FOR THE CHILDREN.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2746, 26 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

FOR THE CHILDREN.

A VILLAGE OR HEROES.

If you have been to Derbyshire and travelled among the beautiful kills which wo call the Peak Country, you have (passed, perhaps,, through the little village or Eyam. It ig only a hamlet, but the sight of this little group of houses and the little village church is one ol the tilings that ought to thrill every boy and girl who loves a golden deed. Perched snugly in a green hollow j of the rocky uplands, Eyam must have been as pleasant a village to live in as could be found in the clays when William Mompesson became rector at the village church and William Stanley preached aft the village chapel. That was in the time when the Great Plague of London was raging, more than 240 years ago. Eyam was 150 miles away from London, and no place could have seemed safer from the plague than this But the little invisible microbes that carry disease about the world come in many ways. They may come on the wind, they may come in the train. They came to Eyam in a packet of patterns posted from London to the village tailor. The Great Plague of London was in that little packet, and in a few days the tailor and his family were in their .graves. There was terror in the village, and one by one the Ipeople lied. But the plague remained, and for a year it spread. All through this time the rector and his wife, with the minister at the little chapel, nursed the people through their sickness and sustained them in their grief. In their deep sorrow the people of Eyam were like one family. Then the brave heart of the rector’s wife, Catherine Mompesson, began to fail. People were dying on every hand; there was no hoipe for her husband and her children, and she urged the rector to fly. In that terrible hour tho rector was true to himself. He urged his wife to take away the children and save herself and them. But Catherine MomSe.sson was not such a woman as tluit. he sent her children away to friends and stayed with her husband. The crisis had come. The plague held Eyam fast, and it was clear that any further flight of people from the village would spread the plague in the villages .around, perhaps . through all Derbyshire, perhaps right up through the North of England, which was yet free from it.

When this time came the people of Eyam, led b v William Mompesson and "William Stanley, made a great decision, which ought to be written down in o-ur history in (letters of gold. They shut themselves off from the world. The church was closed, and every day tho people met to coinfort one another in a cave. Trade was given up, every man left his work, the schools were shut, and the houses became hospitals for tho sick. Nobody came into the village and nobody went out, and all the work that men and women did was nursing the sick or burying the dead. For four months Eyam was left to itself without once coming into touch with the world. Had the king died, nobody in Eyam would have known anything about it, so complete!v shut off were they from the world about them. They shut themselves up in June, and in July 56 of them were laid in the churchyard. In August 72 more died, among them the brave Catherine Mompesson. So day after day. death took away the brave -people of Eyam until, in the middle of October, 1666, when the plague suddenly ceased, there was not one whole family left, and out of 300 people 259 had died. That is the golden deed of an English village nearly 250 years ago, and the memory of this village of heroes should help to make us heroes all.

THE FRIENDSHIP OF DAMON

AND PYTHIAS

Dionysius was a tyrant who ruled the town of Syracuse, in Sicily. "Whoever made him angry was put- to' death. The tyrant’s wrath fell on«_* day upon a youth named Ramon, who had complained of 1 the cruelty of Dionysius, and Damon wa s condemned to die. He begged first to be allowed to go to see his wife and children, but Dionysius laughed him to scorn. “Once you get out of my way,” he thought, “you will never come back.” Damon said he had a friend who would answer for his return, and uis friend Pythias came forward to offer himself as surety for Damon. If Damon did not ccme back, he said, he would die in his friend’s place. The tyrant was astonished that a man should love his friend so dearly, and he gave Damon six hours to go to see his wife and children. Damon expected to be back .within four hours, but when four hours had gone he had not come.. Five hours, then almost six 'hours passed, and still there was no sign of him. The happiest man in the prison was Pythias, who actually hoped that Damon would not return, because he was willing and anxious to suffer in his (place and spare his friend for the sake of his wife and children. At last the death-day dawned, the very hour drew nigh, and Dionysius came to see his prisoner die. , Quietly. and prepared for his execution.' His friend, he said, had had an accident, or perhaps he was ill. At almost the very moment for the execution, however, Damon arrived-and embraced his friend. He was tired and travel-stained. His horse had been killed and he had had to get another, but by hard riding he returned just in time to save Pythias from suffering for him. But Pythias did not wish it so. He pleaded with Damon, lie pleaded with Dionysius, to let him bear the (punishment. Dionysius had never seen such faithfulness before. Here was something beautiful that ho did not think existed in the world-pa friendship that welcomed death if death would help afriend. His heart was stirred .within him; he wanted men like these to be liis friends. Ho came up to Damon and Pythias as they were disputing,

each eager to give up liis Life for the other. Dionysius took their hands, set them free, and begged to bo allowed toshare their friendship.