The Youth's Companion Part 12

At length death's signal sounds! From weary eyes Pa.s.s the pale phantoms of our earth and skies; The gray head droops; the museful lips are closed On life's vain questionings and more vain replies!

Like some gaunt oak wert thou, that lonely stands 'Mid fallen trunks in outworn, desert lands; Still sound at core, with rhythmic leaves that stir To soft swift touches of aerial hands.

Ah! long we viewed thee thus, forlornly free, In that dead grove the sole unravished tree; Lo! the dark axeman smites! the oak lies low That towered in lonely calm o'er land and sea!

PAUL H. HAYNE.

LORD LORNE AND THE RAT.

While at school at Eton, Lord Lorne, the present Governor of Canada, had one sc.r.a.pe which exhibited him in a light that boys will appreciate. He was standing on the steps of Upper School one morning, waiting for eleven o'clock school, when one Campbell, a namesake of his, but no relative, asked him to hold a pet rat for a moment, while he--the owner of the beast--ran back to his dame's to fetch a book which he had forgotten.

On receiving the a.s.surance that the rat was perfectly tame, and would not even bite a kitten, Lorne put him into the pocket of his jacket, and told the owner to make haste, but just at that moment the masters came out of "Chambers" and ascended the staircase, so Lorne was obliged to go into school with the brute.

All went well for five minutes, but soon the rat, indifferent to the honor of inhabiting a marquis' pocket, crept out and jumped on to the floor.

Some boys saw it and set up a t.i.tter, which excited the attention of the form-master, Mr. Y------, nicknamed "Stiggins," a strict disciplinarian.

"Who brought that rat into school?" he asked.

Lorne confessed that he was the culprit.

"Well, make haste to catch him and carry him out, or I shall complain of you," said Mr. Y------.

My lord laid down his Homer, but to catch the rat was not easy. Seeing himself an object of general attention, the animal darted under the scarlet curtain which separated one division from another, and, rushing amid a new lot of boys, provoked an uproar.

In a minute all the boys in the upper school-room, some two hundred and odd, were on their feet shouting, laughing, hooting, and preparing to throw their books at the rat, who, however, spared them this trouble by ducking down a hole, where he disappeared for good and a'.

Lorne had to come back, red and breathless, declaring that his game had eluded pursuit, whereupon Mr. Y------, who disliked riots, proceeded to make out a "bill" which consigned his lordship after school to the care of the Sixth Form Praeposter.

Luckily Dr. Goodford took a merciful view of the affair, and, as Lorne had not yet had "first fault," absolved him from kneeling on the block.

It is to be noted that Lorne might easily have exonerated himself by explaining under what circ.u.mstances he had taken charge of the rat; but he was not the kind of boy to back out of a sc.r.a.pe by betraying a friend, and if Dr. Goodford had refused him the benefit of a first fault, he would certainly have taken his flogging without a murmur.

HEROIC MAIL-CARRIER.

The singular fact that a man who has lost his way always travels in a circle is vividly ill.u.s.trated by the following narrative, told by a Montana paper, of a heroic mail-carrier:

Casey carried the mail, carried by a two-wheeled sulky. He started in a blinding snow storm, and the track across the prairie was lost.

As he did not reach the end of his drive at the appointed time, it was a.s.sumed that he had lost his way. Mr. William Rowe, informed of the circ.u.mstance, set forth, and in due time found a dim track where Casey had left the main road. Following this, Casey was found, sitting in his cart, which the horse was drawing slowly and painfully along.

He was in a doze, and Mr. Rowe shouted to him once or twice before he was roused to consciousness. It was then found that his right foot and leg were frozen nearly to the knee, and that his left foot was in the same condition.

It is believed that his injuries are not serious, and that he will not suffer the loss of either limb.

His story was soon told. The driver had been wandering over that trackless prairie for ten days and nights, without food or shelter, and with a temperature never above zero.

All this time he had moved in an almost perfect circle, and had picketed his horse and camped every night in almost the same spot.

More remarkable still, he had daily pa.s.sed within a mile and a half of the Twenty-eight Mile House, which was his destination.

All this time, amid sufferings that would have crushed an ordinary man, Bob Casey had only one thought, that he must stay with the mail and get it through, whatever befell him.

And he did; not a single package was lost. Starving, half-frozen, and dazed by exposure and privation, it was not of himself he thought. His duty was still uppermost in his mind.

Here was heroic stuff. How many such can the postal service boast?

During all these terrible days and nights, the only thing that pa.s.sed his lips was tobacco and snow.

He had with him a goodly supply of the former article at the start, and as day wore into night, and night into day, he began h.o.a.rding it with as much avidity as ever did a miser his gold.

PRINCE OF WALES' HOME.

A writer thus describes the country house of the Prince of Wales at Sandringham, which is a model of comfort:

The large hall which you enter on arriving is fitted up as a dining-room, with a pianoforte, easy-chairs and two large writing-tables. Behind the piano are a quant.i.ty of toys for the children to amuse themselves with at the "children's hour" after tea.

Here at five o'clock the tea-table is placed in the centre of the hall, and is presided over by the princess in the loveliest of tea-gowns.

It is a pretty sight to see her surrounded by her three little girls, who look like tiny fairies, and who run about to put "papa's" letters in the large pillar-post box at one end of the hall. There are generally four or five large dogs to add to the circle.

At Christmas the hall looks like a large bazaar, being then filled with the most costly and beautiful tables, with a large Christmas tree in the centre and objects all around the sides of the hall full of presents for the household and visitors.

Their royal highnesses arrange these presents all themselves, and no one is permitted to enter till the evening.

The drawing-room is a particularly pretty room, full of furniture, and every available corner is filled with gigantic flower-gla.s.ses full of Pampas gra.s.s and evergreens.

Out of the drawing-room, on the opposite side of the dining-room, is a small sitting-room, fitted with book-cases. Beyond this is the prince's own room, quite full of beautiful things.

Here he and the princess always breakfast, and here on the ninth of November and the first of December are laid out all the numerous birth day presents.

Of the princess's private apartments up stairs it will suffice to say that a prettier room than her royal highness's own _boudoir,_ or sitting-room, was never seen. All the visitors' rooms are perfect, nor are the servants' comforts neglected.

CAUGHT WITH FENCE-RAIL LATIN.

It requires no extraordinary shrewdness in a person of capable intelligence to expose a pretender,--especially a quack, who appears in the "borrowed feathers" of a.s.sumed learning. Lawyers have so much of this stripping work to do that it forms their cheapest fun; but it is fun, nevertheless. The Louisville _Courier-Journal_ says:

Judge Black, of Pennsylvania, tells a comical story of a trial in which a German doctor appeared for the defence in a case for damages brought against a client of his by the object of his a.s.sault.