The Houma courier. (Houma, La.) 1878-1939, 1900-05-05

1870 VS. AAAAAAAlsAAa
EYES, that uas funny said the Type
writer Girl. eYour face was a study
Then you got red and began to count
with your fingers and we all knew the
struggle that you were having trying
to subtract dates. Finally"
II blurted out a date that took me
just four years back in the past in
stead of forward in the future, and it
went down on the books in that way"
said the Fluffy Girl, sharply.
Al ripple of amusement stirred the
meeting. Each girl understood how
funny this was when it happened to
some one besides herself.
But" said the FLUFFY Girl, address
ing the president, II was unaware that
the rules of the club called for con-
fessions from second persons-or-"
parties of the second part?" said
the president. "You are correct. /
sustain your objection"
81 may not be 50 clever at rapid cali
culations and large subtractions as
some of my classmates" here she
looked scathingly at the Typewriter
Girl, "but I never wrote quotations my
self and palmed them off as being from
Shakespeare and other poets"
The Fluffy Girl sat down sustained
by a thrill of horror that evinced itself
in a distinct rustic of skirts,
The Typewriter Girl blushed and fin
| gered her lorgnette chain n~ervously.
Il suppose" she began, smiling as
though at a childish follyl
Suppose you tell us about that"
suggested the president. ct sounds
as though it might be in line with the
subject of our discussion this even
ing?"
The Typewriter Girl coughed slight
Iy and said:
TT was like this. We were supposed
to get up in the class every Friday
afternoon and give a quotation from
memory. Each girl had to have one
and every Friday we used to get moth
ing but Life is real, life is earnest
and The quality of mercy speech and
Break, Break, Break and all those
standbys. Finally the professor
barred a lot of these and said we'd
have to get something newer.
"WelI one Friday came along and
I didn't have anything ready but TO
be or not to be- which had been ex-
cluded. So when my turn came I got
up boldly and said with great express
sion:
And Fate-the ~Immutable,
Rakes empty shells along the shores Of
time!
Robert Browning.
81 could see that the girls all thought
this was fine and the professor said
that here was a thought. He said we
must study it over and get at its true
meaning and he had the girls copy
it down and he told us that this was
the interesting feature of Browning's
poems that they were not mere jim
~g4es-they were profound thoughts.
''The next week felt more confident
and I gave them this:
In life's dim glen Of years
We gather sweetest bloom,
The hearts forget-me-nOts brimmed up
with tears!
''The professor asked me what poem
this vas from. He said that for beauty
of thought and imagery of express
sion it surpassed anything he had ever
read of Shelley's.
81 told him that I couldn't recall the
poem but I had heard it read in my
childhood and the lines had rung in my
memory ever since. By this time 1 was
getting famous for finding rare and
beautiful quotations, but one of the.
girls got on and passed me a slip of
paper n day during recitation. She
had written on it: Please push along
one of those good things. have moth
ing to-day but Under a spreading
chestnut tree So l dashed off this in
q hurry:
Love and Youth and Hope
Are stars that shine the brightest in the
sky of years!
Thomas Moore.
''Che professor said he remembered
the lines distinctly, but he thought she
was mistaken; that they were from
Walter Scott. She stammered so over
it that I think he began to suspect, for
after that we had to mention the poem
and the verse and he kept a record in
a book"
Suppose we talk of some graver
Grimes said the Newspaper Girl.
Even now we are fraudulently gloss
ing over real deceits and relating
TO trivial incidents. Let us tell of some
Of the really mean things we've DONE"
The PrOofreader Girl arose with a
look of determination. She was put
ting on gayer half-mourning every
meeting and was beginning to take no.
tice, the president said.
During the first year of my welded
life she said, 81 used to deceive my
husband frightfully."
Were you found out?' asked the
Medical Student, who was engaged and
looking for points.
YES" she said; "but he was so
generous about It'll" She raised a VIC
~let-bordered handkerchief part way to
her eyes and then took it down. ut
vas about cooking" she said.
"Tom had the funniest way of invit-
ing friends home to dinner and tele-
graphing me at the last moment when
there was no time to cook anything.
Tt used to drive me wild!
"One day one of those messages came
and the maid suggested sending to the
Uplate club for some things. She said
-N-- -aarI - H. I'll