marked, in a burst of confidence, that he
"never saw anybody change so." He "reckoned," too, that "it must be
the folks she lives with!" Annie herself, conscious of a change,
recently said complacently: "Ay guess Ay wass one awful crank when Ay
first come here."

And so it happens that the highest satisfaction is connected with the
beautiful theory, triumphantly proven now, against heavy odds.
Whatever else I may have done, I have taught one woman the workman's
pride in her work, shown her where true happiness lies, and set her
feet firmly on the path of right and joyous living.

To a Violin

(Antonius Stradivarius, 1685.)

What flights of years have gone to fashion thee,
My violin! What centuries have wrought
Thy sounding fibres! What dead fingers taught
Thy music to awake in ecstasy
Beyond our human dreams? Thy melody
Is resurrection. Every buried thought
Of singing bird, or stream, or south wind, fraught
With tender message, or of sobbing sea,
Lives once again. The tempest's solemn roll
Is in thy passion sleeping, till the king
Whose touch is mastery shall sound thy soul.
The organ tones of ocean shalt thou bring,
The crashing chords of thunder, and the whole
Vast harmony of God. Ah, Spirit, sing!

The Old Maid

One of the best things the last century has done for woman is to make
single-blessedness appear very tolerable indeed, even if it be not
actually desirable.

The woman who didn't marry used to be looked down upon as a sort of a
"leftover" without a thought, apparently, that she may have refused
many a chance to change her attitude toward the world. But now, the
"bachelor maid" is welcomed everywhere, and is not considered
eccentric on account of her oneness.

With the long records of the divorce courts before their eyes, it is
not very unusual for the younger generation of women nowadays
deliberately to choose spinsterhood as their independent lot in life.

A girl said the other day: "It's no use to say that a woman can't
marry if she wants to. Look around you, and see the women who _have_
married, and then ask yourself if there is anybody who can't!"

This is a great truth very concisely stated. It is safe to say that no
woman ever reached twenty-five years of age, and very few have passed
twenty, without having an opportunity to become somebody's mate.

A very small maiden with very bright eyes once came