The Democratic Press

THE FAMILY BIBLE

BY REV. MR. ARNOTT

The tale that I am now about to tell
Is a tale of something that once befell
The son of a man that went to dwell
Away from his friends in Detroit town:
He didn't exactly go to the dogs:
He built him a cabin of logs and lost
With nobody near him but wolves and frogs,
To make remark on his labors.

A stern and upright man was he:
His wife was comely and fair to see,
His sons were nine and his daughters three,
Like the muses and the graces:
But lest their beauty should prove a snare,
He gave them the coarsest clothes to wear:
He taught them 'twas folly to dress their hair,
And he would say, 'Come, children, beware
Of making proud of their faces.'

But once on a time, as the stories say,
When he went to the city his tax to pay.
And lay in a store for many a day
Of the family salt and spices
In the top of his trunk, with the greatest care,
He placed a mirror, shining and square,
And bade the family all beware,
He would have no meddling fingers there,
For he wouldn't encourage their vices.

No doubt it was evil blood that ran
Clear back to the time the world began.
When Eve, our mother, first tempted man.
But this there is no denying:
In spite of his threat, it came to pass
That the youngest son of his love, alas!
Peeped into the trunk and into the glass,
And fell to shrieking and crying
For out of the trunk looked up to him
A grimy face with a senseless grin,
And shaggy locks in such woful trim,
'Twas very natural horror.

"Oh mother! as sure as you are standing there
My father has bro't home a live young bear,
An ugly fellow all over with hair,
I am nearly dead with terror."