Evening star., 1923-12-16
BY A. S. NJ. HUTCHINSON

lOSt.
He said to her, do you know,
when you walked in at that door
just now you were about as likely
to stay and live here as Cleggs Is to
stand on his head"
"Can he7" cried the little girl,
enormously interested.
You'd better ask him. But sup
pose you do stay here? What an
idea! How could you? There'd be
all sorts Of difficulties"
The little girl seemed quite to ap-
appreciate this. She reflected his
frown "There'd be my back to
| wash" she said.
He laughed easily. THAT particu-
lar difficulty hadn't occurred to me.
1 daresay we could get over that"
I We'll. I can do everything else for
| myself. It's only my back when I
| have my bath
| He was not really thinking Of
practical difficulties. Practical diff
| culties never stood in the way Of the
proprietor OF the BasseM's Paper
| Mills; that was why he was 80 rich
| and so hated. All very we'll to have
| this little girl in the house and to
/
1 freshness, this newness; but how
about giving up his accustomed mode
| Of life and his accustomed outlook on
! life. Forty years ilabituated in It.
Forty years-ay, me! But still
! But he kept UP the pretense Of
practical difficulties. rHow about
I lessons? Don't you have to do les
| sonsT'
1
All the little fairies hugged them
| selves anew TO hear him dallying.
He'll go too far in a moment" they
cried.
''My dear mamma did me my les
/ sons" said tho little, girl. tT can
show you and you can do me them.
because. do you know, I've got the
very books that you and my dear
mamma used when you were little
like me. They've got your marks in
Them I've got them here"
| She took from a chair the satchel
she had brought with her and put It
on the table. She pulled out small
and battered volumes. There they
are. Do you remember them?"
! RI remember them" he said; and at
his tone, "oh. poor thing!" cried all
the little fairies.
The little girl had opened one of
the books and was turning over the
leaves before him. Look, those are
your marks when you were learning.
Your dear mamma used to put the
! dates every day and so did mine
] He rather stolidly regarded the
! thumbed pages, his mothers pencil
! marks, the old fashioned wood-cuts
and the little readings in huge print
He was not touched by it. What he
| felt was a strange delight in the
| funny little old book with its gro
| tesqueiy pious and moral tales. His
| sole reading was the Times and the
Financial Times. This stuff was de-
licious. And once it had thrilled
him, LAY. mo-"
The little girl thought he must
| have finished reading the page at
| which he was staring. That was
your reading book" she said. MY
| dear mamma says you and she both
simply loved it. Here was one page
| "A poetry page-she said you
couldn't understand. I'll show you"
She fiattened before him a page
conspicuously white compared with
tho fnger-stained others. . It had
three stiff wood-cuts: a small urchin
sporting after a butterfly; a young
man walking a path and looking at
a bird above him. middle-aged man
seated on a bench in the attitude Of
reflection
He remembered the pictures per-
fectly. His eyes read the verse ac-
companytng them:
Shades Of the prison-house begin to
Upon the growing boy,
But he beholds the light, and whence
it flows
He sees II in his JOY:
The youth who daily further from
the east
Must travel. still is Natures priest,
And by the vision splendid
Is on his way attended;
At length the man perceives it die
away,
And fade into the Tight of common
day.
Whittier is ned the visionary CLEAN?
Where Is it now, the glory and tho
dream?"
+ X
THE proprietor Of Bassett's Paper
i Mills was smitten between the
Joints of his harness. He was forty
years deep in the prison; forty years
from the glory and forty years from
the dream; and he was in the COM
pany Of a little girl upon whom no
shades Of the prison-house had yet
descended.
The little girl waited an enormous
ly long time for him to speak.
At last she said. DO you UNDER
stand that poetry page now, Uncle?"
He said heavily. Il understand It."
He turned in his chair toward her.
You're going to stay with me all
right. What would you like to do
firstr'
The little girl said, +Td like-most
awfully-to cry"
CLook out! Look out!' cried all
the little fairies.)
The proprietor OF Bassett's Paper
Mills extended his hands to her.
She said, do you think my dear
mamma would mind?'
The proprietor of Bassett's Paper
Mills swallowed something. She'll
know I said you might"
Tho little girls face began to-work
with extraordinary commissions.
He opened his arms to her.
"That's done It! That's done it,"
cried all the little fairies and hoped
and skipped about the floor OF fairy
land.
The little girl sobbed with an
abandonment to grief, utter, COM
plete, enormous. devastating. Her
face was buried in the shoulder OF