Recitations for the Social Circle Part 19

"You needn't think you can hide from me, young man, for I can see you, and if you don't come in here at once, I'll come out there in a way that you'll know it."

Now this was an eminently natural statement, but hardly plausible as her eyes would have had to pierce an inch board fence to see Georgie; and even were this possible, it would have required a glance in that special direction, and not over the top of a pear tree in an almost opposite way.

Even the boy at the knothole could hardly repress a smile.

"What's she doin' now?" inquired Georgie.

"She stands there yet."

"I won't speak to you again, George Augustus," came the voice. "Your father will be home in a few minutes, and I shall tell him all about what you have done."

Still no answer.

"Ain't you afraid?" asked the conscientious young man, drawing his eye from the knothole to rest it.

"No! she won't tell pa; she never does, she only says it to scare me."

Thus enlightened and rea.s.sured, the guard covered the knothole again.

"Ain't you acoming in here, young man?" again demanded the woman, "or do you want me to come out there to you with a stick? I won't speak to you again, sir!"

"Is she comin'?" asked the baker.

"No."

"Which way is she lookin'?"

"She's lookin' over in the other yard."

"Do you hear me, I say?" came the call again.

No answer.

"George Augustus! do you hear your mother?"

Still no answer.

"Oh, you just wait, young man, till your father comes home, and he'll make you hear, I'll warrant ye."

"She's gone in now," announced the faithful sentinel, withdrawing from his post.

"All right! take hold of this crust and pull it down on that side, and that'll be another pie done," said the remorse-stricken George Augustus.

SHWATE KITTIE KEHOE.

BY JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY.

Shwate Kittie Kehoe, Can ye tell, I do' know.

Phwat the mischief's about ye that bothers me so?

For there's that in yer eye.

That I wish I may die If it doesn't pursue me wherever I go.

Och hone!

Shwate Kitty Kehoe.

It's a livin' disgrace That yer shwate purty face Should be dhrivin' me sinses all over the place!

I go this way an' that, Loike a man fur a hat, Wid the wind up an alley-way, runnin' a race.

Och hone!

Shwate Kittie Kehoe.

Oh! Faith, but I'm sad, Fur to know that I'm mad, That only intinsifies all that is bad; But phwat can I do, Whin a shwate smile from you Turns everythin' rosy and makes me sowl glad?

Och hone!

Shwate Kittie Kehoe.

Shwate Kittie Kehoe, I beg of ye, go To the outermost inds of the earth, I do' know; If ye'll only do this, Jist lave me wan kiss, An' I'll die whin yer sthartin', Shwate Kittie Kehoe.

Och hone! Och hone!

Shwate Kittie Kehoe.

THE COUNTRY'S GREATEST EVIL.

[A short speech by Vice-President Henry Wilson, delivered at the National Temperance Convention, in Chicago, June, 1875.]

Forty years of experience and observation have taught me that the greatest evil of our country, next, at any rate, to the one that has gone down in fire and blood to rise no more, is the evil of intemperance. Every day's experience, every hour of reflection, teaches me that it is the duty of patriotism, the duty of humanity, the duty of Christianity, to live Christian lives, and to exert temperance influence among the people.

There was a time, when I was younger than I am now, when I hoped to live long enough to see the cause which my heart loves and my judgment approves stronger than it is to-day. I may be mistaken, but it seems to me that the present is a rather dark and troubled night for that cause, and it is because it so seems to me that I believe it to be the duty of every honest, conscientious, self-sacrificing man of our country to speak and to work for the cause in every legitimate and proper way. And my reliance for the advancement of the cause of temperance is the same reliance which I have for the spread of the Gospel of our Divine Lord and Master.

The heart, the conscience and the reason must be appealed to continually; and Christian men and women must remember that the heart of Christianity is temperance. If it costs a sacrifice, give it. What is sacrifice to doing good and lifting toward heaven our fellow-men? We have got to rely on appeals and addresses made to the heart of this nation, to the conscience of the people and the reason of the country. We have got to train up our children in the cause from infancy. We must teach it in the schools and everywhere by word, and above all by example; and it seems to me that Christian ministers, in this dark hour of our country, when they see so much intemperance, and what looks to some of us like a reaction, should make the voice of the pulpits of this land heard.

Members of Christian churches should remember that they have something to do in this cause. If anything stands in the way of Christianity it is the drunkenness in our land. A word for temperance at this time is the strongest blow against the kingdom of Satan and for the cause of our Lord and Master.

Suppose you have been disappointed. Suppose that many of your laws have failed. We know that we are right. We personally feel and see it. The evidence is around and about us that we cannot be mistaken in living total abstinence lives and recommending such a course to our neighbors.

When it costs something to stand by the temperance cause, then is the hour to stand by it. If I could be heard to-day by the people of the land, by the patriotic young men of this country, full of life, vigor and hope, I would say that it is among the first, the highest, and the grandest duties, which the country, G.o.d, and the love of humanity impose, to work for the cause of _total abstinence_.

I WONDER.

BY JAMES CLARENCE HARVEY.

I wonder if, under the gra.s.s-grown sod, The weary human heart finds rest!