Story Hour Readings: Seventh Year Part 31

TWO SIDES TO EVERY QUESTION

In the days of knight-errantry and paganism, one of the old British princes set up a statue to the G.o.ddess of Victory in a point where four roads met together. In her right hand she held a spear, and her left hand rested upon a shield. The outside of this shield was of gold and the inside 5 of silver. On the former was inscribed, in the old British language, "To the G.o.ddess ever favorable"; and on the other, "For four victories obtained successively over the Picts and other inhabitants of the northern islands."

It happened one day that two knights completely armed, 10 one in black armor, the other in white, arrived from opposite parts of the country at this statue, just about the same time; and as neither of them had seen it before, they stopped to read the inscription and to observe its workmanship.

After contemplating it for some time, "This golden 15 shield--" said the black knight.

"Golden shield!" cried the white knight (who was as strictly observing the opposite side); "why, if I have my eyes, it is silver."

"I know nothing of your eyes," replied the black knight; 20 "but if ever I saw a golden shield in my life, this is one."

"Yes," returned the white knight smiling, "it is very probable indeed that they should expose a shield of gold in so public a place as this! For my own part, I wonder that even a silver one is not too strong a temptation for the 25 devotion of some people who pa.s.s this way; and it appears by the date that this has been here above three years."

The black knight could not bear the smile with which this was delivered and grew so warm in the dispute that it soon ended in a challenge; they both, therefore, turned their horses and rode back so far as to have sufficient s.p.a.ce for their career; then, fixing their spears in their rests they flew at each other with the greatest fury and impetuosity. 5 Their shock was so rude, and the blow on each side so effectual, that they both fell to the ground much wounded and lay there for some time as in a trance.

A good druid who was traveling that way found them in this condition. The druids were the physicians of those 10 times as well as the priests. So he stanched their blood, and brought them, as it were, from death to life again. As soon as they were sufficiently recovered he began to inquire into the cause of their quarrel.

"Why this man," cried the black knight, "will have it 15 that yonder shield is silver."

"And he will have it," replied the white knight, "that it is gold."

And then they told him all the particulars of the affair.

"Ah!" said the druid, "my brothers, you are both of you 20 in the right and both of you in the wrong. Had either given himself time to look at the opposite side of the shield, as well as that which first presented itself to view, all this ill feeling and bloodshed might have been avoided. Allow me, therefore, to entreat you by all our G.o.ds, and by this 25 G.o.ddess of Victory in particular, _never again to enter into any dispute till you have fairly considered both sides of the question_."

1. This story is a fable. State the moral in your own words. Tell a story of your own, with a modern setting, to enforce the same moral; or one with animals for characters, as in aesop's _Fables_.

IF I WERE A BOY

BY WASHINGTON GLADDEN

If I were a boy again, and knew what I know now, I would not be quite so positive in my opinions as I used to be. Boys generally think that they are very certain about many things. A boy of fifteen is a great deal more sure of what he thinks he knows than most men of 5 fifty. You ask the boy a question and he will answer you right off, up and down; he knows all about it. Ask a man of large experience and ripe wisdom the same question, and he will say, "Well, there is much to be said about it.

I am inclined on the whole to think so and so, but other 10 intelligent men think otherwise."

When I was eight years old, I traveled from central Ma.s.sachusetts to western New York, crossing the river at Albany and going by ca.n.a.l from Schenectady to Syracuse.

On the ca.n.a.l boat, a kindly gentleman was talking to me 15 one day, and I remarked that I had crossed the Connecticut River at Albany. How I got it into my head that it was the Connecticut River I do not know, for I knew my geography very well then, but in some unaccountable way I had it fixed in my mind that the river at Albany was the 20 Connecticut, and I called it so.

"Why," said the gentleman, "that is the Hudson River."

"Oh, no, sir!" I replied politely, but firmly. "You're mistaken. That is the Connecticut River."

The gentleman smiled and said no more. I was not 25 much in the habit, I think, of contradicting my elders; but in this matter I was perfectly sure that I was right and so I thought it my duty to correct the gentleman's geography.

I felt rather sorry for him that he should be so ignorant. One day, after I reached home, I was looking over my route on the map, and lo! there was Albany standing 5 on the Hudson River, a hundred miles from the Connecticut.

Then I did not feel so sorry for the gentleman's ignorance as I did for my own. I never told anybody that story until I wrote it down on these pages the other day; but I have thought of it a thousand times and always with a 10 blush for my boldness. Nor was it the only time that I was perfectly sure of things that really were not so. It is hard for a boy to learn that he may be mistaken; but unless he is a fool, he learns it after a while. The sooner he finds it out, the better for him. 15

If I were a boy, I would not think that I and the boys of my times were an exception to the general rule--a new kind of boys, unlike all who have lived before, having different feelings and different ways. To be honest, I must own that I used to think so myself. I was quite inclined 20 to reject the counsel of my elders by saying to myself, "That may have been well enough for boys thirty or fifty years ago, but it isn't the thing for me and my set of boys." Of course that was nonsense. The boys of one generation are not very different from the boys of any 25 other generation.

If we say that boyhood lasts fifteen or sixteen years, I have known three generations of boys, some of them city boys and some of them country boys, and they are all substantially alike--so nearly alike that the old rules of 30 industry and patience and perseverance and self-control are as applicable to one generation as to another. The fact is, that what your fathers and teachers have found by experience to be good for boys will be good for you; and what their experience has taught them is bad for boys will be bad for you. You are just boys, nothing more nor less.

1. Why would a boy of fifteen be more likely to "think he knew all about it" than an equally honest and intelligent man of fifty? Apply to your answer the preceding story about the two knights. What is the value of experience?

2. Retell the story of the boy's mistake about the river. Why was he so ashamed?

3. What is meant by saying that all boys are substantially alike? What four rules does the author say are always applicable? Compare the training of a boy in ancient Sparta and of a page in medieval times with that of a modern schoolboy.

THE LESSON OF THE WATER MILL

BY SARAH DOUDNEY

Listen to the water mill; Through the livelong day, How the clicking of its wheel Wears the hours away!

Languidly the autumn wind 5 Stirs the forest leaves, From the field the reapers sing, Binding up their sheaves; And a proverb haunts my mind As a spell is cast, 10 "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past."

Autumn winds revive no more Leaves that once are shed, And the sickle cannot reap Corn once gathered; Flows the ruffled streamlet on, 5 Tranquil, deep, and still, Never gliding back again To the water mill; Truly speaks the proverb old, With a meaning vast-- 10 "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past."

Take the lesson to thyself, True and loving heart!

Golden youth is fleeting by, 15 Summer hours depart; Learn to make the most of life, Lose no happy day, Time will never bring thee back Chances swept away! 20 Leave no tender word unsaid, Love while love shall last; "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past."

Work while yet the daylight shines, 25 Man of strength and will!

Never does the streamlet glide Useless by the mill; Wait not till to-morrow's sun Beams upon thy way, 30

All that thou canst call thine own Lies in thy to-day; Power and intellect and health May not always last; "The mill cannot grind 5 With the water that is past."

Oh, the wasted hours of life That have drifted by!

Oh, the good that might have been-- Lost, without a sigh! 10 Love that we might once have saved By a single word; Thoughts conceived but never penned, Perishing unheard; Take the proverb to thine heart, 15 Take, and hold it fast-- "The mill cannot grind With the water that is past."

1. How does a water mill work? Find a picture of one. What was this mill probably used to grind? Why is it appropriate to have the reapers in the picture in the first stanza?

2. What other proverbs with the same meaning as this one can you find?

A MOTTO OF OXFORD

This stanza is engraved over one of the old colleges of Oxford University, a great seat of learning in England.