Though my wife had declined to risk a formal call on our neighbours as a family, I saw no reason why I should not speak to the husband as an individual when I happened to encounter him by the wayside. I made several approaches to do so, when it occurred to my mind that my neighbour had the air of trying to avoid me. I resolved to put the suspicion to the test, and, one forenoon when he was sauntering along on the opposite side of the road, in the vicinity of Fisher"s sawmill, I deliberately crossed over to address him. The brusque manner in which he hurried away was not to be misunderstood. Of course, I was not going to force myself upon him. After a while I not only missed my occasional glimpses of the pretty, slim figure, always draped in some soft black stuff with a bit of scarlet at the throat, but I inferred that she did not go about the house singing in her light- hearted manner as formerly. What had happened? I fancied she was ill, and that I detected a certain anxiety in the husband, whospent the mornings digging alone in the garden.
As the days went by, it became certain that the lady was confined to the house, perhaps seriously ill, possibly a confirmed invalid. If a physician had charge of the case, he visited the patient only at night. All this moved my sympathy, and I reproached myself with having had hard thoughts of our neighbours. Trouble had come to them early. I would have liked to offer them such small, friendly services as lay in my power; but the memory of the repulse I had sustained still rankled in me. So I hesitated. One morning my two boys burst into the library with their eyes sparkling. "You know the old elm down the road, " cried one. "Yes. " "The elm with the hang-bird"s nest? " shrieked the other. " Yes, yes !" "Well, we both just climbed up, and there"s three young ones in it ! " Then I smiled to think that our new neighbours had got such a promising little family.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich
Author.-Thomas Bailey Aldbich (1836-1907), an American poet and novelist, born in U.S.A. He published some eight or nine volumes of poetry and produced several books of travel and reminiscences. His prose has descriptive power and humour, and his verse includes some of the daintiest work yet produced in America.
General.-When did you find out who the new neighbours were? Re-read the whole piece again, noticing how the writer has managed to mislead you. Explain the meaning of "executive ability, " "first flush of manhood, " "unlaced, dishevelled country, " "Arcadian business. "Lesson 88
THE HOUSE OF THE COMMONWEALTH
We sent a word across the seas that said,
"The house is finished and the doors are wide,Come, enter in.
A stately house it is, with tables spread, Where men in liberty and love abideWith hearts akin.
"Behold, how high our hands have lifted it! The soil it stands upon is pure and sweetAs are our skies.
Our title-deeds in holy sweat are writ,
Not red, accusing blood; and "neath our feet No foeman lies. "And England, Mother England, leans her face Upon her hand, and feels her blood burn youngAt what she sees:
The image here of that fair strength and graceThat made her feared and loved and sought and sung Through centuries.
Roderio Quinn
Author.-Roderio Joseph Quinn, a living Australian poet, was born at Sydney in 1869. Most of his poems were contributed to The Bulletin andThe Worker, but collections have been published under the titles of The Hidden Tide, The Circling Hearths, and collected poems.
General.-Here is part of a noble poem on Australian Federation. Notice the leading thought in each stanza, the message to England, the brief description of the House, the effect on the mother country. Examine them carefully and see how the finer part of Australia is exalted above the baser. Have we or can we have a stately house where men in liberty and love abide with hearts akin? ls it true that it has been built by holy toil, and not by conquest? Is it true that what has been best in the history of Britain lives renewed in this southern land? If so, what are our duties as citizens ?
