Morris tribune., 1881-04-07
The Game OfReverse Readings.

The boys were very quiet all dinner time.
Mrs. Earl wondered at the unusual silence,
but asked no questions, wisely biding her
time for the explanation. The secret came
out as the napkins were folded and the chairs
pushed from the table.
Mother" said Edward, "the Hapgood
boys have sent to ask Davy and me if we
will go over and sit with them awhile this
afternoon. It's real disagreable to sit three
or four hours poked up in that dull room,
and Saturday afternoon, too! Now mother,
if you were boy, wouldn't you say it was
dull, even if you were ever SO sorry for the
Hapgoods?"
Let me think, mamma answered, mu-
singly. How did do when 1 was boy?
Oh, remember. When 1 was asked to go
and spend few hours with two poor little
fellows who had been confined to room for
six weeks-one with rheumatis m and the
other with a sprained ankle-l used to 60
cheerfully, even on a Saturday, but did
so because I expected to have good time,
not dull time, and I contrived to have
nice game or entertaining book, some enig-
mas and puzzles, to make the time pass
pleasantly"
But, mother" said the elder boy, "every-
things exhausted. They've played all the
sit-still games we boys know, and read
books and magazines till they're tired of
them. And they have had rabbits carried
into them, and guineapigs and canary birds;
and every kind of puzzle is worn out. What
can we think of that is new?"
At this moment Kitty came in. Kitty
was the adopted child of the minister of the
parish, brought from the island OF Fayal,
young wife, who, for the sake of her health,
hoI Sr,nf y-1nf fhot ntah IS
land 10 or 12 years before. Kitty Col
umbo was an orphan, but there was a le-
gend in the family where her present friends
| first found her, to the effect that she was
great granddaughter several times removed
or, at any rate, hneal descendant of Chris
topher Columbus, and had been taken off
the wreck of Spanish ship when mere
infant of a few days old. This rumor which
every scholar in the North Medley school
implicitly believed, combined with the fact
that her clear brown skin and large impid
eyes really did suggest a southern origin,
made her an object of lively interest with
the kindly people among whom her lot was
cast. "The foreign child, she was dubbed
by all her school mates, and immense eclat
gave he
4 very bright and winning child was Kitty
Columbo, and as she came skipping into
Mis-. Earl's dining room, with black curls
dancing and bright face sparkling, the boys
felt in the furthest corner of their cheeled-
up heart that here was their aid and inspira-
ton.
If Kitty will go with us, ," they cried, with
one voice, and Kitty consented and satd she
would take Mary Hayes along with her, be-
cause she was $50 quick at catching things" p"
1t was anything but dull company that
gathered, half an hour later. in the loom of
the young invalids, George and Newton
Hapgood. When the suffering limbs had
been duly inquired after, and peeped at
behind the bandages, and Mrs. Hapgood
had said how very kind it was of the chill
dren to leave their outdoor sports and come
and sit with her two lonesome chicks, the
question began to loom up: What shall
we do? Sit with folded hands and talk like
Sunday school till tea timer" Oh, mo-!
81 know something, said Kitty Columbo,
''if Newt and George can hold pencils and
write little"
"Of course, we can, said both the inva-
lids. "Is it a play? Is it game? Did
you invent it, Kitty?'
Maybe she discovered it, as her great
grandpapa did America" said Davy Earl
''Is it funny game, Kitty?"
why, it's no game at all. Maybe its an
exercise It's only reverse readings, and
they may be funny OR not as you make
them. You are to make sentences that
will read the same backward as forward; or
if not the same, will at least make sense
when read backward. Of course it won't
make real good sense"
"You mean it must be Ineligible, inter-
posed Mrs. Hapgood, who, from her sewing
chair by the window, was an interested list
ener
"Yes, mama" said Kitty.
"Oh, wen never be able to do it," cried
all in concert
''I know one word-that's Hannah, said
Mary Hayes; "and there's Otto-that's an
other"
81 brought list of words, remarked the
ever helpful Kitty, "and I'll copy off some
for each of you. Then you will think of
others, and it won't be SO very hard to join
them together"
Paper and pencils we're produced, and
after much questioning and several whis-
pered consultations with Kitty Columbo,
deep silence fell upon the group.
"Can we use the character 4 for a-n-dP"
at last inquired Davie Earl.
ooh, yes! forgot to tell you that. And
another thing, you can put letters at the end
of the sentence for signature, if you like,
| and in the reverse they can be read all the
same as the other letters"
| Little Reuben Hapgood, who had come
in and sat quietly down by the bedside,
with slate and pencil, was the first to
complete a sentence.
aSee here! look a-here! I've got one!
'Selim's eye SMILES Won't that do, Kitty"
Il guess Kitty helped you" said his
mamma. Rube stoutly maintained that Kit
ty only gave him one word, and that he put
the "eye" in all by himself.
aHurrah!" called Edward Earl, from the
table. "Tve raised Cain-see if haven't,
thanks to one little hint you gave me. Kit
ty. Here it is: Cain, monomaniac. ;
Just the same backward as forward-see?"