The record-union., 1893-04-29

Its walls silent witness bear
TO all its shifting scenes,
Marks here a mourner's silent tear;
Or there hymn-book screens
Some lad on mischief too intent
To heed the chanted psalm
Supports an air quite reverent,
Ready 10 take alarm.
Should Sexton Jones in passing, see
The mischief in his eye,
And quite prepared lie seems TO be
Such intent To deny.
Twas Sunday morn. The belfry tower
Pealed welcome forth to ALL
And heedful of the sacred hour
All hasten 10 its call.
John Golfer, wife and children six
Are not behind the rest;
Nor youthful Tom, OF noted tricks,
Dressed in his very best.
John, good man, was as honest soul
AS ever knelt in prayer;
But Tom, with mischief in the roll
OF his black eye, when there
Within that sacred temple. rent
With fears his fathers heart;
When DER his book in worship bent,
creak would make him start
"For," he was often heard to say,
You can't gauge my boy Tom,
Nor what he'll do from day to day
Fer calculate upon"
Upon this very Sunday morn,
Though reverent his mien,
No greater rogue was ever born,
Or walked the earth, l ween.
With hands in pockets, just behind
The good man and mis- wife,
Where he could all his chances mind
To exercise his knife,
Which deity poised and swiftly thrown,
Afforded much delight
Unto his heart, when it had flown
And hit the target right.
But meanwhile in his busy brain
y plan for ''fun' was growing
Into scient. tic train
or thought the which IN showing
Would IN its line of action bring
His mother into sight,
For he would spare no earthly thing
To make his plans work right"
All seated in the Golfer pew,
The pride of good man John.
Behold arranged the three-tImes-two,
The cushioned seat upon.
The ancient service, pure and grand,
Was drawing to close;
a hymn that all could understand,
The pastor then arose.
A white-haired man, whose one fault lay
In sermons of such strength,
That on a quiet summer day
Some slept away their length.
Now Thomas knew (ah, malice keen y
That when the reverend man
Was well upon his chosen theme,
No potency of fan
Or snuff box e'er could stay the sleep
That struggled with the dame,
For slow and sure its power would creep
Each Sunday twas the same.
And now, as eer with many q nod
She yielded TO its spell,
And Tom? No terror of the rod
Gould his high spirits quell.
Dame Golfer had nervous dread
OF toads and all their kin,
And this weak point Toms fancy fed
His wicked head within.
She slept and dreamed: beneath the shade
And shelter of a tree
Within a far and lonely glade
Alone, she seemed to be.
The day was warm, her thirst was keen,
She longed for cooling springs,
When, 10! a maid of lovely mein,
With bright transparent wings,
Who proffered with q winning grace
The nectar of the gods
Ii seemed in that uncanny place
Fresh from its native woods,
A glass of clearest crystal filed,
All sparkling to the brim
With water, pure as if distilled
In grottoes cooland dim.
With eager hands the cup she grasped
The tempting drink to quail
But as the longed-for prize she clasped,
a wild and eldritch laugh
Resounded in her startled ear
With harsh, discordant sound;
And as her heart beat wild with fear.
With one long easy bound
A monstrous toad from out the tree
Leaped quickly to her lap.
The sight of her arch-enemy
Thus spoiled the good wife's nap.
She rubbed her eyes in great relief
To find it but a dream;
But, horror! passing all belief,
One wild, unearthly scream
Proclaims to all the awful fact
Things are not what they seem.
Twas only that in size ii lacked
The horror of her dream.
Upon her lap notified pet
Sat, blinking at the light;
More grueSOme creature ne'er had met
Dame Golfers startled sight.
Unmindful both OF time and place,
She fastened to depart:
Not now for her could means of grace
Quiet her beating heart.
And Thomas? All, kind charity
Bids US the curtain draw;
For John believed in rods, you see,
As being swift and sure.
That, as l said, was long ago,
Among New England's hills;
And boys will grow to men, you know,
AS Mother Nature wills.
A grave dark man you oft may see
In large church "Out West"
Who seems the soul of sanctity,
With holy themes impressed.
You'd never know the madcap Tom
OF thirty years before;
You'd wonder how such change could com
10 one, who never bore
With easy grace in boyhood's days
Restraint of any kind.
Ills one OF Times peculiar ways,
That come to all, you'll find.
And as his father years before
Had trained his steps with birch
Experience teaches him the more
To watch his boys in church.
SO boys to men and fathers grow,
Meath Times unyielding rod,
While grandsires to their slumb mber go
Beneath the sheltering sod.
So in the ehurchyard far away.
Where siants the evening sun,
Lie sleeping till the Judgment day,
Dame Colter and her John.
Sacramento, April 20, 1898. A.G.G.
WHEN the hair begins to fall out or turl
ray the scalp needs doctoring, and W
znow OF no better specific than Hall