The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1896-10-11

but win a lasting place IN the Heaft OF
every reader. The people whose thoughts
and feelings figure in the pages being
grown up, as well as little ones. the vol
ume is. therefore, equally entertaining to
the old and young and not. as the title
might imply, written for children in par
ticular
Throughout the volume are little poems
which, though complete in themselves. nat
urally and artlessly occur in the chronicle
in varying meters, and would, IL culled
from the text. make book of the most
musical and happy lyrics this author has
yet produced.
THE FRANKS OF A FOOL-COLT.
Before the poet makes you acquainted
with those around him. in his childhood. he
leads you about the premises and points
out cherished spots: The old woodhouse
with it's old workbench and tools. THE
children's vain possession by pretense."
And then you accompany him TO the stable
yard and enjoy with him the striking hui
NOR in the gambols of colt:
Home in his stall ''Old Sorrel' munched his
hay
And oats and corn, and switched the flies
In repose of patience good to see.
And earnest of the gentlest pedigree.
With half pathetic eyes sometimes he gazed
Upon the gambols of a colt that grazed
Around the edges of the lot outside
And kicked at nothing suddenly, and tried
To act grown-up and graceful and high
bred.
But dropped kwhopl and scraped the bug
Leaving a tuft of wooliy, foxy hair
Under the sharp end of gate-hinge there.
Then. all gnobly scrambling to his feet
And whinneying a Whitney like bleat
He would pursue himself around the lot
And-do the whole thing over, like as nor!
The old-home life and 1.-THE five happy
little Hoosier chaps inhabNing this wee
T1.l
description of them displays more than
ever his rare insight into the habits and
minds of children. At times in his previous
verse he seems to have reached the acme of
tender affection. touching exquisitely on
the love of mother and child, for instance;
but it is not recalled that he has ever be-
fore brought the mother into poem in
such sweet fashion as in this chain of child
hood stories
Shrined in her sanctity of home and love,
And loves fond service and reward thereof,
Restore her thus, o blessed Memory
Throned in her rocking-chair, and on her
knee
Her sewing-her workbasket on the floor
Beside her,-Springtime through the open
door
Balmily stealing in and ai about
The room; the bees dim num, and the far
And laughter of the children at their play
And neighbor-children from across the way
Calling in gleeful challenge-save alone
Ore bov whose voice sends back no answer
ing tone
The boy. prone on the floor, above book
OF pictures. with rapt, ecstatic look :.
Even as the mothers, by the selfSame spell,
Is lifted with light ineffable-
AS though her senses caught no mortal cry,
But heard instead, some poem going by
What could be more realistic and natural
than his lines on the sounds in the home
on summer day:
Blent with all outward sounds. the sounds
In mild remoteness falls the household din
OF porch and kitchen; the dull jar and
thump
OF churning; and the "glung-glung of the
With sudden pad and skurry of bare feet
OF little outlaws. in from field or street:
The caag of kettle-raSp of danlper-ring
And bang of cookstove door-and every
That jingies in a busy kitchen lifts
It's individual wrangling voice and drifts
In sweetest tinny, coppery. pewtery tone
In widest famished yearning and conceit
OF youth, to just cut loose AMI eat and eat
The swooning-sweet aroma haunting all
The house--upstairs and down-porch, par
Tor. hall
The Hired Man shifts in the orchard air.
And pauses in his pruning of the trees
To note the sun minutely and to-sneeze
Withal the arrangement of part the
book suggests the scheme of the first mas
terpiece of English, yet Dan Chaucers
story -tellers have no more interesting tales
to unfold than have these characters whom
Riley has gathered at the old homestead.
He has his Juvenile travellers come together
at his Canterbury from the abode of Jack
Sheppard and kindred literature from the
realms where giants, fairies, Red Riding
Hood and bears live, and from haunts no
further away than the front-door yard or
the neighbors yard at furthest, to in
geniousy exchange experiences with older
folks-and in this quaint book it is hard to
tell whose tales are the more keenly rel
ished, those of the young or those of the
old 1t is not the stories themselves for
which originality is vouched; it is in the
telling of them that lies the charm. And
it is certain that this book will awaken a
revival of interest in Little Red Riding
Hood to all parents who may have it re-
peated back to them by little Maymie. and
hear Maymie describe the tragic fate of
Red Riding Hoods grandmother thus:
An so tn old wolf
Ist march in men an shet the door adm,
An drowl, he did, an splunge up on the
bed
An ct up old Miz Riding Hood fore she
Could put her specs an see who il WIZ
An so she never knowed who ct her up!
THE MYSTERIOUS TRAVELLER.
1.-THE Noted Traveller" who appears lin
the book is a man mysterious to THESE
children of the old homestead and though
the reader readily catches gllmpses of his
mission from the fragments of talk the
children overhear. yet to the end of the
book this traveller continues to be mys-
terry to the youngsters. He comes out from
the Maryland end of the National road
about the time of the anti-slavery agita-
ton, and from his reception by the chill
dren's father, it is evident that host and
guest take equal interest in the freedom OF
the blacks. Bud" one of the children who
loiters outside the spare bedroom door be-
hind which his father and the stranger hold
their confabs. has penchant for big
words and adds remarkable collection to
his vocabulary. In these words the poet
gives US an fnkling of the strangers mis-
sion-sThe Irrepressible Conflict Squat
ter Sovereignty ''Shibboeth." Anti
Slavery. THE Great Battle of Arranged
dom were choice morsels for this childish
tongue to practice on. By and by, in
social gathering, the stranger adds his
story TO the rest and here Mr.. Riley al
most bounds into new field of poetic
| storytelling. 1t is appeal which might
have been very powerful-would, indeed
| have been a companion in verse to Uncle
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