Our Boys.
by Various.
THE CAT-TAIL ARROW
BY CLARA DOTY BATES
Little Sammie made a bow, Well indeed he loved to whittle, Shaped it like the half of O-- How he could I scarcely know, For his fingers were so little.
As he whittled came a sigh: "If I only had an arrow; Something light enough to fly To the tree-tops or the sky!
Then I"d have such fun tomorrow."
Then he thought of all the slim Things that grow--the hazel bushes, Willow branches, poplars trim-- And yet nothing suited him Till he chanced to think of rushes.
He knew well a quiet pool Where he always paused a minute On his way to district school, Just to see the waters cool And his own bright face within it.
There the cat-tails thickly grew, With their heads so brown and furry; They were straight and slender too, Plenty strong enough he knew, And he sought them in a hurry.
Such an arrow as he wrought-- Almost pa.s.sed a boy"s believing.
When he drew the bow-string taut, Out of sight and quick as thought Up it went, the blue air cleaving.
Who was Sammie, would you know?
It was grandpa--he was little Nearly eighty years ago; But "tis no doubt as fine a bow As the best he still could whittle.
[Ill.u.s.tration: A YOUNG SALT]
HE COULDN"T SAY NO.
[[I]]t was sad and it was strange!
He just was full of knowledge, His studies swept the whole broad range Of High School and of College; He read in Greek and Latin too, Loud Sanscrit he could utter, But one small thing he couldn"t do That comes as pat to me and you As eating bread and b.u.t.ter: He couldn"t say "No!" He couldn"t say "No!"
I"m sorry to say it was really so!
He"d diddle, and dawdle, and stutter, but oh!
When it came to the point he could never say "No!"
Geometry he knew by rote, Like any Harvard Proctor; He"d sing a fugue out, note by note; Knew Physics like a Doctor; He spoke in German and in French; Knew each Botanic table; But one small word that you"ll agree Comes pat enough to you and me, To speak he was not able: For he couldn"t say "No!" He couldn"t say "No!"
"Tis dreadful, of course, but "twas really so.
He"d diddle, and dawdle, and stutter, but oh!
When it came to the point he could never say "No!"
And he could fence, and swim, and float, And use the gloves with ease too, Could play base ball, and row a boat, And hang on a trapeze too; His temper was beyond rebuke, And nothing made him lose it; His strength was something quite superb, But what"s the use of having nerve If one can never use it?
He couldn"t say "No!" He couldn"t say "No!"
If one asked him to come, if one asked him to go, He"d diddle, and dawdle, and stutter, but oh!
When it came to the point he could never say "No!"
When he was but a little lad, In life"s small ways progressing, He fell into this habit bad Of always acquiescing; "Twas such an amiable trait, To friend as well as stranger, That half unconsciously at last The custom held him hard and fast Before he knew the danger, And he couldn"t say "No!" He couldn"t say "No!"
To his prospects you see "twas a terrible blow.
He"d diddle, and dawdle, and stutter, but oh!
When it came to the point he could never say "No!"
And so for all his weary days The best of chances failed him; He lived in strange and troublous ways And never knew what ailed him; He"d go to skate when ice was thin; He"d join in deeds unlawful, He"d lend his name to worthless notes, He"d speculate in stocks and oats; "Twas positively awful, For he couldn"t say "No!" He couldn"t say "No!"
He would veer like a weather-c.o.c.k turning so slow; He"d diddle, and dawdle, and stutter, but oh!
When it came to the point he could never say "No!"
Then boys and girls who hear my song, Pray heed its theme alarming: Be good, be wise, be kind, be strong-- These traits are always charming, But all your learning, all your skill With well-trained brain and muscle, Might just as well be left alone, If you can"t cultivate backbone To help you in life"s tussle, And learn to say "No!" Yes, learn to say "No!"
Or you"ll fall from the heights to the rapids below!
You may waver, and falter, and tremble, but oh!
When your conscience requires it, be sure and shout "No!"
M.E.B.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Going into the Chapel.]
THE CHRISTMAS MONKS.
All children have wondered unceasingly from their very first Christmas up to their very last Christmas, where the Christmas presents come from. It is very easy to say that Santa Claus brought them. All well regulated people know that, of course; about the reindeer, and the sledge, and the pack crammed with toys, the chimney, and all the rest of it--that is all true, of course, and everybody knows about it; but that is not the question which puzzles. What children want to know is, where do these Christmas presents come from in the first place? Where does Santa Claus get them? Well, the answer to that is, _In the garden of the Christmas Monks_. This has not been known until very lately; that is, it has not been known till very lately except in the immediate vicinity of the Christmas Monks. There, of course, it has been known for ages. It is rather an out-of-the-way place; and that accounts for our never hearing of it before.
The Convent of the Christmas Monks is a most charmingly picturesque pile of old buildings; there are towers and turrets, and peaked roofs and arches, and everything which could possibly be thought of the architectural line, to make a convent picturesque. It is built of graystone; but it is only once in a while that you can see the graystone, for the walls are almost completely covered with mistletoe and ivy and evergreen. There are the most delicious little arched windows with diamond panes peeping out from the mistletoe and evergreen, and always at all times of the year, a little Christmas wreath of ivy and holly-berries is suspended in the centre of every window. Over all the doors, which are likewise arched, are Christmas garlands, and over the main entrance _Merry Christmas_ in evergreen letters.
The Christmas Monks are a jolly brethren; the robes of their order are white, gilded with green garlands, and they never are seen out at any time of the year without Christmas wreaths on their heads. Every morning they file in a long procession into the chapel to sing a Christmas carol; and every evening they ring a Christmas chime on the convent bells. They eat roast turkey and plum pudding and mince-pie for dinner all the year round; and always carry what is left in baskets trimmed with evergreen to the poor people. There are always wax candles lighted and set in every window of the convent at nightfall; and when the people in the country about get uncommonly blue and down-hearted, they always go for a cure to look at the Convent of the Christmas Monks after the candles are lighted and the chimes are ringing. It brings to mind things which never fail to cheer them.
But the princ.i.p.al thing about the Convent of the Christmas Monks is the garden; for that is where the Christmas presents grow. This garden extends over a large number of acres, and is divided into different departments, just as we divide our flower and vegetable gardens; one bed for onions, one for cabbages, and one for phlox, and one for verbenas, etc.
Every spring the Christmas Monks go out to sow the Christmas-present seeds after they have ploughed the ground and made it all ready.
There is one enormous bed devoted to rocking-horses. The rocking-horse seed is curious enough; just little bits of rocking-horses so small that they can only be seen through a very, very powerful microscope.
The Monks drop these at quite a distance from each other, so that they will not interfere while growing; then they cover them up neatly with earth, and put up a sign-post with "Rocking-horses" on it in evergreen letters. Just so with the penny-trumpet seed, and the toy-furniture seed, the skate-seed, the sled-seed, and all the others.
Perhaps the prettiest, and most interesting part of the garden, is that devoted to wax dolls. There are other beds for the commoner dolls--for the rag dolls, and the china dolls, and the rubber dolls, but of course wax dolls would look much handsomer growing. Wax dolls have to be planted quite early in the season; for they need a good start before the sun is very high. The seeds are the loveliest bits of microscopic dolls imaginable. The Monks sow them pretty close together, and they begin to come up by the middle of May. There is first just a little glimmer of gold, or flaxen, or black, or brown, as the case may be, above the soil. Then the snowy foreheads appear, and the blue eyes, and the black eyes, and, later on, all those enchanting little heads are out of the ground, and are nodding and winking and smiling to each other the whole extent of the field; with their pinky cheeks and sparkling eyes and curly hair there is nothing so pretty as these little wax doll heads peeping out of the earth. Gradually, more and more of them come to light, and finally by Christmas they are all ready to gather. There they stand, swaying to and fro, and dancing lightly on their slender feet which are connected with the ground, each by a tiny green stem; their dresses of pink, or blue, or white--for their dresses grow with them--flutter in the air. Just about the prettiest sight in the world is the bed of wax dolls in the garden of the Christmas Monks at Christmas time. Of course ever since this convent and garden were established (and that was so long ago that the wisest man can find no books about it) their glories have attracted a vast deal of admiration and curiosity from the young people in the surrounding country; but as the garden is enclosed on all sides by an immensely thick and high hedge, which no boy could climb, or peep over, they could only judge of the garden by the fruits which were parceled out to them on Christmas-day.
You can judge, then, of the sensation among the young folks, and older ones, for that matter, when one evening there appeared hung upon a conspicuous place in the garden-hedge, a broad strip of white cloth trimmed with evergreen and printed with the following notice in evergreen letters:
"WANTED--By the Christmas Monks, two _good_ boys to a.s.sist in garden work. Applicants will be examined by Fathers Anselmus and Ambrose, in the convent refectory, on April 10th."
This notice was hung out about five o"clock in the evening, some time in the early part of February. By noon the street was so full of boys staring at it with their mouths wide open, so as to see better, that the king was obliged to send his bodyguard before him to clear the way with brooms, when he wanted to pa.s.s on his way from his chamber of state to his palace.
There was not a boy in the country but looked upon this position as the height of human felicity. To work all the year in that wonderful garden, and see those wonderful things growing! and without doubt any body who worked there could have all the toys he wanted, just as a boy who works in a candy-shop always has all the candy he wants!
But the great difficulty, of course, was about the degree of goodness requisite to pa.s.s the examination. The boys in this country were no worse than the boys in other countries, but there were not many of them that would not have done a little differently if he had only known beforehand of the advertis.e.m.e.nt of the Christmas Monks. However, they made the most of the time remaining, and were so good all over the kingdom that a very millennium seemed dawning. The school teachers used their ferrules for fire wood, and the king ordered all the birch trees cut down and exported, as he thought there would be no more call for them in his own realm.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The boys read the notice.]
When the time for the examination drew near, there were two boys whom every one thought would obtain the situation, although some of the other boys had lingering hopes for themselves; if only the Monks would examine them on the last six weeks, they thought they might pa.s.s.