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-The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1017,
-June 24, 1899, by Various
-
-This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
-other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions
-whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of
-the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at
-www.gutenberg.org.  If you are not located in the United States, you'll have
-to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook.
-
-Title: The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No. 1017, June 24, 1899
-
-Author: Various
-
-Release Date: February 2, 2020 [EBook #61306]
-
-Language: English
-
-Character set encoding: UTF-8
-
-*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIRL'S OWN PAPER, JUNE 24, 1899 ***
-
-
-
-
-Produced by Susan Skinner, Chris Curnow, Pamela Patten and
-the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
-http://www.pgdp.net
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-[Illustration: THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER
-
-VOL. XX.—NO. 1017.]      JUNE 24, 1899.      [PRICE ONE PENNY.]
-
-
-
-
-EARLY MORNING NATURE-STUDY.
-
-
-[Illustration: MRS. BRIGHTWEN IN HER GARDEN.]
-
-_All rights reserved._]
-
-To a true lover of nature hardly anything can be more thoroughly
-enjoyable than a quiet hour spent in some shady spot early on a
-summer’s morning, whilst the dew is still upon the flowers, and before
-any sounds can be heard except those made by happy birds and insects.
-
-In my garden there is a little dell embowered by trees, where I often
-spend an hour or two before breakfast for the special purpose of
-enjoying the company of my pet wild creatures.
-
-On one side are five arches, formed possibly some hundreds of years
-ago, since the great stones are grey with age and picturesquely
-moss-grown and ivy-clad. Young trees, too, are growing here and there
-out of the crevices into which the wind has wafted their seeds.
-
-In an open space before me are groups of stately foxgloves of every
-tint, ranging from purple through rose-colour to pure white. Some of
-them have stems fully seven feet in height, each bearing not fewer than
-a hundred and forty or fifty flowers.
-
-Not only amongst these foxgloves, but in the lime branches overhead
-innumerable bees keep up a continuous murmuring sound as they busily
-gather their morning store of honey.
-
-Various tall grasses are sending up their feathery plumes, and in
-a special bed where only wild flowers are allowed to grow, teasel,
-hypericum, valerian, and bog-myrtle are delighting my eyes by the free,
-graceful way in which they make themselves at home as if in their
-native habitat.
-
-Under one of the arches the birds always find an abundance of food,
-which I strew for them several times in the day.
-
-There I see young blackbirds, chaffinches, hedge-sparrows, wrens, and
-titmice feasting and flitting about, quite regardless of my presence.
-One advantage of this retreat is that no house-sparrows come here to
-annoy the more timid birds.
-
-The quietness and peace of this secluded spot is in marked contrast
-to the scenes I witness near the house. There sparrows reign supreme.
-They come down in flocks to gorge themselves and their offspring upon
-the sopped bread, rudely driving away many other kinds of birds that I
-would fain encourage.
-
-It may be observed that I have not spoken of robins feeding under the
-archway, because only one haunts this spot, and he is my special pet,
-and elects to sit on a bough close to me warbling his sweet low song,
-and occasionally accepting some choice morsel from my hand.
-
-When he was a brown-coated youngster I began to feed and attract him,
-and in one week he gained so much confidence as to alight on my hand.
-
-He is now my devoted adherent, flying to meet me in different parts of
-the garden as soon as he hears my voice.
-
-I am much interested, and I think he is also, in the development of
-the little scarlet waistcoat which marks his arrival at maturity. I saw
-the first red feather appear, just a mere tinge of colour amongst the
-rest, and now daily I see the hue is deepening. If bathing and pluming
-will tend to make him a handsome robin, he bids fair to outshine his
-compeers, for he is always busy about his toilet, first fluttering in
-a large clam-shell, which contains water, and then becoming absorbed
-in his preening operations, which nothing will interrupt but the
-appearance of another robin, who, of course, must be flown at and
-driven away.
-
-Birds, however, are not my only visitors. Some tame voles or field-mice
-creep stealthily in and out of the rockwork and find their way to the
-birds’ feeding-ground, where they also enjoy the seeds and coarse
-oatmeal, and amuse me much with their graceful play and occasional
-scrimmages. Field-mice are easily tamed and made happy in captivity.
-
-Last year I coaxed a pair of these voles into a large glass globe,
-and kept them long enough to observe sundry family events, such as
-nest-building, the arrival of some baby-voles, and their development
-from small pink infants into full-grown mice, and then I set the whole
-family at liberty under the archway, where they now disport themselves
-with all the confidence of privileged rodents.
-
-By remaining absolutely still for an hour or two, quietly reading or
-thinking, one has delightful opportunities of seeing rare birds quite
-at their ease.
-
-A green woodpecker, all unconscious of my presence, is clinging to an
-old tree stem near by, and I can not only hear his tapping noise, but
-I am able to observe how he is supported by the stiff feathers in his
-tail, which press against the tree, and how his long tongue darts into
-crevices in the bark and draws out the insects upon which he feeds.
-
-I follow his upward progress around the stem until he flies away with
-the loud laughing cry which has earned for him the local name of Yaffle.
-
-Hawfinches are by no means common in this neighbourhood, but one
-morning I was much interested to be able to watch three or four of
-these birds, which had alighted on the top of a spruce fir in this
-dell. Their golden-red plumage glistened brightly as they busily
-flitted from branch to branch, snapping off small fir-sprays with
-their powerful beaks, and chattering to each other all the while like
-diminutive parrots.
-
-Now the early morning sun is sending shafts of brilliant light through
-the thick foliage, and bringing out special objects in high relief.
-
-Just beside me is a large mass of grey stone, moss-grown and
-fern-shaded. The sun has lighted up one side of this; the rest is in
-shadow, so that it forms a picture in itself, and my robin has alighted
-on it as though on purpose to give the touch of colour that was needed.
-
-All my readers may not have so sweet a spot in which to study nature,
-but I do strongly commend to them the delight of a quiet time spent
-alone out-of-doors in the early morning.
-
-The air is then so pure and fresh that it seems to invigorate one’s
-mind no less than one’s body, and in the country the sights and sounds
-are such as tend to helpful thoughts of the love and goodness of the
-Creator Who has blessed us with so much to make us happy, if only we
-will open our eyes and hearts to see and understand the works of His
-hands.
-
-    ELIZA BRIGHTWEN.
-
-
-
-
-LETTERS FROM A LAWYER.
-
-
-PART VIII.
-
-    The Temple.
-
-MY DEAR DOROTHY,—Nothing seems to puzzle the ordinary public so much
-as the law of omnibus travelling, and in one of two cases which I saw
-reported the other day, the worthy County Court judge seems, if he
-were correctly reported, to have made a slip and nonsuited a plaintiff
-with a good cause of action. I am inclined to think, however, that it
-was the reporter who made the slip and not the judge, by omitting an
-important point in the case which had escaped his notice, and I think I
-can pretty well guess what that point was.
-
-As both the actions arose out of incidents of everyday occurrence,
-which might happen to anyone, I will here relate them for your benefit.
-
-The first case was one in which a lady claimed damages from an omnibus
-company—I think it was the London General, but that is a detail—on
-account of injuries received through the misconduct of the conductor.
-It appears that there had been a previous altercation between the
-parties, and that when the lady rose to go out, he pushed her off the
-step and started the bus, so that the lady fell down and injured her
-leg.
-
-The judge very properly nonsuited the plaintiff, because it is not
-part of an omnibus conductor’s duties to violently push people off
-his omnibus; such behaviour on his part was something outside of his
-ordinary duties as a servant of the Company. The lady therefore had
-no cause of action against the Company; her remedy was against the
-conductor for the assault.
-
-This may seem to you, my dear Dorothy, to be a very unsatisfactory
-state of affairs, but so it is, and it seems to me to be good sense
-and good law, although I admit that an action against a wealthy omnibus
-company and one against a poor conductor are not quite the same thing.
-
-In the other case a lady brought an action against an omnibus
-company to recover the value of a dress, which she stated had been
-damaged owing to her falling into the mud through the negligence or
-carelessness of the conductor in starting the omnibus before she had
-taken her seat.
-
-According to the report, as I read it, she was going upstairs, but
-before she got to the top, the conductor, without giving her any
-warning, rang his bell, and the omnibus started with a jerk, which
-threw her off into the mud and spoilt her dress.
-
-Now if these had been the only facts in the case, I should have said
-that this lady was entitled to recover the value of her damaged costume
-from the omnibus company, because it is undoubtedly part of the
-conductor’s duties to ring his bell and stop to take up and set down
-passengers, and if a passenger is going outside he ought not to start
-the omnibus until the passenger has secured his seat, or without giving
-him warning or taking other reasonable means to see that he gets his
-seat in safety.
-
-But in this also the plaintiff was nonsuited, and, although it did
-not appear so in the report, the learned judge must have thought that
-there was some negligence on the part of the lady. Possibly she had
-got on to the omnibus whilst it was in motion, as so many ladies do
-nowadays. This would at once put her out of court. If there had not
-been contributory negligence of some kind, this lady would have won her
-case.
-
-If you meet with an accident through getting on or off an omnibus
-whilst it is in motion, you contribute to the accident in not ordering
-the conductor to stop, and you have only yourself to blame; if,
-however, you had ordered the conductor to stop and he had neglected or
-refused to do so, you would probably succeed in an action against the
-company.
-
-Nowadays, when nearly all the omnibus companies issue tickets, you
-are not bound to show your tickets whenever they are demanded by a
-conductor or inspector, but it is wiser to do so because the absence
-of a ticket will generally be regarded by the magistrate as evidence
-of your not having paid your fare, and unless you have any friends
-travelling with you who are ready to come forward and swear that they
-saw you purchase a ticket, you will very likely be fined and have to
-pay costs as well. If you are travelling in a train or a tram, you are
-bound to produce and deliver up your ticket whenever it is demanded by
-a servant of the company, the railway and the tramway companies having
-special powers to make bye-laws to this effect.
-
-The muzzling orders still remain in force for the Metropolis, although
-in the country the dogs are freed of their muzzles.
-
-A man who was summoned the other day for allowing his dog to run about
-unmuzzled, tried to make a point by pleading that he did not permit the
-dog to run about unmuzzled. Whenever he took the dog out he always put
-his muzzle on, but on this occasion the dog had gone out without his
-permission. However, the magistrate fined him all the same, just as he
-did
-
-    Your affectionate cousin,
-        BOB BRIEFLESS.
-
-
-
-
-THE HOUSE WITH THE VERANDAH.
-
-BY ISABELLA FYVIE MAYO, Author of “Other People’s Stairs,” “Her Object
-in Life,” etc.
-
-
-CHAPTER XIII.
-
-STARTLED!
-
-When once Lucy’s work began at the Institute her days were very full.
-She rose early, gave her simple household orders, and prepared Hugh
-for the Kindergarten, where she left him while she held her classes.
-Hugh took his lunch with him, for he stayed at the Kindergarten rather
-longer than the other children, so as to wait till his mother fetched
-him. Lucy had explained her peculiar position to the Kindergarten
-governess, a Miss Foster, and that lady had readily entered into this
-arrangement.
-
-It was a great relief to Lucy to find that Hugh was soon quite happy
-among his new surroundings, returning home with plenty of wonders to
-tell, and being always eager for next day’s start. Miss Foster often
-came to the door to see Lucy and to deliver over her pupil. She was
-loud in praise of the little boy, confiding to Lucy that his state
-of mental development was so different from that of too many of her
-pupils. They had generally been left so much in the care of servants
-and nurses.
-
-“A little one who is generally in the company of its mother, or
-of somebody who really cares for it, may be said to enjoy all the
-advantages of kindergarten from its very cradle,” she remarked. “Its
-education has been going on happily and unconsciously all the while.
-Its little brain and hands have found occupation in imitating the work
-or doings it sees. It is not left to gape and stare at the things
-around—all wonders to it—but it is encouraged to ask questions, and it
-gets its questions cheerfully and patiently answered.”
-
-“I suppose that is a very important item,” said Lucy.
-
-“Yes, indeed,” said Miss Foster. “A careless nurse may often answer
-a question, but she does this snappily, perhaps with a hasty shake
-or a cross remark that the child is ‘a silly, little worrit.’ That
-encourages no further inquiry, and the baby-mind often closes over
-ridiculously wrong impressions, which can only confuse and blur its
-mind and all its processes.”
-
-Lucy smiled.
-
-“Yes,” she answered, “I can understand that, for children generally
-want a second answer to explain the first. I remember Hugh once asked
-me as we walked past some burial ground what it was used for. I told
-him ‘to put people’s bodies in when they die.’ He said ‘Oh!’ and
-walked along quietly, but looking puzzled. I felt sure he had some
-afterthought, so I said, ‘You have learned what a burial ground is now,
-Hughie, haven’t you? To put people’s bodies in when they die.’ Hughie
-snuggled up to me and whispered the confidential question, ‘If they
-only put their bodies there, what do they do with their heads?’ What
-an idea he would have carried away if his second question had not been
-drawn out!”
-
-Miss Foster laughed.
-
-“Such things occur constantly,” she said. “I daresay we have all heard
-the story of the little girl who said she liked to go to church when
-they sang the hymn about the bear. No? Well, it runs that she made
-this remark to her mother, who was more interested in her child’s
-preferences than it is likely any servant would have been. So she
-asked, ‘Which hymn is that, my dear?’ ‘Oh, the one about the bear that
-squints.’ ‘The bear that squints!’ said the mother, surprised, and
-knowing at once that something was wrong. ‘What does this mean?’ She
-could not ask the child to show the hymn, for she could not yet read.
-But instead of saying ‘Don’t be silly!’ she pursued the inquiry. ‘What
-makes you think there is anything about a bear that squints?’ ‘Oh, I’ve
-heard you sing it often,’ replied the child. ‘You sing “the consecrated
-cross-eye bear!”’”
-
-They both laughed.
-
-“That may be apocryphal,” commented Miss Foster, “but if so it is a
-fable which covers a great deal of fact.”
-
-“It need not be apocryphal,” returned Lucy. “A distinguished preacher
-once told me that as a child he learned the lines—
-
-    “‘Satan trembles when he sees
-    The weakest saint upon his knees.’
-
-Surely a beautiful image, and one which to the adult mind it seems
-impossible to misunderstand. But from the standpoint of the child,
-accustomed himself constantly to sit on people’s knees, the idea
-presented itself differently. He fancied that it was the saint’s
-sitting on Satan’s knees which caused Satan’s agitation! It never
-occurred to him that there could be any other meaning, and his puzzle
-was not over any doubt on that head, but only concerning what, in such
-a circumstance, was the cause of Satan’s dismay, for he knew that if he
-himself sat on anybody’s knees, he was rather in that person’s power,
-and could be easily got rid of. He went on saying and singing that hymn
-for years, the wonderment always recurring. He told me that the truth
-did not dawn on him till he was a grown youth attending theological
-classes. Then he said it came with such a lightning-flash that it
-nearly made him cry out in chapel!”
-
-“There is even a more serious aspect of this kind of misunderstanding,”
-said Miss Foster, “which may really lead to a wrong stratum of
-character if children are not encouraged to speak out and show how they
-take things. Grown-up people sometimes say hasty or playful words which
-no other ‘grown-up’ would take literally, but children do. It often
-seems to me as if, though the little folk are themselves ready to ‘make
-believe’ to any extent, yet they cannot credit any ‘make believe’ in
-others. Let me tell you a story in illustration.
-
-“A friend has lately bought a house, on whose staircase is a beautiful
-stained glass window; but its value is rather spoiled for her by the
-fact that in its centre are the initials of the late owners of the
-house, not interesting people in any way, but very commonplace folk who
-made money by speculations. One day a little boy-visitor was admiring
-the window, and asked about the initials. My friend explained them to
-him, and then, turning to another visitor, laughingly said, ‘We must
-get somebody to throw a stone through that pane.’ Presently she noticed
-that the little boy kept very closely to her side, and by-and-by he
-whispered, ‘Mrs. Gray, I can hit very well. I’ll throw a stone at
-that window. I’ll do it to-day if you like.’ ‘Oh, my dear,’ she said,
-‘that would never do at all. We must get it done properly some other
-time.’ He was disappointed, but said no more then. When he was taking
-leave, however, he whispered, ‘Mrs. Gray, when do you want that stone
-thrown? You’ll ask me, won’t you? You won’t let anybody else do it?’
-Now if he had not been a child accustomed to free speech, he might have
-taken that lady’s jest in earnest and have thrown the stone, which
-would likely have missed its aim and done incalculable mischief. Mrs.
-Gray would have quite forgotten her remark. Overwhelmed by his failure
-and by censures unaccountable to him which would have fallen upon
-him, he would, according to all the precedents of childish criminals,
-have ‘reserved his defence,’ and he would have been set down as a
-mischievous monkey, if not a malignant little wretch, for making such
-return for pleasant hospitality.”
-
-“I suppose too,” said Lucy, “that every time we let a child talk a
-matter out and help it to follow the explanations we give, we are
-really unconsciously training its mind to think out things for itself,
-and not to rest content at any point where it is not really satisfied.”
-
-“Exactly so,” answered Miss Foster. “The facts which a child learns are
-always of little importance compared with the exercise of its mind in
-grasping them. That is why learning anything by rote is useless save
-as an exercise of memory, and that explains, too, why some people who
-are said to have ‘no book-learning’ are far keener observers and arrive
-at more judicious conclusions than do pedants. The plainer folk have
-probably learned to use their minds upon the work of their hands. It is
-with minds as it is with bodies: unless the digestion is in order, food
-does not nourish, is not assimilated, and only results in disease. So
-though there is more ‘knowledge’ in the world to-day than ever before,
-and though it is more widely distributed, yet at every turn the public
-mind—with its violent prejudices, its unreasonable fluctuations, and
-its inability to look below any surface conclusions that are offered to
-it—proves that the Hebrew prophet’s complaint ‘that the people do not
-consider’ is as true as ever it was. Probably in face of present day
-opportunities and issues it is even truer. I often think that it will
-remain so till parents take more interest in their children’s society
-before they are eight years old.”
-
-“I hear that many school children have so many home lessons that they
-can’t have much time for home talk,” said Lucy.
-
-“That is so,” consented Miss Foster, “and in my opinion, during the
-regular school age home lessons ought to be almost unknown. All the
-time at home is needed for home society and home usefulness if the
-child is to have a good all-round development. The worst cases I have
-known of this kind of loss and defect have been among the children of
-modish women, who had ‘social duties’ which they preferred to walking
-out and talking with their little ones. If women can’t have patience
-and pleasure in their own children, why should they expect it in their
-nursemaids? And they don’t get it. I have often seen children dragging
-along, silent, listless, gaping, with an irritable or indifferent
-nurse, and a few minutes after I have met ‘mamma’ driving out to pay
-her calls.”
-
-“I am always so sorry for widows who have to leave their children to
-others simply that they may discharge other duties to their children
-themselves,” observed Lucy. “A woman cannot at once play with her
-babies and earn their bread. I’m afraid we don’t think enough about
-the hardships which beset some lives. Perhaps they seldom press on our
-attention till we feel a touch of them ourselves.”
-
-“I think a crèche is a very useful form of charity,” answered Miss
-Foster, “provided that rules are carefully made not to encourage
-married women to think of becoming wage-earners as if that was the
-proper thing when their husbands can and should be working for them.”
-
-Lucy smiled a little sadly.
-
-“I am not thinking only of the class who can be helped by a crèche,”
-she said. “I was thinking of another type of widowed women who uphold
-their homes by being authors or artists, or by managing shops or
-businesses. They are forced to leave their children so much under other
-influences, and it is so sad if, after bravely playing a father’s part
-for years, it ends in the disappointment of their mother-heart and the
-frustration of their best hopes.”
-
-“Ay, I quite agree with you!” cried Miss Foster heartily, “and I
-congratulate you warmly on being one of those whose light affliction,
-lasting but a little while, suffices to open new and wider sympathies.
-I hope you are always getting the best news of Mr. Challoner?” she
-added. For Lucy had told the little teacher how she was placed at the
-present time.
-
-“The very best of news, thank you,” Lucy answered. For Charlie’s ship
-letter had been followed by others, posted at various ports, and all
-telling the same good tidings of revived health and strength. Indeed,
-the very last letter had hinted that the improvement was so marked and
-so stable that Charlie was sorely tempted to shorten his absence and
-return home by steamer. He wrote that he had suggested this to Grant,
-who “seemed very much cut up about it, but had raised no difficulty.”
-
-In reply to that letter Lucy had written at once, urging her husband
-not to think of such a thing. The better he was, the better reason was
-there for carrying through the original plan. “Because the foundation
-is so good, there is the brighter prospect in building on it,” she
-said. And besides, Lucy confided to Charlie that Captain Grant’s wife,
-in writing to her, had said that the fee for Charlie’s trip would just
-enable her husband to pay off the last of his father’s debts, which he
-had honestly taken upon himself. “And when they have brought us such
-good luck in enabling you to take this voyage,” wrote Lucy, “we must
-not spoil any good luck that our share in the matter may have brought
-them. Let us be wise and patient,” wrote Lucy, crushing back a sneaking
-hope that Charlie might even have started homeward before he could get
-her reply to his letter. “In that case we must pay the Grants all the
-same,” she reflected, “though I am afraid they would not take it.” Then
-she proved to herself the sincerity of her counsels to Charlie by still
-resolutely withholding the story of her domestic changes, which she
-had meant to tell him at this time when she had pulled through so far.
-But if she did so, it might add the last link to the yearning that was
-pulling him home, and she would do nothing to strengthen a temptation
-whose force was revealed in her own heart.
-
-She walked home rather soberly after her little conversation with the
-Kindergarten mistress. Certainly it strengthened her in the resolutions
-she had formed and had steadily carried out. But she could not refuse
-to know that she was living under considerable strain. Her teaching
-at the Institute was strenuous and exacting. Apart from the mental
-exertion, she was on her feet all the time. By the time she reached
-home, she was thoroughly exhausted, and was really fit for nothing but
-a nap, or at least an afternoon’s repose on the sofa, half dreaming
-over some simple book. But there could be no such rest for her. For
-this was the only time when Hugh could have a walk, and so off they
-went together. She often wondered whether he noticed that she was not
-quite so lively as she used to be, not so ready for a run, or so good
-at a game of ball. But a little child takes much on trust. Then they
-came home to tea, which generally refreshed her considerably. After
-that, Hugh sat at her side, with his bricks, his picture books, or his
-“transparent slate,” while she did all the household mending. Jane
-Smith never put a finger to this, not because she refused to do so, but
-because when she attempted it on one occasion, she ruined a pair of
-fine grey woollen hand-knitted stockings, by drawing a slightly-worn
-heel together with coarse white worsted, showing that she had not the
-most rudimentary idea of what darning should be.
-
-Now this is just the kind of household work for which it would be
-a waste of time and power to hire help, especially in such a small
-family. Then as the washing was no longer done at home, Lucy had
-to prepare the account for the laundry, and to see that the things
-were sent home correctly, which as they scarcely ever were, led to
-correspondence and general worry.
-
-By the time all these inevitable little tasks were accomplished, it
-was generally time for Hugh to go to bed. After that Lucy was free. Of
-course, in the winter nights, painting was impossible. But through the
-art dealers, Lucy had heard of an opening for pen-and-ink sketches, and
-it was this eventide that she had hoped to give to this work. She could
-reckon on about two hours’ solitude, and yet retire to rest early.
-She soon found out, however, that leisure is of little avail for such
-pursuits if energies and spirits are exhausted beforehand.
-
-Yet Jane Smith was the very last person with whom Lucy could relax her
-vigilance in keeping Hugh to herself. She often shuddered to think
-how, had Mrs. Morison’s fair appearances held out a little longer, she
-might have been tempted to trust her boy with the nice motherly-looking
-widow—a misplaced confidence which might have ended in a terrible
-catastrophe. But Jane Smith offered no such temptation. She was so
-plainly nothing but the common professional servant, who does her
-work as well as any work can be done without genuine interest or any
-sense of what is fitting or pretty. After she had spread a tablecloth
-Mrs. Challoner generally had to straighten it; she drew the blinds up
-askew; she never noticed when a stair-rod slipped from its socket. Lucy
-herself always had to be watchful that clean sheets were well aired.
-Once she found them put quite damp upon the beds. Pollie had always
-fed the cat in the kitchen, and so had Mrs. Morison, and certainly the
-poor animal had thriven well under her brief _régime_, till that day of
-disgrace, when she dropped boiling gravy on it! But Lucy remarked that
-pussy, who had always come upstairs for “company,” now often came up
-mewing. Puss seemed getting thin, so Lucy took its meals into her own
-care. She asked Jane Smith if she neglected her. Jane Smith said “No,”
-but owned she “might have forgotten it sometimes.”
-
-That was Jane Smith all over. She took her wages and did her work, but
-it was without any “head,” and also, Lucy was forced to admit, without
-any heart.
-
-There was not much definite fault to be found with this Jane. The
-kitchen was fairly clean and tidy; it had only ceased to look snug and
-inviting. The public rooms were presentable—after Lucy had gone round
-everywhere, shaking out a curtain here, removing a chair from grazing
-the wall there, and lifting china bowls from perilous positions on the
-very edge of a shelf. As for the bedrooms, Jane did not seem to know
-how to make a bed comfortably, and did not seem able to learn. Lucy
-generally had much adjustment to do before she could happily court
-slumber.
-
-Still Jane carried on what may be called “the ruck” of household labour
-after a fashion. Lucy did not dream of giving her notice to leave, not
-being one of those mistresses with whom that possibility is for ever
-present. Indeed with her strained nerves and strength it seemed really
-far easier to supplement Jane’s perfunctory work than to entertain any
-thought of once more facing change and a wrestle with the unknown.
-
-Jane’s lover, the young carpenter, came regularly once a week, and
-stayed about two hours. Mrs. Challoner saw him once or twice, when
-household business took her to the kitchen, during his visits. He
-looked a dull, decent young man, with a shock of red hair and a smooth
-boyish face. He sat close beside the fire, even when the spring
-evenings had grown warm. Lucy addressed him with a cheerful “Good
-evening,” and made one or two slight remarks about the weather, to
-which he made little response save a movement of the lips, and a glance
-towards the area-window. He did not rise when Lucy entered the kitchen,
-but that rudeness seemed due only to shyness or slowness, for he always
-rose a few minutes afterwards and remained standing for the rest of
-her stay. Altogether, Lucy decided that he was not very bright; he was
-by no means one of those young working men who come to the front at
-evening colleges and clubs, and are the moving spirits of their trades’
-union. All the more, he seemed a fit enough match for Jane, who would
-have been indeed a hopeless drag on the life of any rising man.
-
-Sitting in her dining-room, Lucy could hear through its floor the
-sound of the voices in the kitchen, though the words, of course, were
-inaudible. The conversation of these courting evenings did not seem
-very lively. Jane said a few words, and the gruffer voice replied with
-a monosyllable, and then there would be a long pause, and presently the
-performance would be repeated.
-
-But one evening a week or two after Easter, the conversation seemed to
-have grown much livelier. It was the man who had the most to say, and
-he spoke faster and in a higher key than before.
-
-“Is he waking up at last?” thought unsuspicious Lucy, “or is it
-possible that they have had a little tiff, and that he is defending
-himself or scolding her? Perhaps he does not like her new bonnet.”
-
-For Lucy had seen Jane go out on the previous Sunday evening in fresh
-and gorgeous spring attire, her neat brown dress and black jacket
-crowned by an incompatible hat, round whose crown pink, green and blue
-roses, feathers and rosettes “screamed” loudly at each other. Lucy had
-thought to herself that her mother, in the old days, would at once have
-“put her foot down” on such headgear, but Lucy’s own sense of fairness
-rebelled against any arbitrary interference with a girl’s taste in
-dress (when going about her own business) simply because the girl was
-in her wage-paid service at other times.
-
-“I have seen Florence in hats I have liked as little, though they
-were different,” thought Lucy. “I know many mistresses can’t bear
-their servants to copy their style of dress—dear mother would have
-regarded it as an unpardonable impertinence—but I should be only too
-proud and happy if my servants would copy mine! Pollie was turning in
-that direction—with just a few extra bows and flowers, and silk velvet
-ribbon where I put modest braid!”
-
-But next week, when the courting evening came round, the hitherto
-silent lover was again voluble. Even sounds of laughter arose—a thing
-unprecedented! Lucy was always watchful to hear the kitchen door
-close and the manly step mount the area steps at the precise hour she
-had named. She had never had any reason to complain on this score.
-The carpenter had taken his departure with painful punctuality. But
-to-night, the nearest church-clock chimed nine, and the chat in the
-kitchen went gaily on. Presently Lucy looked at her watch—it was
-half-past nine. She hated to begin fault-finding for any trifling
-accidental lapse. Still it was time the supper-tray was brought up.
-
-She had her hand on the bell when there was quite a lively stampede
-in the kitchen, the area door closed with a hilarious bang, fleet
-feet mounted the area steps as if by two at a time, and the area gate
-clanged to the sound of a merry whistle.
-
-Jane, with the supper-tray, seemed more alert than usual, almost
-officious in her endeavour to do of her own accord little things of
-which Mrs. Challoner generally had to remind her.
-
-Next week, when the same evening came round, and the kitchen voices
-were again audible, it chanced that Lucy found she had left her
-housekeeping book on the kitchen dresser. She thought to herself that
-she would not ring for it, but would fetch it herself, and so take
-opportunity of keeping in touch with the domestic idyll whose new
-developments were beginning to interest her.
-
-But when she opened the kitchen door she started and almost cried out.
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-
-
-
-HOUSEHOLD HINTS.
-
-
-UNDER no circumstances whatever should bread be thrown away. Some
-can be baked hard in the oven, and then crushed with a rolling-pin
-and put away in a glass bottle or tin to use when frying chops or
-fish. Delicious puddings can be made also by soaking stale bread and
-crusts in milk, and beaten up when quite soft with eggs and mixed with
-raisins, candied peel and some spice, and baked. These can be eaten
-either hot or cold.
-
-
-THIN clean paper should never be thrown away, but kept in a kitchen
-drawer, for wiping out saucepans and frying-pans, and wiping butter off
-knives, to save cloths being cut by the latter.
-
-
-VERY early potatoes are often very unwholesome, having been forced by
-the aid of chemicals and not grown naturally.
-
-
-SEPARATE days should be arranged for cleaning the silver and brass
-articles in a house, and separate cloths and dusters used for them.
-
-
-A HARD broom should be kept in every coal-cellar to sweep up the loose
-coal each time coal is fetched, otherwise it is taken up on the shoes
-and carried over the house.
-
-
-SOILED linen should never be kept in bedrooms, but in a basket outside
-on a landing, or in the bath-room.
-
-
-IT is a pity to throw away clean paper-bags. They should be kept
-together and given to some small tradesman who will be glad to use them
-again. Old newspapers should be given to some poor invalid who will be
-glad of something to read, or sent to the workhouse or hospital.
-
-
-THE plug in a lavatory basin should not be left out, as it is liable to
-let sewer gas into the house.
-
-
-FLOWERING plants and their seeds should be planted with the growing and
-not with a waning moon.
-
-
-AFTER cooking is done, the dampers of a kitchen range should be shut in
-to save the coals.
-
-
-CULTIVATE the grace of thoughtfulness for others. This is invaluable
-in a household, and makes the wheels go round smoothly. Want of
-consideration for others, and thoughtlessness, is the source of much
-trouble.
-
-
-GAME and fowl bones should never be given to pet dogs. They cannot
-digest them, and such bones have been the cause of painful deaths.
-
-
-A FRUITFUL source of friction between the servants of a household is
-the unauthorised use of each other’s dusters, brooms, etc. To avoid all
-such unpleasantness, the cook and housemaid should have a completely
-independent and distinct set of things, and kept in different places;
-they should also be of a different colour or pattern, so as to be
-easily identified by the owners. The cloths should be returned clean
-each week to whoever presides over the linen cupboard, and fresh ones
-given out. It is bad economy and worse management to use the same
-cloths over and over again.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-SHEILA’S COUSIN EFFIE.
-
-A STORY FOR GIRLS.
-
-BY EVELYN EVERETT-GREEN, Author of “Greyfriars,” “Half-a-dozen
-Sisters,” etc.
-
-
-CHAPTER XII.
-
-A FAIR ISLAND.
-
-“Oh, how lovely!” cried Sheila.
-
-The glow of a golden sunset was on sea and shore, as the great vessel
-rounded the corner and came into view of the harbour of Funchal.
-The lonely Desertas to their left lay bathed in the reflected light
-from the westering sun, whilst upon their right lay the fair island
-of Madeira, its wild mountain range cleft with great ravines, and
-dotted with innumerable quintas and little houses shining in a sort of
-shimmering glory, the white city with its many buildings and spires
-lying peacefully on the margin of the sea, the shore alive with little
-boats, looking like so many caterpillars upon the green water as the
-rowers pushed them outwards towards the great in-coming steamer.
-
-“Oh, Miss Adene, I am quite sorry the voyage is over; but how lovely
-Madeira is!”
-
-“Yes, I told you you would be pleased! And see over yonder, beyond the
-town, on that sort of promontory as it looks from here, that is the New
-Hotel, where we are all going. It looks a little bare from here, but
-the garden is a wilderness of flowers when we get there. It is the most
-homelike hotel I was ever in, and I have had a good many experiences.
-Yes, those boats are to take us off. We cannot get very close inshore.
-The harbourage is not good, and in rough weather the mails have to
-stand a good way out, and I have known passengers swung on board in
-baskets by the steam-crane. But that is quite exceptional. Generally it
-is like to-day, calm and quiet, and the boats take us off without any
-trouble. Mr. Reid will come out in one, and take all trouble off our
-hands. We just give him our keys and tell him the number of our boxes,
-and he passes it through the Customs and brings it up, and we have no
-sort of trouble at all.”
-
-Mrs. Cossart was very much relieved to find how easily everything was
-done when once the kindly hotel proprietor came on board. She was able
-to give her undivided care to Effie, whilst Sheila was running about
-saying good-bye to captain, officers, and such passengers as were going
-on to the Cape or the Canaries, and in the end found herself left
-behind by that boat, and had to go ashore under Miss Adene’s wing,
-which, however, troubled her no whit.
-
-“A bullock-cart! Oof! How perfectly delicious!” she cried, as they were
-shown the conveyance in which they were to be carried to the hotel.
-“Oh, you dear creatures! What sweet faces they have! Oh, I hope they
-are kind to you! Miss Adene, isn’t it lovely to go in a bullock-cart?
-Oh, I hope it is a long way!”
-
-“It takes about twenty minutes. You see, the bullies do not go very
-fast,” laughed Miss Adene, as she took her place. “This is what we call
-a carro; it has runners like a sledge instead of wheels. You see, all
-the streets are paved with cobble-stones, so that the runners slide
-easily along them; and it is the same everywhere in the island right up
-into the hills; nothing but these paved roads for bullock carros, and
-running carros, and sleds for carrying goods. But the mountain carros
-are much lighter than these that they use in the town, or they could
-not get them up the steep, steep roads.”
-
-Sheila was in an ecstasy as they went jogging along through the
-quaint little town. She exclaimed with delight at everything she saw,
-the little brown-legged, dark-eyed children, the women with shawls
-over their heads, the little boys running with strange calls at the
-heads of the bullocks, and, above all, at the gorgeous masses of the
-flowering creepers which draped the walls of the houses and fell
-in great curtains over the outside mirantes. Deep orange bignonia,
-bougainvillia, purple and scarlet, delicate plumbago, with roses and
-heliotrope in such masses that the eye was dazzled and the air heavy
-with perfume.
-
-“I could not have believed it if I had not seen it!” cried Sheila again
-and again. “And, oh, how hot and delicious it is! Effie must get well
-here!”
-
-The New Hotel was a fine building, and there was pretty little Mrs.
-Reid waiting smiling in the hall to give them a welcome. Miss Adene had
-several kindly questions to ask, and went off with Mrs. Reid to the
-suite of rooms which had been bespoken for the Dumaresqs, whilst Sheila
-was handed over to the care of a tall, slight, ladylike girl, who took
-her up and up to the rooms selected by Mrs. Cossart.
-
-“It is a long way up, but they thought the air would be fresher and the
-rooms more quiet for the lady who is ill,” she explained; and Sheila,
-to whom stairs were no trouble, was delighted. After all, it was only
-on the second floor; only, the rooms being lofty, the journey seemed a
-little long.
-
-“Oh, Effie,” cried Sheila, “what a splendid room! How high, and cool,
-and delicious! Oh, I do like these white walls! And what views we get!
-Oh, how I love those great, great wild mountains! And there is the dear
-sea out of this one. It is nice to have two different views, and both
-so lovely! Oh, how happy we shall be!”
-
-Effie was lying on the sofa, but she was looking interested and
-animated. The maid passed in and out, looking about her, and keeping an
-eye on her young charge.
-
-“Yes, I like being up here. I feel as though I could breathe. I was
-afraid it might be too hot below. Father and mother have the room next
-but one looking south over the sea, and Susan has the next one, though
-it is big, so that we are all together. She may have to move when the
-hotel fills up; but she is to be there now. I think I shall like this
-place, Sheila; and the people seem so kind.”
-
-Kindness indeed seemed to prevail here. The Portuguese chambermaid,
-in her odd, broken English, was wishful to know what kind of bedding
-and pillows the ladies liked; and when she brought in anything asked
-for, she would set it down with a beaming smile, saying, “Sank you, my
-ladies.” The curly-haired waiter who brought up afternoon tea almost at
-once was wishful to know what the ladies liked; and before long, Mrs.
-Reid had come up to see if Effie were comfortable, and talk cheerfully
-and kindly to her till called off in another direction.
-
-“I must just run down and round the garden!” cried Sheila, after they
-had eagerly drunk their tea. “I wonder if I might bring you back some
-flowers? If I see Mrs. Reid, I will ask her.”
-
-Mrs. Reid quite laughed at the question as Sheila passed her going out.
-
-“As many as ever you like. And take care not to slip on the pebbled
-paths. People have got to get used to them.”
-
-Ronald was outside, and hailed Sheila eagerly.
-
-“Come along and let us explore!” he cried. “Give me your hand. These
-cobbles are mighty slippery. They say gravel would be washed away by
-the tropical showers even if they could get it. But it’s precious queer
-walking down these steep places. One wants to be a bullock for that.”
-
-It was a strange, wild garden, with great palms growing in the beds,
-and the walls of the terraces, for it was all more or less terraced
-out of the face of the cliff, covered with curtains of creepers, most
-of them a mass of bloom. Roses in sprays as long as your arm drooped
-temptingly within reach, and the little heavy-scented gardenia filled
-the air with fragrance.
-
-Sheila ran from place to place, exclaiming and admiring, glancing
-with shy interest at other visitors strolling about, and making her
-companion laugh again and again by her enthusiasm.
-
-“Oof, a tennis-court!” she cried, darting suddenly through an opening.
-“Oh, did you ever see anything so lovely? It is like a Tadema picture!”
-
-It was rather, for the floor was of concrete, looking white in the
-fading light, and there were stone seats all round it for spectators,
-whiter still. All round a trellis had been placed, wired in against
-balls, and this trellis was just one sheet of glorious colour. Curtains
-of bougainvillia hung over at one place, at another heliotrope of roses
-made a perfect screen, intermingled with scarlet geranium, poinsettia,
-and plumbago. Through little gaps in this floral curtain, and through
-vistas of palm and cactus beyond, could be caught glimpses of the blue
-sea, and overhead the sky rose sapphire clear, with that peculiar
-purity and depth of colour which characterises those latitudes.
-
-“Oh, isn’t it lovely?” cried Sheila in ecstasy.
-
-“Awfully pretty,” replied her companion, “though the floor might be
-better for playing. There are some big cracks. Do you like tennis, Miss
-Cholmondeley?”
-
-“Oof, yes!” cried the girl eagerly; “but I have not had much practice
-this summer. Effie was ill, and I was not going to parties. Do you play
-well, Mr. Dumaresq?”
-
-“No, not well according to the modern standard; but perhaps you will
-condescend to play with me. But come along; I want to see what that
-little building is up there. In there is the bungalow, a sort of
-dependence of the hotel. The Reids offered it to us as an independent
-home of our own, but as Guy is rather lame and weak, and we should have
-to come up to the hotel for meals, we declined; there are too many
-steps. But it is a pretty place; such a sheer drop to the sea below. It
-must be like living in a ship’s cabin. Now I want to see how to get to
-that other building. I think there’s a sort of a path round here. I’ve
-a fancy it may be the billiard-room from my aunt’s description of the
-place.”
-
-A billiard-room it was—half of it, at least; the other half was quite
-empty save for a piano and some chairs round the walls.
-
-“It looks made for a dance!” cried Sheila, pirouetting round. “Are all
-hotels as perfectly delightful as this?”
-
-The sun had just dipped behind the hills, and the shadows were coming
-on apace.
-
-“I suppose it gets dark pretty soon here,” said Ronald. “Let us go back
-to the house now. We must finish the garden to-morrow. There is plenty
-more to see.”
-
-Sheila had sprays of roses and heliotrope in her hands as she ran
-upstairs to Effie. A lamp had been brought in, and the big, lofty room
-looked quite gay.
-
-“Oh, what roses!” cried Effie in real delight. “Aren’t they splendid? I
-am going to like this place immensely, Sheila, and we have such a good
-plan. Susan isn’t to have the big room next door; it’s to be turned
-into a sitting-room for us. Mrs. Reid will get it done to-morrow, and
-Susan will sleep in a little room close by; then this great turret
-place will be all our own, and we can have our friends up to tea and
-all that sort of thing. I want to get to know the Dumaresqs better. You
-get on with them very well, don’t you, Sheila?”
-
-“They are very kind to me. I think they were sorry for me on ship-board
-because I was alone at first. Lady Dumaresq is lovely, and the little
-boy is so sweet, and Miss Adene has always been like a friend.”
-
-Effie was moving about the room a little restlessly.
-
-“I don’t quite know how it is—I suppose it’s being ill—but I don’t seem
-to get on with people quite in the easy way you do, Sheila; but you
-know at home, before I was ill, they all used to listen and laugh as
-they do now to you. I don’t want to be left out in the cold.”
-
-“Oh, no!” cried Sheila eagerly, though with a slightly heightened
-colour. Somehow she too had the feeling that people did not take very
-much to Effie. They all asked kindly after her, but a little of her
-conversation seemed to go a long way.
-
-Mrs. Cossart here came in to say that she would dine upstairs with
-Effie, but that Sheila had better go down with her uncle. So Susan
-was sent for to get at a dress, the luggage having arrived all safe,
-and the girl was soon arrayed in a soft black net evening gown, very
-simple, but very becoming, with a spray of white roses fastened upon
-her shoulder.
-
-“Mind you tell me about all the people when you come back!” said
-Effie, who was quite lively and bright in spite of the fatigues and
-excitements of the day; and Sheila was all curiosity herself, for she
-had never before stayed at a big hotel, and the novelty of the life
-amused and interested her immensely.
-
-In the drawing-room there were a few old ladies and a couple of
-gentlemen reading the paper. They did not look very amusing, Sheila
-thought. Then the Dumaresqs came in, except Sir Guy, who was not well
-enough to appear. But Lady Dumaresq looked bright and happy, confident
-that the warmth and beauty about him would soon put him right.
-
-A gong sounded, and there was a move to the adjoining dining-room,
-and Sheila found herself seated at a long table between her uncle and
-Ronald Dumaresq, who coolly took possession of the empty seat laid for
-Effie, whilst the other guests filed in, some to the long table, and
-some to the small ones at the side, and the business of dinner began.
-
-Sheila was not hungry, but she enjoyed watching and listening. A rather
-handsome lady opposite was making advances to their party with an air
-of assurance and friendly patronage which rather amused Sheila.
-
-“A regular old hotel stager,” whispered Ronald to her in an aside,
-“would know the sort anywhere. Keeps her husband in good order, one can
-see. Rather a fine woman, but I don’t care for her style.”
-
-Then there were the usual habitués of a health resort—a wife with a
-delicate husband, a husband with a delicate wife, a mother with a
-little asthmatic boy (who would have been better in bed at such an
-hour), a few travellers bent on pleasure and relaxation rather than
-health. Sheila tried to piece histories on to the different faces, and
-Ronald made some comical remarks and shrewd guesses. But the party was
-not large for the size of the hotel. The season was quite early. It was
-not often so full as this till after Christmas. A rather wet summer and
-the threatened outbreak of influenza had frightened a good many people
-off before the usual time.
-
-“I think I’m glad of it,” said Sheila. “It is such fun watching them.
-They are all rather quiet now, but I suppose they will make more noise
-when they get to know each other.”
-
-“We must try and set a good example,” answered Ronald. “Now come on to
-the verandah outside and see the moonlight on the sea.”
-
-The covered verandah outside the drawing-room, with its comfortable
-chairs and lounges, was quite an institution at the New. Although on
-the entrance side the drawing-room appeared a ground-floor room, from
-the verandah one looked right down over the terraced garden with a
-sheer drop on to the next level of twenty or thirty feet. The view over
-the harbour was lovely, the town lights and those of the ships gleaming
-out in the soft darkness.
-
-“There goes the _Plymouth Castle_,” said Ronald, pointing out the
-vanishing lights of the great steamer. Sheila waved her hand in a
-parting salutation.
-
-“Good-bye, dear old ship. I liked being on you very much, but I don’t
-want to be on you now, for you have brought us to the most charming and
-delightful place. Oh, how happy I am going to be here!”
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-
-
-
-FROCKS FOR TO-MORROW.
-
-BY “THE LADY DRESSMAKER.”
-
-
-[Illustration: THE TUNIC SKIRT.]
-
-Our sketches of to-day’s fashions in our present issue are so
-absolutely true to life that there is no difficulty in guessing the
-nature of the frocks for to-morrow. As will be gathered from them, we
-are quite out of date if we be fat; therefore, if ambitious of shining
-in the world of dress, we must begin to reduce our size at once. Have
-you noticed, as I have, how much the number of fat women is decreasing?
-Perhaps, after a time, they will be a marvellous exception, and we
-shall notice them just as we notice sloping shoulders and attenuated
-waists; to both of which our immediate forbears were addicted. The
-waists of the present day seem generally in excellent proportion, and
-for this we have to thank our adoption of the bicycle, on which the
-corset cannot be worn, or, at least, very short ones, and not at all
-tight. In one way, at least, we need improvement, and that is in our
-carriage, for in that so many women and girls fail. They stoop from the
-neck, or from the waist, and slouch along in a most ungraceful way.
-
-I must begin with a few notes on underclothing. So far as I can see,
-the petticoat bodice is very little worn; most ladies seem to prefer
-having the bodice fitted over the corset, and wearing it in that
-manner, the corset itself being worn over the petticoat. The only
-drawback to this is that the dress-bodice would so speedily become
-soiled at the back of the neck. So I think one of those pretty muslin
-under-bodices, which are cut in Bolero style, and trimmed with lace,
-would be the best thing to prevent it. I have lately found some very
-good and well-woven cotton combinations, which ranged in price from 1s.
-9d. up to 4s. and 5s. They are more economical wear than either woollen
-or silk ones, and entail less risk of catching cold than either. They
-wash well, and are very well-fitting. I find this woven underclothing,
-either as combinations or vests, is more used than anything else.
-Indeed, one could fancy as much from the enormous supply laid in at the
-shops, of every material, size, and colour. Many of them are so thin
-that they will hardly bear washing.
-
-In the way of petticoats, we have an unlimited choice, and a vast
-improvement in the cut and manufacture, as well as in the material. The
-fashionable colour of the season for them is pink—a bright and rather
-violent shade, but it looks well with most things, especially black.
-The new moreens of the present season are of such a good description
-that they are almost like a watered silk, and they quite rustle like
-one. They have, however, rather changed their names, and they are
-called by some Marshallette, or watered woollen moirés.
-
-The new collars for our dresses are, most of them, very high indeed,
-and pointed up to the ears at each side. The swathing of the neck with
-lace and the high collars make everyone look very much covered up
-indeed, and as the season progresses it will be very hot. There are
-all kinds of boas made, and they appear to be the only season’s wear.
-These boas are made of feathers—ostrich, of course—in black, white,
-grey, and black and white mixed; in silk, lace, fringe, in chiffon of
-all colours, silk muslin, spotted nets, and gauzes, the spotted nets
-being, I think, the prettiest, though, of course, the most perishable.
-Although they are so expensive, everyone seems to find money to
-purchase them, and some few girls manage to find out the way to make
-them for themselves.
-
-Where skirts are concerned, we appear to have no choice but to make
-them quite tight-fitting about the hips, and they must flow out about
-them; but we need not quite adopt the eel-skin skirt, for there are
-several shapes from which we can make our choice. First, there is the
-old umbrella skirt, as it used to be called, which is cut without
-seams, and from material wide enough to cut it without any join, save
-the one. Then there is a skirt cut in the same manner, with a join
-up the back, and then a skirt with two widths, one of which is very
-wide and the other narrow. This seems to be the most popular, as it is
-more easy to fit. The last skirt that I have seen is one with three
-widths, the front one being narrow and the other two wide, meeting in
-the centre of the back in a bias seam. This, I am told by a first-rate
-dressmaker, is the best skirt-pattern for very thin people, who are
-gifted with big hips, however, and who are tall.
-
-I am bound to notice the extravagances of fashion, so I must tell you
-that if you have not enough width of hips to make your dress look
-well, you can make up the deficiency by purchase; and a large drapery
-firm in the West End was exhibiting a few days ago the necessary
-framework in their windows. But it does not do always to trust to such
-machinery _pour se faire belle_, as I must tell you also that they
-sometimes get out of place, and then you have hips where you do not
-want them! I heard this funny story told the other day, but I cannot
-vouch for its truth, though I think the foolish people who adopt such
-things would deserve to be made ridiculous.
-
-There is one great comfort in the midst of the frills and furbelows
-of fashion, that we may be quite as fashionable, and twice as happy,
-if we elected to stick to our coats and skirts and our pretty blouses
-of cotton and muslin. The newest ones of this year are really quite
-tight-fitting bodices. They are not gathered at the shoulder seams nor
-at the neck, and they are cut so tightly to the figure that they allow
-of next to no fulness at the waist, which makes them sit in a far more
-tidy and neat way. They are all made with yokes at the back, and they
-have generally a very tight bishop’s sleeve.
-
-The tunic, or, as perhaps you may hear it called, and more usually
-so, the double skirt, as they are really only modifications of each
-other, looks as if it had come to take up its abode with us, having
-been threatened for a long time. We have illustrated two or three of
-the most popular, which are undoubtedly the ones with points which
-fall nearly to the hem. Besides this there is a very long all-round
-tunic, the edges of which are scallopped, and fall very low on the
-under-skirt. As all our gowns are made much too long, and must be held
-up, this is the most uncomfortable shape of all.
-
-Perhaps the greatest change of the year has taken place in the
-sunshades, which are striped in various and wonderful ways, and some
-surprising colours. As to the embroideries, chiffons, laces, and
-ornaments lavished on them, they are so many I have no room to describe
-them. The latest I have seen was of chiffon, embroidered in straw; and
-on another I counted sixteen rows of gathered baby-ribbon in three
-colours, the foundation being in green satin.
-
-[Illustration: A CLOTH GOWN.]
-
-Our first group of three figures shows, as we have already said, three
-varieties of the tunic. The gown on the extreme left is of heliotrope
-canvas, over white silk. It has a pointed tunic, trimmed with white
-silk, or satin, ribbon, or tucking. The same is placed in rows on the
-top of the sleeves, and there are rows of heliotrope satin on the
-collar and on the edge of the skirt. This is a very pretty and girlish
-gown, which could be carried out in any thicker material if desired.
-The figure on the right hand side wears a gown of plain grey alpaca,
-with an under-dress of a crimson-figured poplin, which has rows of
-narrow black velvet round the edge. The tunic is also trimmed with rows
-of black velvet, with cream lace, and the bodice has a white satin
-yoke, with a front of crimson and trimmings of black velvet also, with
-double revers, which fold back. The hat is of the new boat shape, and
-has three ostrich feathers in it. These are very much uncurled, as it
-is no longer the fashion to curl them very tightly, and the stem must
-show down its entire length. They are often of shaded colours, and are
-of moderate length.
-
-[Illustration: TWO CAPES AND HATS.]
-
-The centre figure wears a very smart gown in muslin, with flowers, the
-colour being blue, in shades. It is made up over blue. There are three
-scalloped flounces, and a tunic, which are edged with blue velvet, and
-a tiny lace. The bodice has revers of cream-coloured chiffon, and there
-are frills of the same at the side front, and the waist-band is of
-heliotrope velvet, and is very narrow.
-
-The charming figure in a fawn cloth tailor-made gown wears one of the
-rather long and rounded jackets. The trimmings consist of rows of
-satin ribbon and cream lace, three rows of which go round the skirt
-and jacket. The front is of white satin and cream lace, and the collar
-has rows of satin on it to correspond. These narrow satin ribbons and
-tuckings, made of silk and satin, are the special trimmings of the
-year, and they seem quite ubiquitous, and look so pretty that we have
-not got tired of them yet.
-
-There are so many muslins—organdies, and the ordinary corded ones—that
-it is quite a muslin year, and the lace and narrow ribbons used on them
-are enormous in amount. Lawn of the same colour is generally used for
-the linings if you do not choose to afford silk. A fine sateen will
-also answer.
-
-Our third drawing shows two pretty hats and two of the most fashionable
-capes, which still contrive to hold their own in the dress of the
-present season. The figure on the left wears a short cape of heliotrope
-silk, tucked and trimmed with frills of white chiffon, and it has one
-of those stoat fronts, which are quite new this year. The cape to the
-right is of grey satin, with pointed fronts, and a large collar of
-white satin, with front revers of the same. The whole is edged with a
-_ruche_ of black chiffon. The hat is of the new Cavalier shape, with
-feathers and a buckle.
-
-The prettiest change of the year is in the sailor hats, which are now
-trimmed and made to look quite different from the plain and useful
-things they used to be. A white one that I saw the other day had six
-rows of narrow velvet ribbon at equal distances round the crown, and
-a rosette of the same at the right side. Another had a wide band of
-red velvet on it, with an upstanding spray of cherries at the side,
-and bows of red velvet mixed in with them. Both were to be worn with
-washing veils.
-
-
-
-
-VARIETIES.
-
-
-A SUFFICIENT REASON.
-
-_Author:_ “But why do you charge me more for printing this time than
-usual?”
-
-_Publisher:_ “Because the compositors were constantly falling asleep
-over your novel.”
-
-
-LIVING HAPPILY TOGETHER.—A few more smiles of silent sympathy, a few
-more tender words, a little more restraint on temper, may make all the
-difference between happiness and half-happiness to those we live with.
-
-
-FRIENDSHIP.
-
-    Well-chosen friendship, the most noble
-    Of virtues, all our joys makes double
-    And into halves divides our trouble.
-
-        _Denham._
-
-
-HOW THEY CLOSED THE DAY.
-
-When Dr. Walsham How was rector of Whittington, an old woman, on the
-occasion of his first visit, said to him—
-
-“The old man and me, sir, never go to bed without singing the Evening
-Hymn. Not that I’ve any voice left, for I haven’t, and as for him, he’s
-like a bee in a bottle, and then he don’t humour the tune, for he don’t
-rightly know one tune from another, and he can’t remember the words,
-neither, so when he leaves out a word I puts it in, and when I can’t
-sing I dances, and so we get through it somehow.”
-
-
-SHOWING AND SEEING.—Behaviour is a mirror in which everyone shows and
-might see her own image.—_Goethe._
-
-
-MENTAL EXERTION.
-
-A lady took her Irish maid to task for carelessness and forgetfulness.
-“Why is it, Mary,” said she, “that you keep on making the same mistakes
-over and over again? Why don’t you try to remember what I tell you?”
-
-The day happened to be very warm, so Mary returned the quaint reply,
-“Sure, ma’am, I can’t be aggravatin’ me moind this hot weather.”
-
-
-CONSOLATION.—There never was a night which was not followed by a
-morning, nor a winter which was not succeeded by a summer. A most
-consoling reflection, this, to those distressed in the night and winter
-of spiritual trial and trouble.
-
-
-
-
-COURTESY.
-
-BY ELIZABETH A. S. DAWES, M.A., D.Lit.
-
-    “_Plus fait douceur que violence._”—_La Fontaine_, vi. 3.
-
-    “A beautiful behaviour is better than a beautiful form; it gives a
-    higher pleasure than statues and pictures; it is the finest of the
-    fine arts.”—_Emerson._
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-I have chosen “courtesy” as the subject of my little address this
-time, as it is a virtue which is perhaps somewhat in danger of being
-forgotten and overlooked in these modern days of continual hurry
-and bustle; and yet it forms such an essential part of a beautiful
-character that nobody can justly claim the title of “gentleman” or
-“gentlewoman” if he or she neglects the practice of it, which is, too,
-the opinion of our Shakespeare, for he writes, “We must be gentle now
-we are gentlemen” (_Winter’s Tale_, v. 2).
-
-The derivation of the word, which really means the manners and
-behaviour to be observed at a royal court, is neatly given by Spenser
-in his _Faerie Queene_, Book vi. 1.
-
-    “Of _court_, it seems, men _courtesie_ do call,
-      For that it there most useth to abound;
-    And well beseemeth, that in princes hall
-      That vertue should be plentifully found,
-    Which of all goodly manners is the ground
-    And root of civil conversation”;
-
-and Milton likewise says that “_courtesy_ was first named in _courts_
-of princes.” And as an example of a prince who practised this virtue
-we may quote from an old memoir about Henry VIII., “We cannot omit
-to observe this _courtly_ (shall I call it?) or good quality in him;
-that he was _courteous_, and did seem to study to oblige.” However,
-the English girls of to-day need not look far for the pattern of a
-perfectly gracious and courteous woman, for who fulfils this ideal
-better than her Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria? Who better known than
-she for the courteous message of thanks to her troops when they have
-nobly done their duty, or for the quick expression of sympathy to the
-suffering victims of an accident or some personal bereavement?
-
-Then for a definition or short explanation of what _courtesy_ is we
-cannot do better than turn to _The Greatest Thing in the World_. Here
-on p. 26 we learn that courtesy is an ingredient of Love, that it is
-“Love in Society, Love in relation to Etiquette,” and has been defined
-as “love in little things”; in a word it is the quality denoted by the
-sentence, “Love doth not behave itself unseemly.” From these words
-we can also gather the reason why we should all show courtesy, for,
-as it is one of the components of love, and Christ said that all His
-disciples were to be distinguished from the rest of the world by their
-love for another, we shall not be true followers of Christ, or have
-a really beautiful character, if we omit any part of love; just as a
-beautiful mosaic could never be otherwise than imperfect, if, though
-complete in all other respects, the stones of one certain colour were
-everywhere missing.
-
-It must also be remembered that a courteous behaviour should be worn
-always and everywhere, and not only put on like a grand robe for state
-occasions, for courtesy is “a happy way of doing things, and should
-adorn even the smallest details of life, and contribute to render
-it as a whole agreeable and pleasant.” Hence, first and foremost,
-courtesy should be practised in the home by the children both towards
-their parents and towards each other. This is a matter which merits
-more attention and thought than is generally given to it, for by a
-courteous manner and a gentle tongue, more influence in the government
-of others is often attained than by qualities of greater depth and
-substance. Now woman, not man, is the true home-maker, therefore girls
-should take great pains to be courteous, and thus by their gentleness
-lead and direct the perhaps rude and selfish brother who will probably
-unconsciously sooner or later imitate and adopt his sister’s gracious
-ways. A sweet-tongued gentle maiden cannot fail to render the home,
-be it a poor or rich one, both pleasant and dear to her brothers and
-sisters. And then to parents how far more gentle and courteous we
-all should be than we are. It has been well said that a blessing is
-never fully realised until it is lost, and so I fear we hardly any of
-us realise clearly and distinctly to ourselves how much our parents,
-especially our dear mothers, do and suffer for us until the day comes
-when we know what it is to be without them.
-
-Dr. Miller, in his book _The Building of Character_, which I should
-earnestly recommend every girl to read, says, “Wherever else we may
-fail in patience, it should not be in our own homes. Only the sweetest
-life should have place there. We have not long to stay together, and
-we should be patient and gentle while we may.” And to enforce this
-teaching, he quotes one of the tenderest little poems ever written, and
-of which I subjoin a couple of verses:—
-
-    “The hands are such dear hands;
-    They are so full; they turn at our demands
-    So often; they reach out
-    With trifles scarcely thought about;
-    So many times they do
-    So many things for me, for you,
-    If their fond wills mistake,
-    We may well bend—not break.
-
-    They are such fond frail lips,
-    That speak to us. Pray, if love strips
-    Them of discretion many times,
-    Or if they speak too slow or quick, such crimes
-    We may pass by; for we may see
-    Days not far off when those small words may be
-    Held not so slow or quick, or out of place, but dear,
-    Because the lips are no more here.”
-
-Further, a courteous manner should be used towards the servants, orders
-given politely and unnecessary troubling of them avoided; for instance,
-lying late in bed, though intensely pleasant, often necessitates the
-disarrangement of the servants’ morning work, for which the delinquent
-herself will perhaps blame them later in the day.
-
-At _school_, again, how many “open doors” are there for doing little
-courtesies to mistresses and schoolfellows, and for aiding to maintain
-the peace and harmony both in class-room and playground by a gentle
-look or word, and for the “soft answer which turneth away wrath,” and
-stays the rising quarrel. The girl who will be most beloved, and
-who will have the best influence in a school, is undoubtedly she who
-is ever ready with a pleasant smile to play with the little ones,
-to say a kind word to another when in trouble, and who shows by her
-whole behaviour that she wishes to make those around her happy and
-comfortable. Then on those days of discouragement, when, in spite of
-all endeavours, the lessons are not well known, and it seems useless
-to go on trying to do as well as the other girls, or when, perchance,
-unmerited blame or irritating teasing has unnerved and tired you,
-how you welcome the friend who, without being told, knows how “wrong
-everything is going,” and with gentle loving words strives to cheer
-you, and bids you take heart again and bravely return to the fight.
-
-If we look at the reverse of the picture and contemplate the
-discourteous girl, be it at home or at school, we cannot fail to
-observe how many opportunities she loses of giving pleasure. She may
-come down to breakfast, and just mutter a “Good morning” and omit
-the morning kiss; during the day she may never notice how often she
-might fetch something for her mother or mistress, jump up or open the
-door for somebody with their hands full, or try to subdue her loud
-boisterous laughing or talking in a room where others are busy reading
-or writing—she will also pass in and out of a door in front of her
-elders, pay little attention to the wants of her neighbours at table;
-in short, she will not increase in any way the pleasantness of her
-surroundings.
-
-A word of warning, too, must be given to those girls who, with the best
-of intentions to try and do right and help others, make the mistake
-through their very excess of zeal of directing or correcting others
-in a rough, brusque way, and perhaps enforce their words by a not too
-gentle push or shove! These must read La Fontaine’s fable of _Phoebus
-and Boreas_, or _The Sun and the Northwind_, and see how the north
-wind, for all his violent blowing, could not divest the traveller of
-his cloak, whereas the sun by the influence of his gentle warming rays
-soon accomplished that in which the rough blasts of Boreas had failed.
-And if they follow the teaching of this fable, they will soon see how
-much more the gentle word accomplishes than the rough one.
-
-And now to close, I would like to ask you, who read these few remarks
-of mine, to endeavour to put more gentleness and courtesy in your
-dealings with other people than you have done heretofore; for in all
-of us there is always room for improvement, and there is not one of
-us surely but must admit that we often leave little courtesies undone
-and little gentle words unsaid. Courtesy is like the drop of oil that
-enables machinery to work noiselessly and smoothly, for it lessens the
-jars and friction of life and the consequent worry and fretfulness.
-Little things make or mar the peace of life, therefore exhibit courtesy
-which is “Love in little things,” and you will gain the gratitude and
-esteem of those around you, and carry away in your minds these lines of
-Lord Houghton, and never, if you can avoid it, lose an opportunity of
-putting them into practice—
-
-      “An arm of aid to the weak,
-        A friendly hand to the friendless,
-      _Kind words, so short to speak,
-        But whose echo is endless:_
-    The world is wide—these things are small,
-    They may be nothing, but they are All.”
-
-
-
-
-THINGS IN SEASON, IN MARKET AND KITCHEN.
-
-BY LA MÉNAGÈRE.
-
-
-Glorious June! Can anyone complain of a lack of the least good thing?
-Rather we have _un embarras de richesse_; so much so, indeed, that
-we hardly know what to select for our typical _menu_. Look at the
-vegetable market, for instance. See the piles of snowy cauliflowers,
-the crisp cabbages and spinach, the quantities of salad stuffs,
-cucumbers, spring carrots and turnips, asparagus, artichokes, peas
-and French beans, while the very potatoes look attractive. Then see
-the fruit, the ever-welcome green gooseberries, strawberries, early
-raspberries, and ripe cherries galore. The fruiterers have golden
-apricots, nectarines, custard apples, and many other luscious things.
-The fishmongers are showing plovers’ eggs in their little nests of
-moss, the pinkest of prawns and crabs, scarlet lobsters in a garnish
-of parsley, magnificent salmon, salmon-trout, speckled trout, and
-beautiful fine soles, with mackerel that glisten like the whitebait.
-
-Game is, of course, of no account now; but young chickens are coming to
-the fore, and pigeons are excellent, so also are the plovers.
-
-Then look at the wealth of June blossom that is poured into the market.
-Can anything surpass the beauty of these roses? Lilies and hydrangeas,
-snowy narcissi, gorgeous tulips, iris, and peonies, and if you can find
-a sweeter or a more splendid flower than a blush peony of the Dutch
-variety, you will be clever indeed. Sweet mignonette, sweet peas, and
-still sweeter pinks, make the air quite heavy with their fragrance.
-Then we have quantities of beautiful grasses, mosses, ferns, and
-foliage plants here for all sorts of purposes, for June is the harvest
-month of the floral decorator. Dinners, balls, receptions, weddings, at
-homes—all make great demand on the markets this month.
-
-The place of game at fashionable dinners is taken by plovers’ eggs,
-or by an aspic jelly. As the eggs are usually sold ready boiled, and
-require no accompaniment, we may leave them without further remark; but
-it might be useful here if we considered the making of a simple aspic
-jelly such as could be manufactured by the home cook.
-
-_Aspic Jelly._—Get a knuckle-bone of veal and one of ham and crack
-them in pieces. Put with them a large onion, with two cloves, a large
-carrot, a bunch of savoury herbs, and two quarts of water. Let these
-simmer gently in a brown stone jar for several hours, then strain off.
-To a pint of this stock (which should be perfectly clear) add one
-ounce of Swinborne’s isinglass previously soaked in cold water, also
-a teaspoonful of salt, a little pepper, a tablespoonful of tarragon
-vinegar; and then a wineglassful of strong sherry. Stir over the fire
-until it nearly boils, then break into the liquor the whites of two
-eggs and the shells, stir well, and draw to the side of the fire; let
-it simmer for a quarter of an hour, then strain through a jelly-bag
-three or four times until it is perfectly clear. Keep the mould in a
-very cold place until it is wanted. The quart should make two moulds of
-jelly. A good jelly will keep for some time, and is often most useful
-for an invalid.
-
-An aspic of game or poultry makes an excellent luncheon dish, and will
-prove an easy and dainty way of serving up the remains of cold poultry,
-etc.
-
-Pour some ready-made aspic jelly into the bottom of a plain round mould
-which has been wetted with cold water. Next make a layer of stars and
-diamonds from the white and yellow of a hard-boiled egg, a few fine
-sprigs of parsley, and the red part of a cold tongue here and there.
-Let this set, then lay on thin slices of cold fowl and ham, leaving
-plenty of space to run more jelly in between. Fill the mould up to the
-top with jelly, then put it away to set. When quite stiff turn it out
-on to a dish.
-
-Suppose that for our June _menu_ we take the following:
-
-                  Bisque of Crab.
-                Devilled Whitebait.
-    Grenadines of Veal.      Jardinière Sauce.
-                   Aspic Jelly.
-        Saddle of Lamb.      French Beans.
-                 Gooseberry Tart.
-   Cream Cheese.      Oaten Wafers.      Coffee.
-
-_Bisque of Crab._—Wash well in several waters half a pound of the
-best rice, put it into a saucepan with a quart of the best clear
-white stock, and add a little milk. Add also an onion, a small piece
-of cinnamon, a little salt and pepper and a good bit of butter. Let
-the rice simmer a long while, then add to it the pith from the body
-of a freshly-boiled crab, and another pint of milk or stock. Rub all
-carefully through a sieve, then pour it into a stewpan with the flesh
-from the claws torn into flakes, add a teaspoonful of the essence of
-anchovies, a teaspoonful of arrowroot dissolved in a little milk, and a
-few drops of cochineal to deepen the colour. At the last moment, before
-serving, after the soup has boiled up once, add a small cupful of hot
-cream.
-
-_Devilled Whitebait._—To fry whitebait a good depth of clear frying fat
-is needed, and a frying basket in which the fish can all be plunged
-into the fat at once. They should be carefully wiped, then lightly
-shaken in a well-floured cloth, just so as to coat them sufficiently.
-Plunge into boiling fat for about three minutes, then withdraw them
-from the fat, sprinkle them with black and red pepper, return to the
-pan for another minute, then drain and serve on a napkin with fried
-parsley as a garnish. Send quarters of lemon and brown bread and butter
-to table with them.
-
-_Grenadines of Veal, Jardinière Sauce._—A slice of the best lean
-fillet of veal, about two-thirds of an inch thick, should be shaped
-into small pieces, and then dipped into beaten egg and into a mixture
-of breadcrumbs, minced ham and seasoning. Fry these carefully on both
-sides to a light brown, then put between two plates and stand in a hot
-oven.
-
-For the sauce take a pint of stock, and one onion, a large carrot,
-a turnip, a few French beans, a few peas, and any other available
-vegetable. Mince these finely and evenly, fry them in dripping, drain
-and add to the stock. Thicken this with a spoonful of potato flour, and
-season highly. Boil gently for a while, then pour in the centre of a
-hot dish and set the grenadines around the edge. Let boiled potatoes
-(small ones) accompany this dish.
-
-The saddle of lamb should be simply roasted and served with its own
-gravy; the French beans boiled first, then sautéd, in butter with
-chopped parsley, and potatoes, if liked, treated the same way. Pass
-mint sauce around as well.
-
-Cream should accompany the gooseberry tart, and strawberries with cream
-might appear at the same time, or in lieu of the tart as preferred.
-
-A roast duck and green peas might take the place of the saddle of lamb,
-according as means and circumstances permit.
-
-
-
-
-OLD ENGLISH COTTAGE HOMES;
-
-OR,
-
-VILLAGE ARCHITECTURE OF BYGONE TIMES.
-
-
-PART IX.
-
-There is a kind of cottage, chiefly found in the North of England, but
-also not unfrequently to be seen in the western and central counties;
-it is constructed entirely of stone or granite. The mullions of the
-windows, “dressings” of the gables, doorways, and sometimes the walls
-themselves, are built in “ashlar.” “Ashlar,” in England, means stone
-brought to a smooth surface, not only on face but round the sides as
-well. Now this is rather important for all who are engaged in building
-operations, because “ashlar” means a different thing in England from
-what it does in other parts of the United Kingdom. In Ireland, for
-instance, “ashlar” means stones brought to a smooth surface in front
-alone, the edges being left irregular, and if you require them to be
-cut smooth and squared at the edges, you have to specify that they
-shall have “even beds and joints.”
-
-A curious trial occupied the Irish Law Courts for many weeks some
-time back. An English architect and an Irish builder were engaged
-in erecting an important edifice in Ireland. The architect in his
-specification stipulated “ashlar” for the frontage of the structure.
-The builder carried it out in the English manner and then sent in
-a heavy bill of extras for “beds and joints.” This was opposed by
-the architect on behalf of his clients. At the trial all the Irish
-witnesses maintained that the builder was right, and all the English
-that he was wrong. The judge and jury became thoroughly puzzled, and
-could not understand the disputed point, as evidently both sides were
-perfectly sincere. At last the judge, perfectly bewildered, appealed to
-a very eminent counsel who was engaged, and said to him—
-
-“Mr. ——, can you explain what all this means? We have been for some
-days listening to the apparently endless dispute about ‘beds and
-joints.’”
-
-“Well, my lord, I can only suggest that it must be in some way
-connected with a question of _board and lodging_,” answered the counsel.
-
-The matter remains unsettled, I believe, to this day. Of course we use
-the word “ashlar” in its English signification.
-
-In addition to all the northern counties stone cottages are found in
-Derbyshire, Warwickshire, Worcestershire, Herefordshire, Monmouthshire,
-Oxfordshire, Somersetshire, Dorsetshire, Devonshire, and Sussex.
-
-They are usually very solidly built, and, though they present sometimes
-a stern and severe aspect, they are well suited to a rough climate, as
-they are warm and comfortable, and so substantial that they can resist
-the floods which often inundate mountainous districts. The group of
-cottages which we sketched some years back at Glossop, in Derbyshire,
-bore up against a singularly severe catastrophe. The little mountain
-stream shown in the foreground was dammed by a very solid earthwork
-higher up the valley so as to form a reservoir. During a terrible storm
-of wind and rain the dam was swept away, and the vast torrent of water
-poured down the valley, sweeping everything before it, and completely
-submerging the lower part of the village. The old stone houses shown in
-our drawing were flooded to their upper storey. A man who described the
-occurrence to us said—
-
-“It was all so sudden-like. I heard a loud roar, followed by a rushing
-noise, which made the house seem to rock. I jumped out of bed and found
-myself up to my knees in water. I got my wife and children to stand
-upon the table and chairs, while I tried to find out what was going on,
-half expecting that the old house would come down, but it stood like a
-rock; and when the water subsided, it was as good as ever, though some
-of the modern houses were reduced to ruin.”
-
-[Illustration: LOOSE STONE AND PEAT COTTAGE, SCOTLAND AND N. ENGLAND.]
-
-These stone cottages, with their heavy mullioned windows and
-low-pitched gables, continued to be built down nearly to the end of
-the last century. Of course, they must have been expensive; but their
-durability seems to prove that the extra outlay was, in the end, true
-economy. Artistically, they appear well suited to their bleak grey
-surroundings. These great, wild woodlands, interspersed with shapeless
-and fantastic rocks and strange-looking bowlders, swept by howling
-winds, so that no tree can lift its head save under shelter of the
-hillside, are not so unkindly as they seem.
-
-[Illustration: STONE COTTAGES, GLOSSOP, DERBYSHIRE.]
-
-We once knew a beautiful and delicate girl who had to leave London and,
-with her parents, live in one of these wild-looking districts. After
-a short time she grew strong and still more beautiful. Later on she
-married, and went with her husband to live in a southern land under the
-influence of a more genial climate. But, alas, it proved less friendly
-to her than the rugged North, for within six months she died. Three
-days before this sad event she said to her husband—
-
-“If I could only feel the wind over the great moor I think I could
-live.”
-
-He would have given all he possessed to save her, but the doctors
-assured him that she would certainly die on the journey. Health is
-often to be found in these rugged stone houses of the North country,
-stern and sombre as they look when compared with the cheerful
-half-timber cottages of the South.
-
-In some out-of-the-way districts of Northern England, Scotland, and
-Ireland, cottages are built of “loose stone”—_i.e._, stones fitted
-together without mortar, and are thatched with peat. Sometimes the
-angle-stones, window and door openings, have mortar joints, the rest
-being left open. In all stone counties of England walls constructed
-in this manner divide the fields instead of hedgerows, the top row of
-stones being fastened together with mortar when the wall is more than
-breast high. This is a very ancient method of building, and is found in
-almost every country of the world.
-
-    H. W. BREWER.
-
-(_To be continued._)
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-
-
-“MY FAVOURITE CONTRIBUTORS” COMPETITION.
-
-
-PRIZES OF ONE GUINEA.
-
-    Jessie Offin, Loughton, Essex.
-    “Christabel,” Poole, Dorset.
-    “Pansy,” Beverley, East Yorkshire.
-    “Rose,” North Muir, Forfar.
-    “Wild Orchid,” Croydon Grove, Croydon.
-    Agnes Ward Strong, Moseley, Birmingham.
-    Nellie Turner Godfrey, Redhill, Surrey.
-    Ada Alice Gaze, Norwich.
-    Emma Elizabeth Epps, Redhill, Surrey.
-    Elizabeth Kerr, Port Charlotte, Islay, N.B.
-
-
-PRIZES OF HALF-A-GUINEA.
-
-    Edith Mary Foyster, Brentwood, Essex.
-    Félicie Buisseret, Namur, Belgique.
-    Evelyn Agnes Forster, Crowthorne, Berkshire.
-    Edith K. Ellis, Highgate.
-    Florence Marie Benton, Swavesey, Cambs.
-    Lilian Grundy, Lynwood, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire.
-    M. Evangeline Hulse, Carlisle.
-    “Modest Violet,” New Whittington, Chesterfield, Derbyshire.
-    Mary Agnes Parker, Peterborough, Northampton.
-    Agnes Mary Vincent, Warwick Square.
-
-
-HONOURABLE MENTION.
-
-Mabel Jenks, Cambridge; E. Flesch, Brünn, Mähren; Gwendoline Doughty,
-St. Leonards, Bridgenorth, Salop; Kate Kelsey, Crossleigh, Montpelier,
-Bristol; “A grateful old woman,” Ballymena, Ulster, Ireland; Millicent
-H. Warwick, Manchester; Mary Adèle Venn, West Kensington Park, W.;
-Helen Elizabeth Howitt, Dunoon-on-Clyde; A. Park Pearson, Halifax;
-Laura Buck, Potters Road, New Barnet; Alice Dunn, Brisbane, Queensland.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-REPORT.
-
-From the time our first competition was announced until now, it has
-been a real pleasure to look over the papers sent in by our readers,
-who seem always to have understood the spirit and object of the various
-competitions we have placed before them and to have entered into them
-enthusiastically and naturally. The consequence is that their papers
-have been full of interest and instruction as to matters we never could
-have learned by books or by travel. The barrier behind which thousands
-of lives are lived could never have been broken down but for the ready
-help of the girls themselves. Their papers have made our views of life
-broader, they have evoked sympathy and admiration for the toilers in
-our great cities; they have permitted us to stand side by side with
-them as they work and struggle and fight for what they know to be good
-and pure; they have made us free of their homes, whether in the farm
-kitchen, or in the streets of our great cities, so that one can sit
-down and picture them all, whether in a London factory, a country farm,
-a village rectory, or away in our far-off colonies.
-
-But _this competition_ is different from any of those which have
-preceded it, for the Editor has asked the opinion of his thousands of
-readers as to their favourites among the staff of writers, artists,
-and musicians whom he has employed for the last twenty years. It is a
-bold thing to have done, and yet it is but natural that a man who has
-devoted the best years of his life to a certain object should desire
-to know how his methods have answered and whether the material he has
-offered for the instruction and healthy amusement of girls has met with
-the approbation of those for whom he has catered. It is no easy task
-in the present age when independence is growing rampant, to influence
-girls and surround them with an atmosphere which, without in the least
-coercing them, will keep them pure and gentle and womanly.
-
-So throwing caution to the winds, the editor has submitted himself
-and his staff to the microscopic criticism of his many thousands of
-readers, and begged them to select ten out of the number whom they like
-best and to give a reason for their preference.
-
-We have received some hundreds of papers, each of which has been
-conscientiously read and pondered over. Each competitor has stamped her
-paper with her own individuality; she knows exactly what she prefers
-and why she prefers it. One and all regret that they are limited in
-their choice to ten of the staff, seeing that all are so good, but
-there seems to have been no hesitation as to the chief favourites.
-
-In awarding the prizes, we have taken into consideration not so much
-the handwriting and decoration of the manuscripts as the thoughtfulness
-and intelligence with which they have been written.
-
-
-SIDE-LIGHTS.
-
-Widespread as we consider our knowledge of girl nature by this time,
-competition papers often spring upon us surprises, showing us we have
-much to learn upon the subject. We confess that, although we have
-always taken care to provide our readers with subject-matter for deeper
-thought, still we were scarcely prepared to find that in the majority
-of cases the first things read were these graver articles and the
-papers dealing with instructive and interesting matters, the stories
-as a rule being kept till the last. In one paper only were all the
-favourites chosen for stories.
-
-
-QUOTATIONS.
-
-1. I can safely say all the stories and articles in the “G. O. P.” are
-the best to be had. In truth one puts down the “G. O. P.” with better
-feelings and higher aspirations than when one took it up. Years ago my
-father found me reading a paper that he did not think fit for a girl
-to read, so he promised to buy me a magazine if I would read only such
-books as he provided. I promised, and he set about getting me suitable
-reading. As a result, he was shown the “G. O. P.,” and brought it home
-to me, and for twenty years I have been a reader of the “G. O. P.,”
-and hope to be for as long as I live, for I do not think I could get a
-better.
-
-2. May I suggest another competition to you? You have already had one
-for girls who work with head and hands—will you not also have one for
-those who are preparing to work with head or hands? I am sure there
-would be many interesting pictures of student life at our colleges
-among the papers sent in. I feel that the “G. O. P.” decided my life
-for me. In April, 1881, when I was eight years old, we bought the
-number for the month. There was an article in it on the North London
-Collegiate School; it mentioned the pupils who were graduates—some were
-doctors or medical students. I said I would be one too; the idea stayed
-with me. At last the way was opened for me, though it is harder than I
-thought.
-
-3. May I hope you will read this as a friendly letter from American
-girls who do not wish the pleasure they have received from your paper
-to remain unexpressed.
-
-4. I am very proud to be able to say I commenced taking in the “G. O.
-P.” on the 2nd October, 1880, being the beginning number of the second
-volume, and ever since I have taken the greatest interest in it. When
-I got married, one of the first pieces of furniture we bought was a
-book-case to put my favourite books in; I often take one of the old
-volumes down for information—I appreciate them more every day for the
-kind and practical help they give.
-
-
-
-
-OUR PUZZLE POEM REPORT: AN ACCIDENTAL CYCLE III.
-
-
-SOLUTION.
-
-AN ACCIDENTAL CYCLE III.
-
-
-5. _Lamp Explosions._
-
-    Some use cheap lamps, whose oil, alas!
-    Is held in china or in glass,
-    Such folly no one can surpass.
-
-
-6. _Escape of Gas._
-
-    When you escape of gas detect,
-      Don’t search about with lighted match,
-    But for a little while reflect—
-      It might your head from form detach.
-
-
-7. _To Cyclists._
-
-    If you’re cycling down a hill
-      With a waggon coming towards you,
-            Keep your head;
-    And to save an awful spill
-      Make for hedge, though it accords you
-            Scratches red.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-PRIZE WINNERS.
-
-
-_Twelve Shillings and Sixpence Each._
-
-    Jessie F. Dulley, Lindens, Wellingborough.
-    Ellie Hanlon, 1, Otranto Place, Sandycove, Dublin.
-    G. Meggy, Rimpton Rectory, Bath.
-    Janet M. Pugh, Bronclydur, Towyn, Merionethshire.
-    Ethel Tomlinson, The Woodlands, Burton-on-Trent.
-
-
-_Seven Shillings Each._
-
-    Mrs. Ethel Hartley, 310, Rotton Park Road, Birmingham.
-    John Marshall, 13, Prospect Road, Child’s Hill, N.W.
-    Eben. Mutten, 17, George Street, Devonport.
-    Katharine Mary Stanley, The Old House, Washingboro’, Lincoln.
-    L. Trotman, 26, Blessington Road, Lee, S.E.
-    Helen B. Younger, 5, Comiston Gardens, Edinburgh.
-
-
-_Very Highly Commended._
-
-Mrs. Acheson, Eliza Acworth, Agnes Amis, Annie A. Arnott, Margaret E.
-Bourne, Nellie D. Bourne, Rebecca Clarke, Rev. Joseph Corkey, Mrs. G.
-H. B. Cumming, Ethel Dickson, Cecil French, Mrs. W. H. Gotch, Edith E.
-Grundy, Meta Kelway, Eliza Learmount, Agnes McConnell, Mrs. Nicholls,
-Rev. V. Odom, Annie B. Ormond, Isabel Snell, Frederick Wm. Southey,
-Ellen C. Tarrant, Constance Taylor, C. Thompson, Mary F. Wakelin, Edith
-Mary Younge.
-
-
-_Highly Commended._
-
-_Division I._
-
-Edith Ashworth, S. Ballard, Rev. F. Townshend Chamberlain, Lillian
-Clews, Helen Margaret Coulthard, J. L. Ellson, Herbert V. French, Annie
-M. Goss, Ellen Hambley, Francis Hingston James, Mrs. Latter, Dora
-Laurence, Eva H. Laurence, Carlina Leggett, Winifred A. Lockyear, Mrs.
-C. A. Martin, Jennie M. M’Call, F. Miller, Helen M. Norman, Violet C.
-Todd, W. Fitzjames White, Henry Wilkinson, Alice Woodhead, Elizabeth
-Yarwood, Diana C. Yeo.
-
-
-_Highly Commended._
-
-_Division II._
-
-Eva Mary Allport, Lily Belling, G. Brightwell, Jane Lindsay Campbell,
-R. Swan Coulthard, George Robert Davidge, Leonard Duncan, Eleanor
-Elsey, Mrs. F. Farrar, C. S. Gregory, Hilda Mary Harrison, Charlotte
-Hayward, Florence Hayward, Ethel Winifred Hodgkinson, Madge L. Kemp,
-A. Kilburn, Gertrude Longbottom, E. Lord, Annie Manderson, Helen A.
-Manning, E. Mastin, Jessie Middlemiss, E. M. Le Mottée, J. D. Musgrave,
-E. Pearson, N. E. Purvey, Kate Robinson, M. Winifred Shakespear, Bettie
-Temple, Mrs. Mabel Tench, R. Marjorie Thomas, Ellen Thurtell, M.
-Tolson, Frances H. Webb-Gillman, Margaret M. Wilcox.
-
-       *       *       *       *       *
-
-
-EXAMINER’S REPORT.
-
-Here is another award at last to excite indignant comment and
-criticism. So large was the number of first-rate solutions that we had
-to pounce upon the most trifling errors with a keenness worthy of a
-better cause. After we had examined and re-examined again and again, we
-were rewarded for our exertions by finding that faults abounded, the
-enormity of which might fairly be expressed in sixteenths.
-
-For instance, a failure to indent the lines properly was reckoned
-one-sixteenth of a mistake. The substitution of “around” for _about_
-was counted two-sixteenths, and so on, with arithmetical precision.
-As only a limited number of names can be mentioned, all we have to
-do is to draw the line at a certain point (in this case it was at
-nine-sixteenths), and say: “Beyond that, no mention.” The result is
-an adjudication which can face criticism with a very fair amount of
-confidence. And here let us say that if any competitor thinks that
-an injustice has been done, we hope she will not harbour the thought
-privately, but frankly let us know as soon as the report appears. We
-much prefer to have the opportunity of acknowledging a mistake or of
-proving that none has been made.
-
-To return to the puzzle. Many competitors failed to notice the “s” in
-the title, and wrote “Exploding Lamp.” This could only be regarded as a
-whole mistake, and was therefore fatal to any chance of success.
-
-The rhythm of the first line, No. 6, was often marred by the insertion
-of “an.” In the second line, as we have already intimated, “around”
-could not be considered equal to _about_, for a reason which a
-reference to the puzzle will divulge. In the fourth line “face” was
-continually given for _head_, though the better sense of the latter
-reading is obvious, and the puzzle form of spelling “detach” was often
-adopted without thought.
-
-In No. 7, “Cycling” was the title generally given, though many solvers
-were careful to read the _two_ into it. This was an error we could not
-very severely condemn, and as a matter of fact two solutions which were
-perfect in every other respect, were admitted into the prize bundle.
-In the first line “you are” would not do instead of the contraction
-_you’re_, neither did the insertion of “a” before hedge improve the
-rhythm of the last line but one. In the same line we did not object to
-the more strictly grammatical “accord” in place of _accords_, although
-the puzzle gave the latter.
-
-We have received several letters questioning our award on “An
-Accidental Cycle II.” We have turned up every solution written about,
-and find that absolute justice was done to each. For the benefit of a
-very large number of solvers who cherish similar doubts in silence,
-we may say that the mistake of spelling “some one” as one word was a
-very important factor in the adjudication. That our report should have
-contained no reference to this point was an unfortunate circumstance.
-
-The award on the whole series of Accidental Cycles cannot be published
-for two or three weeks, the number of solutions being very large.
-
-
-
-
-ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS.
-
-
-STUDY AND STUDIO.
-
-M. H.—1. The thought in your poem is very good, and you describe nature
-well and sympathetically. You need, however, to pay more attention to
-your _technique_. Your lines are frequently halting—
-
-    “’Tis sunset on the ocean, radiant with light.”
-
-is an instance in point.—2. Water-colours would be suitable for
-painting on gauze or satin. No preparation of the material is required.
-
-“BARTY.”—1. Barty Joscelin, in _The Martian_, is a fictitious
-character, though some of his early experiences in France were probably
-drawn from real life.—2. We are not familiar with the books you
-mention, but no doubt you could obtain a list from a bookseller, or the
-publisher if you knew the name.
-
-SWEET SEVENTEEN.—1. Your writing is fairly good, but you should not
-leave a margin at the end of your lines. Try to write as freely as
-possible.—2. Inquire at the chemist’s where you purchase the sulphur
-ointment.
-
-NORAH T.—We have never seen a really good book of such dialogues as
-you require, but you might apply to The United Kingdom Band of Hope
-Union, 60, Old Bailey, E.C., saying what you need. _Twenty Minutes_,
-by Harriet L. Childe-Pemberton, is a little book containing amusing
-dialogues for recitation, but they are not connected with “temperance.”
-
-STUDENT.—1. A charming book, though not a new one, about animals
-is Mrs. Alfred Gatty’s _Worlds not Realised_; and _Parables from
-Nature_, by the same author, contains much information mingled with
-beautiful allegorical teaching.—2. Apply to the National Health
-Society—secretary, Miss Lankester, 53, Berners Street, W., or to the
-St. John’s Ambulance Association, St. John’s Gate, Clerkenwell, E.C.,
-for full list of books on nursing. We may mention _Hints and Helps
-for Home Nursing and Hygiene_, by Dr. Cosgrave, price 1s. (St. John’s
-Ambulance Association). We do not think you at all discourteous in your
-criticisms on the articles in question.
-
-HILDEGARDE WINTER.—1. It is rather difficult for us to advise you what
-music to practise without knowing your powers. There are books of
-“Short Voluntaries” (1s. each), by Edward Redhead, published by Orsborn
-& Tuckwood, 64, Berners Street, London, W., which might suit you. They
-are intended for organ or harmonium, but sound well on the piano. Book
-III. contains some charming easy music. Would Mendelssohn’s “Songs
-without Words” be too difficult? You should practise at least an hour a
-day and as much longer as you can, but we fear that without any tuition
-you will find it hard to make much progress.—2. The tails of your g’s
-and y’s spoil your writing; they are too long, and badly formed. You
-could easily improve your hand.
-
-
-MEDICAL.
-
-GWEN LEWIS.—Goître or Derbyshire neck is one of those diseases which
-are “endemic,” that is, resident in certain localities. It is very
-common in some places, chiefly in the mountainous or hilly districts
-of Derbyshire, Devonshire and Wales. It is more common in the valleys
-than in the hills. It is supposed to be due to some constituent in the
-water, possibly excess of lime. Goître, however, is not very infrequent
-in persons who have never seen a mountain, and who have lived in
-districts which are decidedly not goîtrous. There are many forms of
-goître, and the treatment for each variety is different. Unfortunately,
-that variety which is “endemic” is most difficult to cure. If the
-patient can leave the district where the condition was developed, and
-live in a place where the disease does not occur, the mass will cease
-growing and often wither altogether. The rational treatment of goître
-is therefore to change one’s residence. Iodine, both internally and
-externally, is often advised for the relief of simple goître, and it
-does sometimes do good. Mercury is often occasionally used with good
-results. Surgical procedures have been adopted, but unless the growth
-is enormous or interferes with breathing or swallowing, and in other
-special cases, this treatment is not to be recommended. Friction,
-massage and electricity have been tried with practically no result
-whatever.
-
-BUTTERCUP.—Careful and moderate exercise is what you require. All your
-troubles, including the curvature of the spine, will be improved by
-this means. Gymnastic exercises are extremely valuable, and if we can
-only impress upon you to be moderate, we have no hesitation in saying
-that you will derive great benefit from gymnastics. The dumb-bells,
-the clubs, the horizontal bar, and the other milder exercises are
-very helpful, but you must avoid all the violent, we might almost say
-furious, exercises which are far too commonly indulged in. Again,
-you must not give up walking for gymnastics, but let a little of one
-augment a little of the other. Avoid sofas and easy-chairs, for these
-tend to weaken the spine. Before doing this, however, we advise you to
-have your back examined to find out what was the cause of the curvature.
-
-MYSTIC.—Beer poured over a red-hot horse-shoe will not cure dyspepsia.
-On the contrary, it will make it worse. What an extraordinary
-superstition!
-
-HEATH PHILLIPS.—You suffer from acne undoubtedly, possibly from that
-form known as “acne rosacea.” If you never feel indigestion you
-certainly have not got it. Sulphur ointment is very good for acne,
-but in the later stages, especially of the rosaceous acne, ichthiol
-ointment (2½ per cent.) is better.
-
-MERRY SUNBEAM.—The hair frequently combs out in considerable
-quantities, especially during spring and autumn. This is no
-abnormality, it is quite healthy, but it frequently alarms girls,
-because a very little hair makes a great show. The solution you use is
-useful, but you must beware of using much alcohol for the hair, as it
-renders it brittle. Wash your head less often, say once a fortnight,
-and add a teaspoonful of borax to each quart of water. The yolk of an
-egg makes a useful and strengthening hair-wash, but it should not be
-used too frequently, and the hair must be well rinsed afterwards.
-
-ETHEL.—Chlorate of potassium lozenges are very useful for a “relaxed
-throat.” You must be careful not to swallow too many, for the drug
-is very apt to produce indigestion. Never take more than five in the
-course of one day. We have seen truly alarming symptoms in a girl who
-has eaten an ounce of the lozenges in an afternoon.
-
-MAITLAND.—Singeing the eyebrows would in no way permanently injure
-them. The hairs of the eyebrows grow very fast, and in a few weeks you
-will be none the worse for the accident.
-
-ENQUIRER.—By an “enlarged neck” you probably mean enlarged glands in
-the neck, a condition extremely commonly due to decayed teeth.
-
-HARRY’S GIRL.—Sugar is fattening, and very probably you are getting too
-fat because you eat too much sugar. There is no necessity for you to
-give up sugar altogether, but be more moderate in the amount you eat.
-
-MIGNONETTE.—We published a long article on blushing and nervousness a
-short time back in which you will find all the information you require.
-
-
-MISCELLANEOUS.
-
-PRIMROSE.—We do not think a stone could be set in a small wedding-ring.
-You had better consult a jeweller about it, as we have not seen it and
-cannot give a reliable opinion.
-
-DODO.—The distinctions between the heterodox beliefs of a Deist and
-an Atheist are considerable. The former believes in the existence of
-a God, but rejects the divine revelation of Him given in the Holy
-Scriptures. He also believes in the immortality of the soul, and in the
-suitable reward of virtue and the punishment of vice. The latter denies
-the existence of a God, or Divine Providence, and holds no religious
-belief of any description. An infidel, or unbeliever, is one who denies
-the Jewish and Christian religions, and may be of any unorthodox belief.
-
-H. H.—Much depends on your finances. There is a good rule which
-tells you to “be just before you are generous.” Of course, it would
-be best to take nothing that you can help (by self-denial) from the
-contributions you usually make in church; but the money required for
-restitution of fraudulently-acquired money, it should be your first
-duty to make good (see St. Matt. v. 23 and 24). This precept would
-apply to such a case as yours. Of course, “there is hope while there is
-life.” Our blessed Lord says “He is able to save to the uttermost all
-that come unto God through Him”—His blood-shedding—and “Him that cometh
-unto Me, I will in no wise cast out.”
-
-OLIVE.—That the Celts are a branch of the great Aryan family is
-regarded as beyond all doubt, by their language, which bears a close
-resemblance in grammatical structure and vocables to Sanscrit. They
-were the first of the Aryan settlers in Europe. Herodotus (B.C. 450)
-speaks of the _Keltai_. By this name the Greeks called them, and the
-Romans _Galli_, and a very numerous branch of them called themselves
-_Gael_. They settled in most of the European countries, and in the
-British islands, notably in Scotland and Ireland, but more in England
-than is generally supposed. Your own aboriginal family name is clearly
-Celtic.
-
-SUNFLOWER.—The fact that your copy of the Bible is 100 years old is
-not the only question to be considered. If one of the several editions
-named after typographical errors, such as the “Breeches Bible” or the
-“Vinegar Bible” (published in 1727), and others, then there would be
-a fixed value for it. The celebrated “Bowyer Bible,” illustrated with
-7,000 engravings, etchings, and original drawings, was sold to a Mrs.
-Heywood, of Bolton, for £500. It was one of the Macklin Bibles. You had
-better send a particular account of yours to some large library, and
-discover its value from the manager.
-
-QUEENIE B.—Fringes, if worn, are short and encroach little on the
-forehead. You should look at the dummies in the hair-dressers’ windows,
-and get a hair-dresser to cut your hair properly, or it will not curl.
-A situation as “companion” is rarely to be obtained. A girl should have
-a good address and good manners, should be a good reader, and write
-a good legible hand, be well-informed, sing, or play; have a sweet
-temper, and a great store of patience, with tact. As to the salary,
-that would vary, and must be left to private arrangement. If you
-possess all these qualifications, then advertise.
-
-
-
-
-OUR NEW PUZZLE POEM.
-
-[Illustration]
-
-
-⁂ PRIZES to the amount of six guineas (one of which will be reserved
-for competitors living abroad) are offered for the best solutions of
-the above Puzzle Poem. The following conditions must be observed:—
-
-1. Solutions to be written on one side of the paper only.
-
-2. Each paper to be headed with the name and address of the competitor.
-
-3. Attention must be paid to spelling, punctuation, and neatness.
-
-4. Send by post to Editor, GIRL’S OWN PAPER, 56, Paternoster Row,
-London. “Puzzle Poem” to be written on the top left-hand corner of the
-envelope.
-
-5. The last day for receiving solutions from Great Britain and Ireland
-will be August 17, 1899; from Abroad, October 16, 1899.
-
-The competition is open to all without any restrictions as to sex or
-age.
-
-
-
-
-TO THE READERS OF “THE GIRL’S OWN PAPER.”
-
-
-DEAR GIRLS,—I have received a number of letters on the subject of my
-last story, “About Peggy Saville,” all expressing the kindest interest
-in the heroine, and a desire to know more about her.
-
-These letters have been a great pleasure to receive, for, to tell you
-the truth, I myself am very fond of “Peggy Pickle,” and should much
-enjoy spending a longer time in her company.
-
-Your kind Editor has expressed his desire to gratify you by publishing
-a sequel to the story, and we have arranged that if all goes well, the
-first chapter shall appear in October, or early in the spring.
-
-For the next two months, then, you can think of me sitting in my
-summer-house every morning with Peggy for my companion, and I will
-think of you, and, I hope, work all the better for your kindly
-appreciation.
-
-    Your friend,
-        JESSIE DE HORNE VAIZEY.
-
-
-
-
-
-End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Girl's Own Paper, Vol. XX, No.
-1017, June 24, 1899, by Various
-
-*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GIRL'S OWN PAPER, JUNE 24, 1899 ***
-
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