When the other firms show dizziness,

Here's a house that does not share it.
Wouldn't you like to join the business?

Join the firm of Grin and Barrett?
Give your strength that does not murmur,

And your nerve that does not falter,
And you've joined a house that's firmer

Than the old rock of Gibraltar.
They have won a good prosperity;

Why not join the firm and share it?
Step, young fellow, with celerity;
Join the firm of Grin and Barrett.

Grin and Barrett,

Who can scare it?
Scare the firm of Grin and Barrett?

Sam Walter Foss.
From "Songs of the Average Man,"
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard Co.

CHALLENGE

Napoleon is reported to have complained of the English that they didn't have sense enough to know when they were beaten. Even if defeat is unmistakable, it need not be final. A battle may be lost, but the campaign won; a campaign lost, but the war won.

Doom me to unending pain;
Stay my hand, becloud my vision,

Break my heart and then-again.
Shatter every dream I've cherished,

Fill my heart with ruthless fear;
Follow every smile that cheers me

With a bitter, blinding tear.
Thus I dare you; you can try me,

Seek to make me cringe and moan,
Still my unbound soul defies you,
I'll withstand you-and, alone!

Jean Nette. Permission of "The New York Call."

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;

When the battle field is silent,

You can go with careful tread;
You can bear away the wounded,

You can cover up the dead.

Do not then stand idly waiting

For some greater work to do;
Fortune is a lazy goddess,

She will never come to you;
Go and toil in any vineyard,

Do not fear to do and dare.
If you want a field of labor
You can find it anywhere.

Ellen M. H. Gates.

Permission of
Ellen M. H. Gates's Estate.

VICTORY

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.

TH
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.