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GOOD THINGS WELL SAID

1. Complacency is the one obstacle to progress, in finance, in art, in intellect, and the things of the spirit.-Mgr. R. H. Benson.

2. The first quality to be desired in man or woman is kindness: it regulates the rest.— Roderick Lyndon.

3. Man has always lost his way. He has been a tramp ever since Eden.-G. K. Chesterton.

4. Real educationists have to resist a kind of roaring cataract of culture.-The Same.

5. The best way for a man to train up a child in the way it should go, is to travel that way sometimes himself.—Anon. 6. The merit of originality is not novelty, it is sincerity.Carlyle.

7. Nothing reveals character so much as what a man thinks laughable. A clever man thinks almost everything laughable: a wise man almost nothing.-Goethe.

8. There is time enough for everything in the day if you do but one thing at once.-Chesterfield.

9. The whole Church is the sanctuary, and the Divine Office is the ritual of the choir on earth uniting with the praises, thanksgivings, and doxologies which are the ritual of the choir in heaven. Every priest has his place in this choir, and he makes seven visits to the heavenly court day by day.-Cardinal Manning.

10. Among all the counsels given to the young priest as to the style of his discourses, there are few more common, and none less necessary, than: Avoid being rhetorical.-Rev. Arthur B. O'Neill, C.S.C.

11. Paradoxical as it may sound to some, it is nevertheless strictly true that every good discourse, whether religious or profane, is rhetorical: no orator, in or out of the pulpit, ever speaks to the purpose without consciously or unconsciously conforming to those laws which rhetoric enjoins as necessary to the adequate and forcible expression of thought.-The Same.

12. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts.-Marcus Aurelius.

THE IRISH MONTHLY

FEBRUARY, 1915

A SILVER SHRINE

By CONSTANCE E. BISHOP,
Author of

"The Seventh Wave and other Soul Stories."

"Ah, silver shrine, here will I take my rest
After so many hours of toil and quest,
A famished pilgrım,—saved by miracle."
-KEATS.

D

CHAPTER I.

O you really want a memoir of poor Christopher, dear Reverend Father? Well, then, you shall have it before I pass away to my rest in God, and that will be shortly so the good doctor says. And shall I begin at the very beginning, and tell you all about my life? Very well: but let it be a case of E. and O. E.' or errors and omissions excepted,' as an Indian clerk ever writes when he signs as all correct' the grand total of any bill however big or small. I always hope that when we pass, each one of us, to the particular judgment, our dear Lord will overlook the errors and omissions' of our life's account, as we hand it to Him signed and sealed by the good priest who has heard our last confession:-God grant to you, and me, and all of us, the graces, and strength, of the last sacraments.

VOL. XLIII.-No. 500.

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And now I will not keep you waiting any longer, but tell you the story of my life; and of how God, our Friend, came to stay with me, and to abide always.

My name was Krishna, and I belonged, by birth, to the Thief Caste, a clan or class of Hindus who live by stealing. The Government has now, to a certain extent, suppressed them; but they still exist. If a member of another caste, or an Englishman, lives among these people he must needs have one of the society as his servant. This man then acts the part of a good, honest watch-dog towards his master; not suffering him to be robbed in any way.

My parents, died of cholera when I was very young, and one of the neighbours reared me. From my earliest years I was an adept in the art of stealing, and valued for my agility and cunning. My thin, lithe, body could worm its way, snake-like, into any unprotected hole or cranny in a shop or bungalow. My long, wiry fingers, very early learned to seek and find hidden treasures, even in darkest corners. My eyes have ever possessed some cat-like quality of seeing in that half-light which ordinary folk call darkness.

Mine was a half-starved, and wholly loveless childhood, for I was only the little slave of my foster-father and his wife. Yet I was always contented, save when for trifling faults, they beat or kicked me; and even then bruises and blows were soon forgotten.

Like most Indian children, I lived as free and naturally as a little animal until I had attained the age of seven. Happy as a lizard I basked-sometimes sleeping in the torrid sunshine; or bathed in the large jungle pools, diving for the fish which my master shot. Often I swam about in the bright moonlight, and imagined that I also had fins and gills! Each morning and evening I had to tend the goats, bringing them to my master's wife for her to milk; and I would drive the buffaloes, belonging to the farmer whose serf my master was, to water them in the swamp beyond the paddy fields. I loved to strike at the black brutes with my tiny goad: to pull their scraggy tails, glorying in their docility to my small self! I did not mix much with other children, nor pay heed to their curious and generally unclean ways. Solitude, or the company of beast and bird creation,

was sweeter far. Thus I grew up innocent of sins worse even than those of thieving, or of adroitly lying. After all these were not crimes to me; they were practical and learned sciences in which as an infant I had matriculated: also they represented my stock-in-trade. My dearest comrade was a bird whom I truly loved: it was a minar. I tamed it when it was a chick, and tethered it by one leg to a stick, cutting each wing when it was old enough to fly. It soon learned to talk and to respond in its own way to my warm caresses.

One day, when I came home to supper, my pet was gone. Some imp had stolen it. Oh, how I howled and lamented, and how vigorously my mistress beat me for making such a noise! Finally, as I could not cease from mourning, she kicked me across the hovel, bidding me coil up in my rough blanket and go to sleep.

I was up at dawn. The scarlet sunrise edged the green paddy fields with a gold and crimson band when I set out. As I wandered along one of the many narrow raised paths, or dykes, that intersect these rice fields, fate led me in a right direction; for presently I heard a well-known bird-voice cry: "Krishna! Krishna!" I glanced down the steep bank: there sure enough was my fosterling, tied to a stick, its claws bound and stuck into the miry clay. Truly there was as great a joy in the finding of this bird as there had been grief over its loss. I bore my pet home in triumph, hugging it to my breast, kissing its flapping pinions. Sole friend of childhood, how I loved thee!

Time does not stand still with any one of us. The hours of life strike all too quickly, and bring changes with them. One day a great personage visited our squalid settlement, and called from hut to hovel. He was garbed in flowing muslin, and had superior caste marks on his forehead. I knew not the why and wherefore of this grandee's arrival, but I was sore afraid. At first I thought he surely was some Swamior great god-come down to earth: a little later I was convinced that he must be a devil!

He stared me up and down in contemptuous silence. He looked and presently expressed-his deep disgust with my poor, humble, self. Pointing at me, the great being poured forth what seemed to be imprecations upon my master and

his wife. She spat out chewed betel venomously; her husband gave me a surly glance and surreptitious kick. What was amiss I knew not, but presently the trouble was revealed. I was too old to work at home as a little slave, and must be sent to school immediately. The official was a Government school inspector.

This prospect of compulsory education did not at all suit my admirable foster-parents. Nevertheless, after a storm of vindictive words from both, I was led away by the individual, who seemed omnipotent. Not that he touched me. No! He would not for the world have come into contact with such a low-caste creature: he merely beckoned me to come after, and for many miles I followed, like a poor dog. Nevertheless he turned out to be a generous, warm-hearted soul: for he found an empty nook for me among his goats and fowls; a corner in which I could eat and sleep and do odd jobs for him when school hours did not claim me. He had me clothed in garments which I heartily disliked because they were so new and spotless. Education and civilised life were thus begun.

Each morning I trotted off to school bearing a bundle of split and dried palm leaves-my tablets-and the style for their engraving. Being naturally sharp, I quickly mastered all that I was compelled to learn, and was soon ahead of other scholars. I picked up English too, in hearkening to the conversation between the great inspector and certain Europeans, who frequently visited his bungalow. Thus five years passed by; not unhappily, after I had grown accustomed to sitting cramped up for hours over my studies. Nor were my ancient tricks of pilfering by any means neglected: I stole for my new master's cook. Many a fowl which I had thieved from henroosts went down upon the housekeeping account. Not a few cheroots were purloined from Mahomedan merchants for the ruler of the kitchen; a pile of muslin for his young wife was stolen piece by piece in the same fashion. I saw no harm in such robbery; cook and his wife appreciated such a nimble-fingered, useful boy, and were most good to

me.

Alas! the scourge of cholera visited our unhappy village. All of our household fell victims to its horrors: myself excepted.

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