lines, but he has never yet found
out who did them, and until he reads these memoirs after I have
passed away, he will never know from how near home they came.

Finally let me say that in a more serious vein as a Poet I was not
wanting in success--that is in my own judgment. As a mystic poet
nothing better than the following came from my pen:

O arching trees that mark the zenith hour,
How great thy reach, how marvellous thy power,
So lavishly outpouring all thy rotund gifts
On mortal ways, in superhuman shifts
That overtax the mind, and vex the soul of man,
As would the details of some awful plan,
Jocund, mysterious, complex, and yet withal
Enmeshed with Joy and Sorrow, as a pall
Envelops all the seas at eventide, and brings
New meaning to the song the Robin sings
When from her nest matutinal she squirms
And hies her forth for adolescent worms
With which her young to feed, yet all the time
With heart and soul laments my dulcet rhyme!

Of this I was naturally quite proud, and when under the title of
"Maternity" I read it once in secret to my Aunt Jerusha, she burst
into tears as I went on, and three days later read it as a New Thought
gem before the Enochsville Society of Ethical Culture. It was there
pronounced a great piece of symbolic imagery, and prediction was made
that some day in some more advanced age than our own, a Magazine would
be found somewhere that would print it. This may be so, but I fear I
shall not live to see it.

CHAPTER VII

THE INTERNATIONAL MARINE AND ZOO FLOTATION COMPANY

I have never yet been quite able to make up my mind with any degree of
definiteness in regard to the sanity of my son Noah. In many respects
he is a fine fellow. His moral character is beyond reproach, and I
have never caught him in any kind of a wilful deception such as many
parents bewail in their offspring, and I know that he has no bad
habits. He has no liking for cigarette smoking, and he keeps good
company and good hours. His sons Shem, Ham and Japhet, are great
favorites with all of us, and as far as mere respectability goes there
is no family in the land that stands higher than his, but the
complete obsession of his mind by this International Marine and Zoo
Flotation Company of his is entirely beyond my comprehension, and his
attempts to explain it to me are futile, because its utter
impracticability, and the reasons advanced for its use seem s