Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1886-10-17

| lily ONh DuSluSoS'
And pray, what is your business"
"To tick and kill time" answered the
clock.
What" exclaimed the other, merely
to live without seeing, and to pass tn,
time in killing time? That, it seems Il
me, is a very poor business"
Nevertheless, it is the only business
of about one-half the world" answered
the clock, land youwill find they grumblt
enough over having to do that
The keyhole sighed and was silent. She
was thinking of the two sides of live.
4 small du~sty-looking gray spider cam
crawling up the door; she paused beside
the keyhOle, and stated her GRAND.
II take peoples thoughts" she said,
''and bind them w~ith.cobwebs of my OWL
and spin them into books for other spider,
to read, that through me they may Learn
to do the same. Do you know much:
Have you seen much? Have You lived
much? Have you seen much? Do you
wish that | should write your history
'Have you asked the clock for his III
CURED the keyhOle.
Yes, but his head is as stupid rs it i,
round, " answered the other, land although
he has twelve eyes, he will not use them,
and although he echoes all that II says
and repeats my very thoughts before | have
time to utter them, ! have never yet heard
anything from him but that same old dull
srory tick, tick"
And that is all he knows" said the
keyholc. But | know much, for ! have
seen a great deal in my lifetime. | have
seen what goes on in the hall, and | have
seen what goes on in the play-room of the
children"
Tell me about the play-room!'. exclaim,
ed the spider eagerly.
IL will recall what | can, y said the key
hole, and then she sighed again. And, rs
she sighed, n soft breeze, sent by the west
wind, swept through her, aud brough;
with it n delicious fragrance of the roses
and lilies that were always blooming in
the children's garden just outside the
play-rOom.
Here" said the keyhOle, y have lived
all my life keeping guard over the hall and
watching the play-roOm. My eye ha'
never been closed, except when the Key
was in the door. Oh. how delightful il
was in the play-rOOm when the children
were there. How ! loved to watch them
You can have no idea how beautiful il is,
In it are toys and books and pictures and
p%laythings and flowers. BY day it is filled
| with sunshine. At night the stars and the
moon look down from heaven and smile n
they shine into it.
There the children played their game
and sang their songs and learned their
little lessons. And they watched tho sun
and the moon and the stars. And i'll The
long winter nights when the wind roarco
without they sat by the open fireplace with
no light than the freight. And looking
into the flames they saw there strang,
pictures and strange lands, and they told
each other strange stories OF fearful things
that had happened or that might have hap
pcned to other children, and then their
ewes grew serious and earnest, but not for
long, for, looking into each others faces
and seeing them bright and ruddy with
the reflection of the freight, they would
laugh and clap their hands for glce. Some
tsmes q bright rougish eye would peep IN
At me, sometimes a pair of rosy lips would
whisper some message through me. All,
those were happy days. shall never
foeget them.
"Arc not the children there now
asked the spider.
"Ah! no." answered the keyhOle, sor'
rowfully. lone by one they have passed
out of the play-room, down the stairway,
into the world"
"Who was the last to go?" asked the
spider.
Him | loved the best of all, " answered
the other. He it was that told the best
| stories. saw the most wonderful pictures.
He was never 30 much in the play-rOOm as
the others. Often, apart from them, ]
have seen him standing in the hall, look
ing through the window, his clear and
thoughtful eyes gazing through those
colored panes into the world that lies be
yond. You know there is a great secret
connected with those panes. The iame''
magician whose work they are, put into
them so wonderful a power that for some
eyes they lend their rich colOrs tOall thing
that are seen through them
The clock CHANGED to Overhear this, and
listened with some interest. Could IT be
possible that there were so near TO him
windows that could give their delicate
colors to all that was seen through thcmi
Had he not been so busy killing time, he
had gladly taken his hands away from bis
face a moment TO get one peep Ofthe bright
world through the wonderful window.
II can see the child now" said the key
hole t%houghtfully. 1T was Christmas
time. In the play-rOOm was the Christina:
tree Just dressed. | could view its splen'
dor, but the children might not, for it was
not vet time. The door was locked and
the kew had been removed. and ! could sec
the child standing outside the door. He
tried it and found it locked.
He looked lOngingly at it, and then
turning to his sister, VINO was standing
beside him, said: DO you think if | were
to become very, very little, oh! smalleI
than the smallest child that ever was, ]
miaht pass in through the keyhole and not
wait for the door TO be unlocked?"
And his sister laughed ut his fancy and
led him away with her.
Soon he passed forever out Of the play
room like the rest, and / have never seen
him since.
But now comes the strange part of ms
story-my secret. After he went the key
could not be found that unlocked the dOol
of the ehildren's ~play-roOm. None otheI
could be made to fit, and without it no ont
can enter in. That is why the place is 81
silent and deserted, and | wait and sigh.
''You surprise mer' said the spider
"Do you know who lost the key? Do yOJ
think it will ever be found again?'
81 do not know" answered the other
but l tell you-and / know, for / have
seen both sides of life-if any one eve
enters the play-roVm again that child vii
surely be the first to enter it"
And the spider crawled away and tn
clock licked as before, the keyhole sigheC
and thought Of her great secret n tn
shadows deepened in the old hall. -.
And we might have gone on IN thu
way forever" as the clock afterward
said to the rat, eff a day there had no
happened a wonderp"
1t was the same time as before, the key