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Show . V '. F!attorl4 Poet. Not long ago a poet was staying at a seaside hotel, where he attracted some attention as a celebrity.- Among the guests was a , woman who wished her daughter to seem on intimate terms with literature, and, as far as possible, with literary people. Accordingly she set the girl at work to learn one of the poet's shorter pieoes, which might have been a clever move to gain her point, but the j effect of it was somewhat injured by the daughter's carelessness and ignorance, On the same page with the poem in question in a book of selections was one by another and more famous writer, and the girl made the mistake of committing com-mitting this instead of the pno which her mother had intended. ' At the first opportunity the young lady said to the poet in the presence of several sev-eral of the guests: 1 "It is such a delight to meet one whose linnfi I have carried in mv mind for years I The poem which I love better than any other in the world is one of yours." "Indeed!" answered the smiling poet. "I had not flattered myself that I had written anything worthy of such honor. Whatisitr ' - ' : With an affected emphasis the girl repeated re-peated the poem she had learned, the company, of course, remaining silent till she had finished. "It is lovely I" murmured one of the guests, who did not recognize it. . "Yes," said the poet, "it is so good that I can only regret that Wordsworth should have taken the liberty of writing it before I was born. Otherwise I should undoubtedly have written it myself." The best of good breeding could not altogether repress the smiles of the bystanders, by-standers, and the poor girl, suddenly remembering re-membering that her mother needed her, disappeared with much celerity. '"It is a pity," the poet said mildly, when she was out of hearing, 7 'it is a pity that people cannot understand that we writers, vain though we may be, are not so blinded by vanity as to be unable to tell genuine' admiration from the poorest of make believe." Youth's Companion. Com-panion. ' ''';' ; : |
