The daily morning journal and courier., 1894-07-07

boys retire and join forces with mutter- ings of-''menn ole thing, and well be around here to-morrer" And she knows that the seige has begnn-that they will come again and again and ngain, and her soul is faint within her, Day after day this goes on, for two weeks or more, according 10 the fipeii- ing of the fruit. Her pathway seems strcwn with boys, her waking, even her sleeping hours, are rendered burden to her by means of boys; surly and in- pndent boys, eoaxing and begniling boys, dusty and rollicking boys, neigh bors' boys and boys of unknown line age, boys just eschped from the cradle and boys of the stature of men, all pos sessed by one devouring passlon-the passion for deyouring her cherries.
 "1f let you pick mp the cherries on the ground will you promise not to throw sticks and stones Into the treef'
 "Yes mn'am. Not n one!h
 And they do not throw one for in n moment or two the air Is thick with fly ing missiles.
 If let you go up in the tree will you promise not to let any others come upY'
 The promise Is given with the most cheerful alncrity and it Is kcpt-possibly in the letter, but the way the ruddy shower descends upon the heads Of his delighted cronies under the boughs Is Il beautiful thing to see.
 Then there are the boys who steal who come early In the morning before you awake and gorge themselves upon the choicest of your fruit. You only know of their trespassing by the shrill complaints of the disappointed and hungry robins. These boys never have eolic-they never die. Sometimes they grow mp to be politicians, sometimes they rise to be burglars. Hard as 1t Is to be patient with the boys who are mannerly enough to ask for your cher ries, 1t Is most eXaspernting to know that you have been robbed, not by hungry boys from squaiid homes, but by the well-fed boys of well-to-do parents.
 Impossible to refuse Is the little urchin who looks into your face in the frankest way, and opening a grimy and perspir- ing little fist offers you two pennies for ''iust q few" Whether he is entirely honest in bis offer, or whether it is merely an ingenious scheme Mrs. House. keeper is not sure, but she is weak enough to succumb to the charm of the bright face and pleading eyes and he gets his fill of cherries and keeps his coin. Then there is the boy who wants some cherries "for mother" His re- quest is quite likely to be granted, but the small chap who comes before the fruit has had time to turn red and asks if he may get some for ''the baby" is an imp with more of assurance than of in- ventive ability.
 Then there are the boys who pick cherries for you on shares, and bring nothing in which to carry away their portion. They borrow your baskets and pails and promise faithfully to re- | turn them tomorrow" Alas for Mrs l Housekeeper if her stock of such con- veniences is low. She will be forced to replace them as they are needed, for though "the thoughts CT youth are long, long thoughts" they are not extended enough to reach around borrowed bas- ket. Thnt tomorrow never comes.
 Happy, thrice happy is she whose cherrirs are gone before vacation time for school hours bring her some little respite from her annoyances. When all is over-when the boy has disputed for the last wormy cherry with the | father robin who :1as a whole family to feed; when the walk has been swept and scrubbed fer the sixty-seventh time and the broken twigs have all been carried away, Mrs. Housekeepcr says to herself, ''Verily, another spring the axe shall be laid a. the root of that tree" But 1t Is not. The tree is glori- ous with snowy blossoms, 1t rings with the songs of happy birds, and as she thinks of it's grateful shade in sum- mer's heat she knows that she cannot part with it yet. She can only pray that it's cherries mLy be few and bitter and wormy and that the crop of boys may be scant and weakly one. And by and by these experiences, here truthfully recorded, are all lived over again,a and the question comes once more to her troubled miEd, Are not cherry trees corrupting to boyish morals, and would it not be better for the com munity if they all could be uprooted?
 1.-THE QUEENS ENGLISH" AGAIN.
 Sometime since there appeared in this column serious protest against the use of certain tiresome, worn-out phrases which are often found pro- fusely scattered through society items fashion articles, and the like.
 This protest may not have been en. tirely without effect, but the remon. strances of one. however much of pri. vate commendation they may receive need to be reinforced by the public an6 out-spoken assent of others: 1t if pleasing and encouraging therefore te find in print @ criticism so just anC courteous as the one communicated tt this paper a few days ago by F. L.'
 Every profession has its cant" w are told; every class of society its affec tations of speech, from the often ab surd and ill-chosen stock phrase o the fashionable world, down to tht base argot of the slums. Therefore f is not to be wondered at that the news paper reporter considers their use es sential in brief and graphic reports. But oh! how weary, state, fiat ana unprofitable" have many words ant phrases become. Repeated and nau