Do you remember a verse beginning (I must ask your pardon for quoting it, Mr.Vialls)-- 'Oh stay, the maiden cried, and rest Thy weary head upon this breast.' Surely, that is all but indecency.
In fact, I wrote at once to the master and drew his attention to the passage, requesting that my boy might never be asked to repeat such a poem.

The force of my objection was not at once admitted, strange to say; but in the end I gained my point." Mr.Vialls screwed up his lips and frowned at the table-cloth, but said nothing.
"Our task nowadays," pursued the Mayor, with confidence, "is to preserve the purity of home.

Our homes are being invaded by dangerous influences we must resist.

The family should be a bulwark of virtue--of all the virtues--holiness, charity, peace." He lingered on the last word, and his gaze became abstracted.
"Very true, very true indeed!" cried the clergyman.

"For one thing, how careful a parent should be with regard to the periodical literature which is allowed to enter his house, This morning, in a home I will not mention, my eye fell upon a weekly paper which I should have thought perfectly sound in its teaching; yet, behold, there was an article of which the whole purport was to _excuse_ the vices of the lower classes on the ground of their poverty and their temptations.