A QUARREL AMONG THE BOOKS
Some books on a shelf were conversing together regarding their respective merits.
"I am the most sought after of any of you," said a Popular
Novel. "My fame is universal and everybody is talking
about me."
"But you are a mere passing fancy of the hour," replied a
French Reader. "Next year at this time you will be forgotten. Now, I, on the contrary, shall always be in vogue. Polite society makes a great deal of me."
"Superficial society you mean," said an Ancient History
with a sneer. "People of solid worth and real culture look
over your head at me. I date back farther than any of you.
I tell of times and people you modern books know nothing about." "I could make your heads swim in five minutes if I gave you one of my problems to solve," said a Higher Algebra loftily.
"I am quoted more than any of you," spoke up a Volume
of Poems. "All sorts of people care for me. Orators, lovers, school children and clergymen quote from my pages, and I comfort many tired hearts with my sayings. No prose book need talk of popularity where I am."
"Yet, you are all mere rudimental works when compared
with me," said a pompous Volume of Philosophy. "I alone get at the truths of life and furnish food for serious reflection."
Just then a gentle, timid voice spoke up from the corner of the shelf. "I do not wish to vaunt my worth above my neighbor," it said, "but I think I give more comfort and peace to tired hearts than any of you. It is not I who do it, but the voice of the Master speaking through me."
It was a Book of Psalms which said these words, and they seemed to act like fuel on flame, for the Psalm Book had
scarcely ceased when a large Scientific Volume cried out:
"Oh, pshaw! You belong to past ages, not one of you is
of the least value nowadays. Science, and science alone
counts the world is beginning to find out that. I" but
the big Scientific Book spread its covers so in gesticulating, and elbowed the other book so rudely, that it burst open the clasp on the glass door, and out they all tumbled in an ignominious and undignified heap on the floor, with the exception of the little Psalm Book on one side and Webster's Unabridged Dictionary on the other.
"What a foolish fuss," remarked the Dictionary to its com-
panion. "They do not seem to realize that all they know they borrow from me. Every letter and sign they contain can be found in my pages."
Just then the master of the house came in and seeing the
books on the floor, exclaimed, "Well, there! I must get a
new clasp for that bookcase door. It has seemed weak for some time." But he never dreamed that the accident was caused by the quarrelsome books, and the good natured Dictionary and gentle Psalm Book never told him.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
