sara Ray met with a misfortune
while
taking some
violent exercise with a wasps' nest recently.
The moral is that it is better not to
monkey with a wasps' nest,
new or old.
Mrs. C. B. Hawkins of Baywater is keeping house for Uncle Roger.
She is a very large woman. Uncle Roger says he has to spend too
much time walking round her, but
otherwise she is an excellent
housekeeper.
It is reported that the school is
haunted. A
mysterious light was
seen there at two o'clock one night recently.
(THE STORY GIRL AND I EXCHANGE KNOWING SMILES BEHIND THE OTHERS'
BACKS.)
Dan and Felicity had a fight last Tuesday--not with fists but with
tongues. Dan came off best--as usual. (FELICITY LAUGHS
SARCASTICALLY.)
Mr. Newton Craig of Markdale returned home recently after a
somewhat prolonged visit in foreign parts. We are glad to welcome
Mr. Craig back to our midst.
Billy Robinson was hurt last week. A cow kicked him. I suppose
it is
wicked of us to feel glad but we all do feel glad because of
the way he cheated us with the magic seed last summer.
On April 1st Uncle Roger sent Mr. Peter Craig to the manse to
borrow the
biography of Adam's
grandfather. Mr. Marwood told
Peter he didn't think Adam had any
grandfather and advised him to
go home and look at the
almanac. (PETER, SOURLY: "Your Uncle
Roger thought he was pretty smart." FELICITY, SEVERELY: "Uncle
Roger IS smart. It was so easy to fool you.")
A pair of blue birds have built a nest in a hole in the sides of
the well, just under the ferns. We can see the eggs when we look
down. They are so cunning.
Felix sat down on a tack one day in May. Felix thinks house-
cleaning is great foolishness.
ADS.
LOST--STOLEN--OR STRAYED--A HEART. Finder will be rewarded by
returning same to Cyrus E. Brisk, Desk 7, Carlisle School.
LOST OR STOLEN. A piece of brown hair about three inches long and
one inch thick. Finder will kindly return to Miss Cecily King,
Desk 15, Carlisle School.
(CECILY: "Cyrus keeps my hair in his Bible for a bookmark, so
Flossie tells me. He says he means to keep it always for a
remembrance though he has given up hope." DAN: "I'll steal it out
of his Bible in Sunday School." CECILY, BLUSHING: "Oh, let him
keep it if it is any comfort to him. Besides, it isn't right to
steal." DAN: "He stole it." CECILY: "But Mr. Marwood says two
wrongs never make a right.")
HOUSEHOLD DEPARTMENT
Aunt Olivia's
wedding cake was said to be the best one of its kind
ever tasted in Carlisle. Me and mother made it.
ANXIOUS INQUIRER:--It is not
advisable to curl your hair with
mucilage if you can get anything else. Quince juice is better.
(CECILY, BITTERLY: "I suppose I'll never hear the last of that
mucilage." DAN: "Ask her who used tooth-powder to raise
biscuits?")
We had rhubarb pies for the first time this spring last week.
They were fine but hard on the cream.
FELICITY KING.
ETIQUETTE DEPARTMENT
PATIENT SUFFERER:--What will I do when a young man steals a lock
of my hair? Ans.:--Grow some more.
No, F-l-x, a little
caterpillar is not called a kittenpillar.
(FELIX, ENRAGED: "I never asked that! Dan just makes that
etiquette
column up from
beginning to end!" FELICITY: "I don't
see what that kind of a question has to do with etiquette
anyhow.")
Yes, P-t-r, it is quite proper to treat a lady friend to ice cream
twice if you can afford it.
No, F-l-c-t-y, it is not ladylike to chew
tobacco. Better stick
to
spruce gum.
DAN KING.
FASHION NOTES
Frilled
muslin aprons will be much worn this summer. It is no
longer
fashionable to trim them with knitted lace. One pocket is
considered smart.
Clam-shells are
fashionable keepsakes. You write your name and
the date inside one and your friend writes hers in the other and
you exchange.
CECILY KING.
FUNNY PARAGRAPHS
MR. PERKINS:--"Peter, name the large islands of the world."
PETER:--"The Island, the British Isles and Australia." (PETER,
DEFIANTLY: "Well, Mr. Perkins said he guessed I was right, so you
needn't laugh.")
This is a true joke and really happened. It's about Mr. Samuel
Clask again. He was once leading a prayer meeting and he looked
through the window and saw the
constable driving up and guessed he
was after him because he was always in debt. So in a great hurry
he called on Brother Casey to lead in prayer and while Brother
Casey was praying with his eyes shut and everybody else had their
heads bowed Mr. Clask got out of the window and got away before
the
constable got in because he didn't like to come in till the
prayer was finished.
Uncle Roger says it was a smart trick on Mr. Clask's part, but I
don't think there was much religion about it.
FELIX KING.
CHAPTER XXI
PEG BOWEN COMES TO CHURCH
When those of us who are still left of that band of children who
played long years ago in the old
orchard and walked the golden
road together in
joyouscompanionship, foregather now and again in
our busy lives and talk over the events of those many merry moons--
there are some of our adventures that gleam out more
vividly in
memory than the others, and are oftener discussed. The time we
bought God's picture from Jerry Cowan--the time Dan ate the poison
berries--the time we heard the
ghostly bell ring--the bewitchment
of Paddy--the visit of the Governor's wife--and the night we were
lost in the storm--all
awaken reminiscent jest and
laughter; but
none more than the
recollection of the Sunday Peg Bowen came to
church and sat in our pew. Though
goodness knows, as Felicity
would say, we did not think it any matter for
laughter at the
time--far from it.
It was one Sunday evening in July. Uncle Alec and Aunt Janet,
having been out to the morning service, did not attend in the
evening, and we small fry walked together down the long hill road,
wearing Sunday
attire and
trying, more or less
successfully, to
wear Sunday faces also. Those walks to church, through the golden
completeness of the summer evenings, were always very pleasant to
us, and we never
hurried, though, on the other hand, we were very
careful not to be late.
This particular evening was particularly beautiful. It was cool
after a hot day, and wheat fields all about us were ripening to
their harvestry. The wind gossiped with the grasses along our
way, and over them the buttercups danced, goldenly-glad. Waves of
sinuous shadow went over the ripe hayfields, and plundering bees
sang a freebooting lilt in
wayside gardens.
"The world is so lovely tonight," said the Story Girl. "I just
hate the thought of going into the church and shutting all the
sunlight and music outside. I wish we could have the service
outside in summer."
"I don't think that would be very religious," said Felicity.
"I'd feel ever so much more religious outside than in," retorted
the Story Girl.
"If the service was outside we'd have to sit in the graveyard and
that wouldn't be very cheerful," said Felix.
"Besides, the music isn't shut out," added Felicity. "The choir
is inside."
"'Music has charms to
soothe a
savage breast,'" quoted Peter, who
was getting into the habit of adorning his conversation with
similar gems. "That's in one of Shakespeare's plays. I'm reading
them now, since I got through with the Bible. They're great."
"I don't see when you get time to read them," said Felicity.
"Oh, I read them Sunday afternoons when I'm home."
"I don't believe they're fit to read on Sundays," exclaimed
Felicity. "Mother says Valeria Montague's stories ain't."
"But Shakespeare's different from Valeria," protested Peter.
"I don't see in what way. He wrote a lot of things that weren't
true, just like Valeria, and he wrote swear words too. Valeria
never does that. Her characters all talk in a very refined
fashion."
"Well, I always skip the swear words," said Peter. "And Mr.
Marwood said once that the Bible and Shakespeare would furnish any
library well. So you see he put them together, but I'm sure that
he would never say that the Bible and Valeria would make a
library."
"Well, all I know is, I shall never read Shakespeare on Sunday,"
said Felicity loftily.
"I wonder what kind of a
preacher young Mr. Davidson is,"
speculated Cecily.
"Well, we'll know when we hear him tonight," said the Story Girl.
"He ought to be good, for his uncle before him was a fine
preacher, though a very absent-minded man. But Uncle Roger says
the supply in Mr. Marwood's
vacation never amounts to much. I
know an
awfully funny story about old Mr. Davidson. He used to be
the
minister in Baywater, you know, and he had a large family and
his children were very
mischievous. One day his wife was ironing
and she ironed a great big nightcap with a frill round it. One of
the children took it when she wasn't looking and hid it in his
father's best
beaver hat--the one he wore on Sundays. When Mr.
Davidson went to church next Sunday he put the hat on without ever
looking into the crown. He walked to church in a brown study and
at the door he took off his hat. The nightcap just slipped down
on his head, as if it had been put on, and the frill stood out
around his face and the string hung down his back. But he never
noticed it, because his thoughts were far away, and he walked up
the church aisle and into the
pulpit, like that. One of his
elders had to
tiptoe up and tell him what he had on his head. He
plucked it off in a dazed fashion, held it up, and looked at it.
'Bless me, it is Sally's nightcap!' he exclaimed
mildly. 'I do