To put in my stocking. " Proud Lord Willoughby, Lord High Chancellor,Laughed both loud and free :
"I"ve served Your Majesty, man to man,
Since first Your Majesty"s reign began,
And I"ve often walked, but I never, never ran, Never, never, never, " quoth he.
Good King Hilary Said to his Chancellor
(Proud Lord Willoughby, Lord High Chancellor):
" Walk to the wicket-gate Quickly, quickly,
Walk to the wicket-gate And see who is knocking.
It may be a captain, Hawk-nosed, bearded, Bringing me gold-dust, Spices, and sandalwood; It may be a scullion, Care-free, whistling,Bringing me sugar-plums
To put in my stocking. "
Proud Lord Willoughby, Lord High Chancellor, Laughed both loud and free :
"I"ve served in the Palace since I was four, And I"ll serve in the Palace a many years more, And I"ve opened a window, but never a door,Never, never, never, " quoth he.
Good King Hilary Said to his Chancellor
(Proud Lord Willoughby, Lord High Chancellor) : " Open the window Quickly, quickly,Open the window
And see who is knocking. It may be a waiting-maid, Apple-cheeked, dimpled, Sent by her mistressTo bring me greeting; It may be children, Anxious, whispering, Bringing me cobnutsTo put in my stocking. "
Proud Lord Willoughby,
Lord High Chancellor, Laughed both loud and free :
" I"ll serve Your Majesty till I die- As Lord High Chancellor, not as spy To peep from lattices; no, not I,Never, never, never, " quoth he.
Good King Hilary Looked at his Chancellor (Proud Lord Willoughby, Lord High Chancellor). He said no wordTo his stiff-set Chancellor, But ran to the wicket-gateTo see who was knocking.
He found no rich man Trading from Araby; He found no captainBlue-eyed, weather-tanned; He found no waiting-maid Sent by her mistress;But only a beggar-man With one red stocking.
Good King Hilary
Looked at the beggar-man,
And laughed him three times three;
And he turned that beggar-man round about: "Your thews are strong, and your arm is stout; Come, throw me a Lord High Chancellor out,And take his place, " quoth he. Of Hilary the Good and GreatOld wives at Christmas time relate This tale, which points, at any rate,Two morals on the way.
The first : " Whatever Fortune brings, Don"t be afraid of doing things " (Especially, of course, for Kings).
It also seems to say
(But not so wisely) : "He who begs With one red stocking on his legs Will be, as sure as eggs are eggs,A Chancellor some day. "
A.A. Milne in Now We are Six
Author.-Alan Alexander Milne, a living English writer of whimsical verses and plays for children, is a worthy successor to Edward Lear, of the limericks, and Lewis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland. Some men never grow old; they keep the freshness and sportiveness of a child till the end. Mr. Milne is one of them. His published works include various plays and essays and, among books for children, When we were very Young, Now we are Six (verse), Winnie the Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner (prose).
General.-King Hilary (it rhymes with pillory and means " the cheerfulone ") is not recorded in sober history. Quote his three guesses. What are the usual duties of a Lord High Chancellor? What is a wicket-gate? a scullion? sandalwood? What are lattices? Why "Araby " instead of Arabia? Are the morals at the end just, or are they ridiculous? Why? Consider the rhythm. Does it vary? Is the passage true poetry or only clever rhyme? What makes you think so?
Lesson 10
THE MEN OF WHITBY
One night in January, 1881, during a tremendous storm, a brig struck on the sunken reefs within the southern arm of Robin Hood"s Bay. The crew got out the jolly-boat, and made her fast with a rope to the mast of the wreck. All night long they fought with the waves, the people on shore being entirely ignorant of their calamity.
Early in the morning the quarter-board of the vessel, driven ashore, was seen by the coastguardsmen, who gave the alarm; and it was then discovered that the brig had foundered during the night, and that the crew were still tossing about in their boat, exposed to the perils of a furious gale, a blinding snow- storm, and a heavy sea.
Now, at that time, the life-boat at Robin Hood"s Bay was old and unseaworthy. To put out in her was to incur swift and certain death. Neither could the brig"s boat possibly make shore through the terrible breakers, even had her crew known the lay of the reefs, through which there are but two narrow channels where a boat may pass.
What was to be done? The good people of Robin Hood"s Bay could not let shipwrecked sailors drown before their eyes, and no ordinary boat could live in such a sea. There was but onechance-the telegraph. They wired to Whitby, asking that the life-boat might be sent at once.
The Whitby men received the message after having been outfive times during the night. They held a consultation.
The first suggestion was that the life-boat should be towed round to Robin Hood"s Bay, about ten miles, by steam tug; but this was impossible, as no tug could weather such a storm as then was raging.
The next suggestion was to man the life-boat and pull round. But, with the ebb tide and the furious gale against them, no boat"s crew in the world could have taken the boat to the wreck, even if there had been a hope of living in that tremendous storm. The brave men of Whitby looked at the great cauldron of the sea, where the swirling water and the shrieking spray and flying snow were blent in one great seething hell-broth and shook their heads despairingly.
