The Mellette County pioneer. [volume] (Wood, Mellette County, S.D.) 19??-1971, 1918-11-08
n A QUIET reach of the
Thames my friends house
boat is tethered to two posts

Ills JTdue HAS aug up ancient bTltlSIl
poetry and Roman spearheads in the
e%el-nursing mud. But We did not now
require his professional service, for
across the river to meet us came like
q shaft of light his amateur rival.
("Rival," of course, if you run the
word back to it's origin, means One
who dWellS on the bank of q stream.)
She was a girl with hair of bur-
nished gold bobbed and filleted, who
bent manwise to the oars, in her yell
low sweater and white skirt, a naiad
Of the rushes who seemed to have ris-
en- out Of the stream, it's own anthem
tic spirit.
The household itself, ~white-painted,
held aloft under its striped canopy and
ever soft red rugs, a hanging garden
Of geranium baskets, with vines whose
tendrils delicately wavered on the soft
whisper Of the breeze. A clutter Of
canoes and punts gently fretted the
floating platform below, as though
upon a river of Cathay. In the living
room, radiant with violas and roses
end geraniums, the filmy snow Of the
curtains was parted by a fireplace and
over it a clock restored the sense of
time that elsewhere was pleasantly
absent or negligible.
Met a Flying Man.
Two rallied gangways led ashore
and no sooner had I put my modest
luggage aboard than to the shore we
went, to find the golf links close at
hand, where the fat sheep grazed. A
young and debonair Englishman met
MS there, and / learned to my surprise
that he was accidental. He was a
flying man, and something wrong with
the engine compelled him to volplane
down to a paddock next the golf
blown me good" I thought, as I shook
bands with this B~rushwood boy angel
unawareS.
The larks were singing, and / paused
often with cleek or lofter in midair
to hear the sound. I think / care more
for George Meredith's Lark Ascend
ing than I do for Shelley's "unpremedi-
tated" singer, but if 1 had to choose
between them I would take them both.
Such overlooking billfuls of ecstasy,
from such a little bird! And he pres
emily went off Git seemed) in company
With a disreputable troupe Of sparrow
hawks, singing to them still, as an
opera tenor might chant for a COM
pany of %songleSs tramps. Can 1t be
that an English links, with Paul Pot
ter cattle and Daubigny pools and will
lows round about, ever hears a harsh
word over a golf ball sliced or stymied
or in obstinate hiding?
Above us airplanes purred and were
vigilant increasingly. And in my heart
I blessed them, and with my hand
I waved them greetings that / hope
they saw. In a single group on the
way to the links / had beheld seven
captive sausage" ballOOns-as though
r benevolent constitutional monarchy
had sent all these things that a plain
American might have IN afternoon of
sport. What close neighbors are the
implements of war and Of peace In
the old world today!
We walked back to the boat, through
a garden plot trimming with blue vi
olas, and there was a tiny cemetery
with more viOlas in a glass on the
grave Of a cygnet born the day before.
Mother Bird Had Done Murder.
Then we met the mother bird, the
murderess. In stately circles she was
swimming round the boat, a swan
more lovely to look upon than any
that bore Lohengrin and heard his
tributary song.
The day before four cygnets were
katched out. Three of them were with
her now-the fourth, she had decided,
with an unruffied calm I doubt not,
was n too many. So she had slain
1t. TRANQUILITY enough the bereaved
family vas taking It's Outing-so soon
after the funeral!
Father was the advance guard. like
q cruiser bringing in a transport
ship and lesser craft. Two gray
fluff balls were on the mothers back,
In a warm cradle deep and soft be-
tween her wings. They arched and
stretched their necks as they saw her
doing, and took in all the view, and