ast down your bucket where you are;" but a
second time the distressed vessel signaled, "We want water, water,"
and a second time the other vessel answered: "Cast down your bucket
where you are." A third and fourth time the distressed vessel
signaled, "We want water, water; we die of thirst," and as many times
was answered: "Cast down your bucket where you are." At last the
command was obeyed, the bucket was cast down where the vessel stood,
and it came up full of fresh, sparkling water from the Amazon River.
My friends, we are failing to cast down our buckets for the help that
is right about us, and spend too much time in signaling for help that
is far off. Let us cast down our buckets here in our own Sunny South,
cast them down in agriculture, in truck gardening, dairying, poultry
raising, hog raising, laundrying, cooking, sewing, mechanical and
professional life, and the help that we think is far off will come,
and we will soon grow independent and useful. (Booker T. Washington.)

* * * * *

Song is the music of the soul, the harmonious vibrations of the deep
chords of the heart, and the melodies of the spirit life. It involves
the elevation of the affections and the utterances of the lips, by
which some theme, doctrine, or topic is proclaimed aloud and
exultingly before and in the presence of others. It is the divinity in
man rising to God. It is the better and higher nature of man springing
forward and leaping heavenward. It is the soul plodding the deep blue
sea upon its fiery pinions in search after God, its Maker, "who giveth
songs in the night." (Bishop Holsey.)

* * * * *

If the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world, the home is a great
field for woman. The Negro race needs homes, not hovels and pens.
Christian character is built most largely there. Beautify the home,
make it cheerful and cultured. Be economical in expenditures.
Cultivate economy in all lines. Be thrifty and industrious housewives.
We do not confine woman's work to the home. Her sphere is anywhere
that she can do good. As women are doing most of the teaching now,
here is a vast field for her activity that should be well cultivated.
Next to the home the schoolroom is probably the greatest factor in
character building. As Daniel Webster once said: "If we work upon
marble, it will perish; if we work upon brass, time will efface it; if
we rear temples, they will crumble into du