Gallery eBooks

Always speak well of the dead." And, as they couldn't honestly do
that, they obeyed him and left Mr. Jinks in his unhonoured grave, with
a broken wheel-barrow for a headstone and a mass of wire-netting to
make resurrection difficult. In order to get the disagreeable epitaph
out of their minds Uncle Felix substituted a kinder and gentler one,
and made them learn it by heart:
Old Jinks lies here
Without a tear;
He meant no wrong,
But we didn't get along;
So Jinks lies here,
And we've nothing more to fear.
He's all right:
Jinks
Sinks
Out of sight!
It was the proud colony of wallflowers that first made Uncle Felix
like the place. Their loveliness fluttered in the winds, and their
perfume stole down deliciously above the rubbish and neglect. They
seemed to him the soul of ruins triumphing over outward destruction.
Hence the delicate melancholy in their scent and hence their lofty
chosen perch. Out of decay they grew, yet invariably above it. Both
sun and stars were in their flaming colouring, and their boldness was
true courage.


Pages:
99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123