Shining Ferry

use at Hall, dictating a letter to hi

ee standard lengths before shipment, we are enabled to offer an additional discount of five per cent, for the coming season on orders of five thousand staves and upwards. Such orders, howe

ed up. His glance inq

aning back in his chair and gripping its arms while he stare

that you will hold yourself ready for a call betw

clerk interposed, "but Mr. Sam

it. Go o

they may take a considerable time. Kindly let me k

signed it, "Yours truly, John Rosewarne," while the cler

en buds stirred by the breeze and nodding against the pale sunset sky. Beyond the garden lay a small orchard fringed with elms; and below this the slope fell so steeply down to the har

ck struck from the church tower across the water, and the mallets ceased; but far

ye-well-Good-bye

a short length of mu

s you might fancy its smoke ascending to him as incense. He sat with his strong hand resting on the arms of his chair, with the last gold of daylight touching

lders, and stretched out a hand to ring, as his cus

gathered up his papers, had advanced close to the corner o

May. I had no opportunity this morni

begad, I believe you're the only s

At the signal, a small Italian greyhound, who had been awaiting it, came forward fawning from h

Benny, with sudden fervour. Relapsing at once into his ordinary manner, he produced a

it over, man." Mr. Rosewar

r, another m

ope it will n

e that, when t

n, and sit you

enny. Your ow

ther, sir. The idea-if I may

nee-hole table, selected a packet labelled "Complimentary, P. B."-his clerk's initials-slipped the new verses under the elastic band containing similar contributions of

s, Benny," said he, reaching for the cider-j

, sir-talking about milestones-you will be pleased to hea

be the nint

girls and five boys:

d Lo

ove with them, sir,

the purpose if they brought their boots and shoes. Man,

to your kindness in employing me, I am beholden to n

urious eagerness, as though on the point of p

y talk about over-population. A nation can't breed too many sons. Sons are her strength, and if she is to whip her rivals it will be by the big battalions. Therefore, as I argue it out, a good citizen should beget many ch

the packet of letters in Mr. Benny's hand. The uppermost-the busi

this world, Benny. I'd like to lend you a book of Darwin's-the biggest book of this century, and a new gospel for the next to think out. The con

to get along with the old one, which s

said, the new gospel has a place for patriots. They breed the raw material by which a nation crushes all riva

to the other. "Even if yours were the last word i

f to your wife's bedside. Very well, man-drink up

rry, he caught sight, across the hedge, of two children seated together in a corne

t on May-morning-two barrel-hoops fixed crosswise and mounted on a pole. The girl had laid the pole across her lap, and was binding the hoops with ferns and wild hya

Mr. Benny. At the sound of her voi

his health." He beckoned them over to the hedge. "And it

ell me you've gone and got

odded, no w

or

oy

optic nerve, and did not affect the beauty of his eyes, which were curiously

y confessed; "but the doctor said he was a fine one." He nodded

f about us," the girl answered. "B

. I had it on my tongue just now to ask him to stand godfather-the child's birthday being the same as his own. 'Twas the honour of it I wanted; but

him, if

! No, please, you m

y we

k of his head. "You don't know how it is-no, of course you would

g home, and some day you sh

ste, for he had to cool his heels for a good ten minutes on the slipway, and fill up the time in telling his news to half a dozen workmen gathere

ll, and returning from their day's job. They discussed the building as Nicky V

s all for education now, and the latest i

be for Aunt Butson a

e new place, maybe,

is notions? He's a darned sight more l

ed way. "That's a joke, too," said he. He

h he could not have altered for a fortune-while his

reek-not I. 'Do or be done, miss doing and be done for'-that's the world's motto nowadays; and if I hadn't learnt it

them on the landing-slip, a

mild a little man. "'Tisn't true, whatever it sounds. There's anoth