YOUR MISSION

One of the most often-heard of sentences is "I don't know what I'm to do in the world." Yet very few people are ever for a moment out of something to do, especially if they do not insist on climbing to the top of the pole and waving the flag, but are willing to steady the pole while somebody else climbs.

IF you cannot on the ocean

Sail among the swiftest fleet,
Rocking on the highest billows,
Laughing at the storms you meet;
You can stand among the sailors,
Anchored yet within the bay,
You can lend a hand to help them
As they launch their boats away.

If you are too weak to journey
Up the mountain, steep and high,
You can stand within the valley
While the multitudes go by;
You can chant in happy measure
As they slowly pass along-
Though they may forget the singer,
They will not forget the song.

If you cannot in the harvest

Garner up the richest sheaves,
Many a grain, both ripe and golden,
Oft the careless reaper leaves;
Go and glean among the briars
Growing rank against the wall,
For it may be that their shadow
Hides the heaviest grain of all.

If you cannot in the conflict

Prove yourself a soldier true;
If, where fire and smoke are thickest,
There's no work for you to do;

To fail is not a disgrace; the disgrace lies in not trying. In his old age Sir Walter Scott found that a publishing firm he was connected with was heavily in debt. He refused to take advantage of the bankruptcy law, and sat down with his pen to make good the deficit. Though he wore out his life in the struggle and did not live to see the debt entirely liquidated, he died an honored and honorable man.

I

CALL no fight a losing fight

If, fighting, I have gained some straight new

strength;

If, fighting, I turned ever toward the light,
All unallied with forces of the night;

If, beaten, quivering, I could say at length:
"I did no deed that needs to be unnamed;
I fought and lost-and I am unashamed."

Miriam Teichner.

Permission of
Miriam Teichner.

TIMES GO BY TURNS

One of the greatest blessings in life is alteration. The ins become outs, the outs ins; the ups become downs, the downs ups; and so on-and it is better so. We must not get too highly elated at success, for life is not all success. We must not grow too downcast from failure, for life is not all failure.

HE lopped tree in time may grow again,

Most naked plants renew both fruit and flower; The sorriest wight may find release of pain, The driest soil suck in some moistening shower; Time goes by turns, and chances change by course, From foul to fair, from better hap to worse.

The sea of Fortune doth not ever flow;

She draws her favors to the lowest ebb;
Her tides have equal times to come and go;

Her loom doth weave the fine and coarsest web;
No joy so great but runneth to an end,
No hap so hard but may in fine amend.

Not always fall of leaf, nor ever Spring;
Not endless night, yet not eternal day;
The saddest birds a season find to sing;

The roughest storm a calm may soon allay.
Thus, with succeeding turns God tempereth all,
That man may hope to rise, yet fear to fall.

A chance may win that by mischance was lost;
That net that holds no great takes little fish;
In some things all, in all things none are crost;
Few all they need, but none have all they wish.
Unmingled joys here to no man befall;

Who least, hath some; who most, hath never all.

Robert Southwell,

TO-DAY

The past did not behold to-day; the future shall not. We must use it now if it is to be of any benefit to mankind.

So here hath been dawning

Another blue day;

Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?

Out of Eternity

This new day is born;
Into Eternity,

At night will return.

Behold it aforetime
No eye ever did;
So soon it for ever
From all eyes is hid.

Here hath been dawning

Another blue day;

Think, wilt thou let it

Slip useless away?

Thomas Carlyle.

UNAFRAID

HAVE no fear. What is in store for me

I Shall find me ready for it, undismayed.

God grant my only cowardice may be
Afraid to be afraid!

From "The Quiet Courage,"

Stewart & Kidd Co., Cincinnati, Ohio.

Everard Jack Appleton.

BORROWED FEATHERS

Many good, attractive people spoil the merits they have by trying to be something bigger or showier. It is always best to be one's self.

ROOSTER one morning was preening his feathers
That glistened so bright in the sun;
He admired the tints of the various colors
As he laid them in place one by one.
Now as roosters go he was a fine bird,
And he should have been satisfied;
But suddenly there as he marched along,
Some peacock feathers he spied.

They had beautiful spots and their colors were gay-
He wished that his own could be green;

He dropped his tail, tried to hide it away;
Was completely ashamed to be seen.

Then his foolish mind hatched up a scheme-
A peacock yet he could be;

So he hopped behind a bush to undress
Where the other fowis could not see.

He caught his own tail between his bill,
And pulled every feather out;

And into the holes stuck the peacock plumes;
Then proudly strutted about.

The other fowls rushed to see the queer sight;
And the peacocks came when they heard;

They could not agree just what he was,

But pronounced him a funny bird.

Then the chickens were angry that one of their kind
Should try to be a peacock;

And the peacocks were mad that one with their tail
Should belong to a common fowl flock.

So the chickens beset him most cruelly behind,
And yanked his whole tail out together;
The peacocks attacked him madly before,
And pulled out each chicken feather.