Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1920-06-21
Maine Gossip
PIuperfect Indicative

Was 1 so brave when I was young.
Or was it reckleSsness OF youth?
There tripped so smoothly from my
tongue
Great words sonorous or uncouth.
That echo through my head today
But what they mean 1 cannot say.
When I was four-or maybe three
l lisped about the Predicate,
And made Subjunctives bend the knee
In passive tense ere 1 was eight;
viewed. unmoved. the bones of
And had a horrid name for each.
/ never even turned a hair
When angry Surds the echoes woke:
I'd track a Gerund to its lair
And parse it at a single stroke;
Nor hesitate at raising rUctionS
With Participial Constructions.
Each Syntax fierce calmly faced:
And scarce a second thought I'd
give
To my own safety when chased
The Absolutest Ablative.
Bold DativeS at my feet would bow
Who governed Clauses, God knows
how.
And now I'm cid I shy at Verbs.
When Adverbs rise 1 give them
room.
A Pronoun all my joyance curbs-
W ="
Poor l. who once could shake my fists
At First and Second Aorists,
Burgess Johnson in Harpers Maya
zine for June.
Mrs. E. L. Varney of Rurnham
writes the K. ]. that Secretary of
State Frank W. Ball is not the only
berry man, with his one ripe straw
berry, picked in his garden on June
IA. for she on the same date pick d a
full quart Of ripe strawberries from
her garden and two quarts on each of
the two following days, June 16 and
II. The secretary says that it is all
the fault of the K. j.. for it gave the
impression in its item thai the sam
pie he showed was the only ripe ber-
ry in his garden, whereas he asserts
that the ground was practically red
with the luscious ripe fruit.
A mysterious explosion caused
some excitement in Ellsworth bust
ness district at midnight Saturday.
says the American. Late night
providers gathered and secured about
to locate the place Of explosion. Then
someone discovered smoke back Of
the Liberty national bank, and
jumped to the conclusion that safe
breakers were at work. Finally some
one discovered a battered and still
smoking milk-can near the Clark
horse sheds. Someone had filled it
with powder and touched it off.
A Bath man when a youth went on
a fishing trip with his uncle who was
in command of the vessel. Down off
Sandy Hook, while he was fishing
with hand line, the Bath boy hauled
up fish about as large as a sculpin,
which on being landed on the deck
the lad that he sought his uncle and
informed him Of his catch and that it
was talking fish, at the same time
showing him the strange creature.
My boy" said the wag of skipper.
your fortune is made: that, my son.
is a robin fish; put it at once in a
barrel OF water and don't on your life
lose him until the end of the voyage.
robin fish is very rare and when
You get him on land you can name
your own price for the fish" The
fish was colored like a robin and the
sound he emitted was not unlike the
chirp of the redbreast. The Bath lad
put his prize in a key filled with salt
water and until he learned from the
sailors later on that trip how the
skipper had been joking. he passed
much of his time in running to that
keg and watching the fish. 1t really
was robin fish.
The annual report Of the Maine
State Society for the Protection Of