Newspaper Page Text
20 T
The Family |
THE BIRD STUDENTS.
By Grace Maynard Buck.
I attended a bird lecture,
A book on birds 1 read.
A large amount of knowledge
Was stored within my head.
Impressed, inspired and filled with zeal
By many learned words,
1 decided to become a close
Observer of the birds.
A cup of water and some crumbs
Beneath my window sill
I placed, determined that the birds
Should come and take their fill.
With ofera-glasses ready
I hid behind the curtain.
That. 1 should ever tame the birds
To me seemed almost certain.
I watched all through the morning,
And again at dewy eve.
And not a single bird appeared,
And I began to grieve.
And I was greatly mystified,
Until at last I found
That another close observer
Was there upon the ground.
For Pussy drank the water,
And Pussy ate each crumb.
So I think it was no wonder
That the birdies did not come.
?Christian Intelligencer.
JANET THE INTERPRETER.
By Edith Sykes Gibbs.
Janet had picked up the whip and was
clucking to Napoleon, when Uncle William
came running from the barn with
rather a sheepish expression on his
round, ruddy face. He extracted a letter
from an inner pocket, and handed it to
his niece without a word of explanation.
None was needed. Uncle William's
habits of forgetfulness were to be endured,
not cured.
"Uncle William"! exclaimed Janet reproachfully.
"How long has that been
in your possession? It's from the teachers'
agency, too, and you vowed last
night that there wasn't any mail."
She ripped off the envelope with" more
despatch than neatness, while Uncle William
secured Napoleon's fly-net with a
piece of twine and picked up the lines
which Janet had carelessly dropped.
"I'll forgive you this time!" she exclaimed,
brightly, looking up. "If this
had been another offer of a position to
teach geography, vocal culture, gymnastics,
economics, arithmetic, logic, astrou
omy, and other heterogeneous subjects,
of which I have no more idea than the
man in the moon, it would have spoiled
my day, and I should have worried myself
sick thinking maybe I .ought to try
for it. But here is actually something
DlfP what T vi/ anf m \r KoIai?oJ
comes first, with a little Latin and English;
I think I might manage that. Bui.
O Uncle Billy, \ou incorrigible man,
you've been carrying this round for two
days, as I see by the postmark! Well, 1
y
y
HE PRESBYTERIAN OF THE SOUT
must start. Did you spread the duster
over the strawberries? Give me the lines,
then."
I'ncle William lifted two more crates
into the light open wagon and fastened
the tailboard.
Janet saluted him merrily with her
whip, and rattled down the lane with all
1 Iid nlancnrn nf n/woHw V% Ir.h r*
?V r.v..o...v ui ..v/.tn; r? mvu a lllj gill
in the country enjoys.
"She turns the curves
With graceful swerves
And apopletic toots,"
she sang, bending low, that her broad,
stiffly starched sun-hat might not catch
in the overhanging branches of a gumtree.
The offer that she had just received
filled her with renewed hope, for alter
several months of effort Janet was be.
coming discouraged.
Most of her classmates at college had
secured positions through agencies before
their graduation. _ But Janet had determined
to teach only German, in which
she was very proficient, and one or two
accompanying subjects.
"They seem determined to make me
teach arithmetic," she complained to
Aunt Mary, when she came out to the
farm after commencement for a muchneeded
rest, "particularly mental arithmetic?how
I always did hate it! 'ff
Susan has sixteen and two-thirds apples,
and John has fourteen fnr whioh ho nol.l
ten cents, how much more per apple will
Susan get if she sells hers for twentyfive
cents?' Mercenary children! I never
did approve of those in the arithmetic
book! Always bartering!"
So Janet sang merrily as Napoleon
jogged evenly on to the village and rejoiced
at the thought of the letter in her
pocket.
"If only Uncle William hadn't forgotten
it," she said to herself. "Somebody's
-ure to get in an application before me,
and they probably won't give it to me,
i anyway, because 1 look so young." She
?japped -\apoieon viciously, a^id her face
lost some of its brightness. "I never
i before in my life felt a desire for an advanced
age. Now I am longing to look
> older than I am, and soon I'll want to
look younger than my years!"
i The village was in sight, and Janet resolved
to think'no more about her worries
until her business was over. She
was bringing in several crates of fresh
i strawberries for her uncle. Janet knew
most of his customers by this time, and
in spite of her alleged incapacity for
arithmetic, delighted in going about the
i small town to sell to them. The country
people were all so cordial and took such
an unaffected interest in Uncle William's
niece from the city that she felt a welcome
everywhere.
She was especially fond of Mrs. Jackson,
a great friend of her Aunt Mary.
As she stopped at Mrs. Jackson's gate,
that l?dy came running out, followed by
a tall, gray-haired man, whom she introduced
as her brother, Mr. Heywood.
"Henry, just look at these strawberries!"
she exclaimed. "Miss Janet, my
brother just stopped off yesterday afternoon
for a flying trip, on his way through
to New York, and I insisted on his staying
all night on purpose to take some of
your uncle's strawberries back to my
sister. I knew you would be in before
train-time, and such berries are not for
sale in the city at any price."
Mr. Heywood was delighted with the
H; June 23, 1909.
strawberries, and took all that were left.
Janet determined to go to the postoffice
to write her application at once,
for she knew the value of promptness
in such cases. As is customary in many
country towns, the post-office and station
were one. When she drove up to ho
platform, she saw a small boy sitting on
the bairgaee-truck- rrvfns hiiterlv PhA
jumped out, and running up to the child,
took him in her arms, for Janet could
not bear to see any one in pain. To her
surprise, he turned ub to her a tearstained
face, and began to jabber in German.
"Mutter! Mutter!" seemed to be his
chief cry. and Janet thought he must be
lost until she heard the voice of a woman
inside the station building, in altercation
with some one.
When she entered the dcor, leading her
charge, her first impression was that the
room was full of children. There seemed
to be any number of them, of all sizes,
and in their midst stood a large, helpless
woman, tears rolling down her cheeka
as she gesticulated despairingly before
the perplexed station-agent, and poured
forth rapid volumes of German, which
apparently produced no effect beyond
mystified shakes of the head on his part,
and desultory wailing among the children,
who felt that something was wrong..
"Kann ich doeh helfen? Can I help?"
said Janet, going quickly up to her. The
distraught woman turned with a erv of re
lief and joy, and the small boy ran and
seized his mother's hand.
In a few moments Janet had succeeded
in establishing some calm. The woman
poured out all her troubles more rapidly
than Janet had imagined it possible for
any one to talk, and the slation-a-gent retired,
overawed by her ability to understand
"such gibberish," as he politely
termed it.
The woman was Frau Bandeweg. She
and her children had landed from Germany
a few days before. They were
going to join the father, who had been
making a home for them in Birdville, a
manufacturing town several miles farther
out the line.
A German woman had put them on the
right train, but the conductor had misunderstood,
and put them off at Burdell
at night. It was late, the ticket-agent
had gone, and they had spent the night
at the station.
Such, very briefly, was her story, as
Janet gathered it scrap by scrap.
in uiu miusr 01 an tue explanation.
Mrs. Jackson's brother entered. He
stared, astonished, at Janet, who, flushed
and excited but fully competent an!
answering the woman's questions and
soothing the smallest girl, who had begun
to cry from sheer fright and nervous
strain.
HiR bow was courteous, although his
look was surprised. He bought his ticker
and settled himself, with a newspaper
and his strawberries, just outside the
door.
Birdville was only fifteen miles farther
on, Janet explained to the woman. The
'train was due in ten minutes, and she
would get the necessary tickets, put her
on it, and tell the conductor where to
put her off. How many children were
there, and for how many would she have
to get tickets?
There were Wllhelm and Frederick and
Ferdinand and Louise and Rosle and