Branksome Hall - Slogan Yearbook (Toronto, Ontario Canada)

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THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN. 29 Armed with courage to her very finger-tips, Ruth arrived at the pasture, but there was no Judy, and, despite strenuous calls, no cow made its appearance. Courage is of the same stability of character as quicksilver, one never can .absolutely ascertain its whereabouts. Ruth felt that it was doing its best to hide from her. However, with a little walking, Judy was spied away in the corner of the meadow — watching my lapproaoh much too carefully, Ruth said. But feeling the necessity for hoarding all surplus energy, she trudged on slowly, so that if Judy did take a violent prejudice against her she might feel all the more like running. But Judy was in an amiable mood, and they walked solemnly to the gate, while Ruth delivered a discourse upon the proper and seemly way for cows to behave, especially when they had had the honor of Ruth ' s coming to get them. Once outside the gate, Judy thought she knew the way home better than Ruth did, and, although with all good faith and reasonable patience she pointed out the mistake, the cow re- mained obstinate. Ruth had heard of pigs as the most obstinate of all creatures, but she decided that cows have them beaten. They took a jaunt around a very soggy ploughed field, then Judy went on a little farther. At least that was hopeful, and she seemed in- clined to go home, but, alas ! hopes are wary, too, at times ! She changed her route and went back to the miry field. It really isn ' t any joke to feel that everyone in the village may be laughing up their sleeves at you, but Ruth simply did not care for anything except to make Judy go home and to keep herself from taking root in the spongy ground. With the persuasion of a stick, Judy again started in the right direction, only to turn right about and istart off for the country at a good round trot, with the di sgusted Ruth following up for all she was worth. Have you heard of the man from the country, who, having purchased some goods in a departmental store, saw his money put into a little cash-box and, from there, rapidly transferred along a wire to the cashier ' s office? He was suspicious, so, without more ado, he followed the box, rushing headlong between the coun- ters, and eventually finding himself in the place from which he had started. Very much the same thing happened to Ruth. She rushed wildly after the cow for over a mile, and then some one, seeing her plight, turned Judy towards home, and after some little time they found themselves back at the meadow, where a delegation was await- ing them. Ruth walked home dispiritedly, feeling that in the encounter with Judy she had come out only second best and resolving that the next time she lacked inspiration to go out it would not tempt her in the form of a cow.

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28 THE BRANKSOME SLOGAN. Evelyn disappeared after dinner. She telephoned the next day and asked me to dinner on Sunday. She said she would try and make up for the awful time I had had. I went the next Sunday, and the Sunday after that, so you see I stayed longer than I planned. Evelyn says she can see the funny side now, but she enjoined me not to tell anyone but you. But I am forgetting what I came here for, said he, glancing at Ms watch. We want you to come down lat Christmas and be best man. Evelyn likes you already. I must be olf. I have an appoint- ment in ten minutes. Good-bye. ' ' He was gone, and hadn ' t even waited for an answer. I sat down and began wondering if I didn ' t really need coaching in Domestic Science. Then and there I resolved to take a trip Home at my first opportunity. A DOUBTFUL INSPIRATION BY LORRAINE IRWIN. This was the third day, and it was still raining ! How could any- one stand it? Ruth felt desperate. What was the good of being in the country at all if that was the way you were treated. If despera- tion is sufficiently genuine it is sure to find an outlet, and Ruth, feeling this to be her case, sighed all morning for an inspiration in the way of a good excuse to get ont regardless of weather. But the hours passed by uneventfully until after lunch. Passing through the kitchen, Ruth heard the maid say that the cow was out, adding a remark about the wet. On enquiry she found that everyone who might be sent for it was out too. Here was the very thing for her to do. With a serious face, she pleaded with her mother to let her go out of consideration for the cow ' s health, and at last a very hesi- tating permission was extracted. With happy heart and a feeling of unusual courage, Ruth set out for the pasture. I ought to explain that cows possessing the name of Judy are no ordinary ones. In the first place, this Judy was an avowed woman-hater, and, in the next place (and this was even more exciting), she had been known to bunt. Surely no suffragette ever felt so consciously brave in assaulting the enemy as Ruth! Perhaps all of you do not know the state of country thoroughfares after a few days ' rain. Picture to yourselves a rather narrow road, the earth inclined to be clayish, affectionate enough to stick to your boots in respectable lumps, and a good many puddles, then you will have a fair idea.

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30 THE BEANKSOME SLOGAN. BOOK REVIEW If it be true, as is often stated, that the sequel of a book is never so good as the original, then a striking exception to this rule has been discovered in Mrs. McClung ' s new book, The Second Chance ' published by William Briggs. Those who liave read and enjoyed Sowing Seeds in Danny, ' ' and their name is legion, may find it difficult to believe that any sequel could be better than it, but after they have read it T feel confident that they will agree with me. Though it iis but a simple story of simple people, yet it is filled with humor and pathos, radiant optimism and sound common-sense. In fact, it is the very simplicity of the book that makes the strongest appeal to its readers. This is no harassing problem play, nor one of those depressing books which leave one with, figuratively, a bad taste in one ' s mouth and the pessimistic feeling that the world and every- thing in it is going to the demnition bow-wows. Every line breathes optimism and the hope that everything will come right in the end, and one lays it down with the ref resiling feeling of being better for having read it. It would be hard to say just who the heroine of it is. The story begins and ends with Martha Perkins, the quiet, unselfish, subdued daughter of the bombastic Thomas Perkins, farmer. But all through the book appears the ubiquitous Pearlie Watson, in the role of good fairy to everyone. As though she had the veritable golden touch, everything that ishe is connected with is brightened. It is she who takes the self-effacing Martha Perkins in hand and gives her her- chance for happiness; it is she who champions Bud Perkins and poor little Libby Anne Cavers; who cheers up Mr. Donald, the schoolmaster, . and gives him a new interest in his Avork, and who all the time keeps in the foreground the idea of having her lads brought up dacent. She has no idea, however, of being a philanthropist, and says one time of Mrs. Burrell, the minister ' s wife, after the failure of one of her well-meant but tactless attempts to improve her husband ' s flock, Mrs. Burrell is all right, only her tongue. If she ' d ' a been born deaf and dumb she would have been a real nice woman, but the trouble with her is she talks too easy. That she had lost none of her brilliant imagination and Irish wit is shown by the way she dramatized her history lessons for the lads after she came home from school. When Danny, of a theological turn of mind, inquired as to the present whereabouts of King John, he of Magna Charta fame, Pearlie, knowing the character of that gentle- man ' s life, and yet anxious to give him the benefit of the doubt,