Page:Romance & Reality 3.pdf/124

122 Well, well—to make short of a sad story—one evening they would go on the lake, though there was a great big black cloud coming up; but Mr. Simcoe said it would be just like the Coarse-hair, or Courser, or some such name, and spouted some poetry—which, after the sad accident, Mr. Higgs and I learnt by heart, as a warning to our young friends. But, somehow, we never, though we took a world of pains, could remember more than the first two or three lines—for we are too old to begin our schooling over again, and we were neither of us any great shakes at book learning—but two lines will do for an example—a nod's as good as a wink to a blind horse." So saying, Mrs. Higgs repeated the following lines in a most Sunday-school tone:—

Here Mrs. Higgs's voice sank into "tears and forgetfulness." "It isn't, Miss, so much want of memory, as that I am overtaken by my feelings. But, Miss, before I go on with my story, you musn't think nothing of the arms