grief or affliction. "Man was born unto
trouble, as the sparks fly upward," but we bid other people bear their
sorrows manfully; we should therefore bear ours with equal courage.

Upon this trouble shall I whet my life
As 'twere a dulling knife;
Bade I my friend be brave?
I shall still braver be.
No man shall say of me,
"Others he saved, himself he cannot save."
But swift and fair
As the Primeval word that smote the night--
"Let there be light!"
Courage shall leap from me, a gallant sword
To rout the enemy and all his horde,
Cleaving a kingly pathway through despair.

_Angela Morgan._

From "Forward, March!"

THE RECTIFYING YEARS

Time brings the deeper understanding that clears up our misconceptions;
it shows us the error of our hates; it dispels our worries and our
fears; it allays the grief that seemed too poignant to be borne.

Yes, things are more or less amiss;
To-day it's that, to-morrow this;
Yet with so much that's out of whack,
Life does not wholly jump the track
Because, since matters move along,
No _one_ thing's always _staying_ wrong.
So heed not failures, losses, fears,
But trust the rectifying years.

What we shall have's not what we've got;
Our pains don't linger in one spot--
They skip about; the seesaw's end
That's up will mighty soon descend;
You've looked at bacon? Life's like that--
A streak of lean, a streak of fat.
Change, like a sky that clouds, that clears,
Hangs o'er the rectifying years.

Uneven things not leveled down
Are somehow simply got aroun';
The sting is taken from offence;
The evil has its recompense;
The broken heart is knit again;
The baffled longing knows not pain;
Wrong fades and trouble disappears
Before the rectifying years.

Then envy, hate towards man or class
Should from your sinful nature pass.
Though others hold a higher place
Or have more power or wealth or grace,
The best of them, be sure, cannot
Escape the common human lot;
So many smiles, so many tears
Come with the rectifying years.

_St. Clair Adams._

TO THOSE WHO FAIL

We too often praise the man who wins just because he wins; the plaudits
and laurels of victory are the unthinking crowd's means of estimating
success. But the vanquished may have fought more nobly than the victor;
he may have done his best against hopeless odds. As Addison makes Cato
say,

"'Tis not in m