General.-No sadness here, but farcical mirth instead. Even if the story is not literally true, how true is the study of the faithful, blundering dog! Pick out passages that prove this. Tell a funny story of your own dog. If dogs could speak, how would the retriever tell the tale? Once, when a man said a dog had attacked him, Charles Lamb wanted to hear " the dog"s side of the story. "Lesson 60
JUDGMENTS OF OTHERS
Then gently scan your brother man, Still gentler sister woman;Though they may gang a kennin wrang, To step aside is human;One point must still be greatly dark,- The moving Why they do it;And just as lamely can ye mark, How far, perhaps, they rue it.
Burns
Lesson 61
THE WELL OF ST. KEYNE
A well there is in the West Country, And a clearer one never was seen;There is not a wife in the West Country But has heard of the Well of St. Keyne.
An oak and an elm-tree stand beside, And behind doth an ash-tree grow,And a willow from the bank above Droops to the water below.
A traveller came to the Well of St. Keyne; Joyfully he drew nigh,For from cock-crow he had been travelling, And there was not a cloud in the sky.
He drank of the water so cool and clear, For thirsty and hot was he;And he sat down upon the bank, Under the willow-tree.
There came a man from the neighbouring town
At the well to fill his pail;
By the well-side he rested it, And he bade the stranger hail.
"Now, art thou a bachelor, stranger? "quoth he, "For, an" if thou hast a wife,The happiest draught thou hast drunk this day That ever thou didst in thy life.
" Or has thy good woman, if one thou hast, Ever here in Cornwall been?
For, an" if she have, I"ll venture my life, She has drunk of the Well of St. Keyne. "" I have left a good woman who never was here, " The stranger he made reply;" But that my draught should be better for that, I pray you answer me why. "" St. Keyne, " quoth the Cornishman, " many a time Drank of this crystal well;And, before the angel summoned her, She laid on the water a spell :
"If the husband of this gifted well Shall drink before his wife,A happy man henceforth is he, For he shall be master for life.
" But, if the wife should drink of it first,
Woe be to the husband then ! "-
The stranger stooped to the Well of St. Keyne, And drank of the water again.
" You drank of the well, I warrant, betimes, " He to the Cornishman said;But the Cornishman smiled as the stranger spake, And sheepishly shook his head.
" I hastened as soon as the wedding was done, And left my wife in the porch;But faith she had been wiser than I, For she took a bottle to church ! "Robert Southey
Author.-Robert Southey (1774-1843) was an English poet and prose writer. His longer poems include The Curse of Kehama and The Vision of Judgment. His greatest prose work is The Life of Nelson.
General.-Here is humour of a more subtle kind than in Lawson"s "Loaded Dog. " St. Keyne was a holy lady who lived, it is said, about the year 490 in Cornwall. There is an old church bearing her name at Liskeard. What spell did she lay on the well? How did the Cornishman try to take advantage of it? How did his sweetheart circumvent him? Tell anyother legends you know about "Wishing Wells " and the like.
Lesson 62
A "RUSH "
I had wandered listlessly home one evening from a long day"s walk, when I was struck by the unwonted appearance of activity displayed by the Major. Our premises had undergone an alteration. The tent was down, various articles of furniture were assuming their well-known travelling appearance. Suddenly I became aware of an unwonted hum of earnest voices. I began to recognize the symptoms of the complaint.
It was not the first time that I had known a great gold- field infected by it. Forms were flitting about in the gathering twilight, lanterns were being lit in preparation for night work. Horses were driven up, the hobble chains and bells of which sounded their continuous chime. A few words from time to time caught my ear, in which "the Oxley, " " only a hundred and odd miles, " " five ounces to the dish, " " good sinking, " were increasingly distinct. Before I stopped at the spot which had been directly before our own tent door, I was fully aware of the causes of the unwonted agitation-a "rush " was on.
"You"re a good fellow, Pole, " said the Major, "in your way; but I wish you weren"t given to taking such long walks. Here have we been sounding "boot and saddle" all day, and couldn"t get any tidings of you. Lend a hand with this cord. Do you wantto put anything else in your box? I"ve packed for you." "I"ll see in the morning, " I said. "Where"s the rush? ""Where"s the rush? You may well ask that-the biggest thing that has happened in Australia yet. ""So good as that? " I queried languidly.
" Good! " shouted the Major. " Nothing ever heard like it, even at Ballarat or Eaglehawk. Three ounces, five ounces, ten ounces to the dish; lumps of gold, no rock, no water, all shallow sinking. ""I suppose we must start at daylight. It"s a great nuisance," I said, " having this thing to do over again. "" You haven"t gone mad, by any chance? " said the Major, taking a light and peering into my face; " but softening of the brain must be setting in, or you would never think of losing an hour, much less a whole night, when there"s a rush like this on. No; we"ve bought a spring-cart and horse, and are off at once. You"ll have to look sharp. ""You seem in a state of wonderful anticipation, Major, " I made answer; " one would think you were totally unfamiliar with the chances of digging life. Doesn"t it strike you that our ordinary luck will attend us-all the best claims will be taken up before we get there, or we shall most industriously bottom a "duffer"? However, to please you, I"ll go. "As soon as the moon rose, we set off. Nothing was placed in the spring-cart but our clothes, bedding, simple cooking utensils, and, of course, our tools. The road lay under our feetin the clear moonlight, white and dusty, between the witheredgrass and the tall tree-stems. The air was fresh; the heavens brightly azure. The horse was active and powerful, and took us along at a rapid pace.