{161}
CHAMBERS’S JOURNAL
OF
POPULAR
LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART.
CONTENTS
‘HAPPY EVER AFTER.’
BY MEAD AND STREAM.
THE SHADY SIDE OF MONEY-BORROWING.
THE MINER’S PARTNER.
THE TROUBADOURS.
‘HOME! SWEET HOME!’
COMMON COLDS.
‘NOT BEAUTIFUL!’
No. 11.—Vol. I.
Price 1½d.
SATURDAY, MARCH 15, 1884.
‘HAPPY EVER AFTER.’
By firelight, the children had heard a traveller’stale about the mirage of the desert—the distantvision of tufted palms and green herbage, thepromise of water, and shade, and rest. They hadheard how the delusion flies, baffling pursuit,always seeming to stand at an attainable distanceacross the hot sands, always infinitely far, tillit fades, because on their path it has no tangibleexistence. It is the delusive image of somethingexisting elsewhere, and elsewhere perhaps unaskedand uncared for by others, who reckon the oasisworth but little when their ambition is restlessfor the object of their journey.
‘That story won’t do!’ piped a little voice fromthe hearthrug, where golden hair was glisteningfull in the light like a heavenly aureola aboutan earthly dissatisfied face.
From within a cluster of boys and girls clingingto the armchair, the victim had of course to tella fairy tale instead, down to the inevitable ending,‘And they were happy ever after.’
‘Perkly happy?’ asked the small voice fromthe hearthrug.
‘Perfectly happy.’
‘Was there never a wet day?’
‘No; there was never a wet day in their partof the world.’
(Immediate flank attack and strategic surprise:)‘Then their seeds wouldn’t come up. How didthey manage?’
‘They were perfectly happy all the same.’
‘Maybe they didn’t care much for their seedsand things,’ said the golden-haired mortal of thereal world, pensively. ‘One can’t care much forone’s “Tom Thumbs,” and be perkly happy whenthe “Tom Thumbs” don’t come up after setting’em.’
There was a whole philosophy in these hearthrugspeeches. Six years old in the cosy homelight,and the world was already incomplete!Even fairyland did not bear close inspection. Ifone asked questions about it, one found out thatit had its drawbacks. Of course, fairy princesand princesses were perfectly happy, but onlyunder conditions of existence that put them outof our sympathy. Carrying one’s human heartalong with one, Fairyland wouldn’t do. This,in much simpler words, and no words at all,wa