When came such crashing bolts that voice

None in that hour was heard, Sight e'en was blinded, only sobs

At times the silence stirred.

Expected all to hear the crash

Would set their spirits free, First wind, then forked fire, had torn

To shreds the nearest tree.

What is a sonnet? 'Tis a little bell
Which rings, on paper, melodies of the heart;
Its silvery tones no terrors rude impart
In tinklings clear its quick-wrought numbers swell
And reign in realms where fairy echoes dwell.
'Tis heard in sweet philosophy's path where start
Tear-drops, full oft, when, free from guile or art,
The touched emotions own Sibylline spell.
Huge bells there be which storm or danger clang,
Or with the epic muse sing fame and arms:
Our little bell such numbers never rang;
Its carillons' peals brings only love's alarms,

Like that which from the altar sends its sound, | Or that which says your guest your door hath found.

When, all at once, fair Rosalie,

The little four-year-old, Said, “Father, look! I see her come

Enclosed in gleaming gold!”

WHAT DID THEY SAY?

MARGHERITA ARLINA HAMM.

M

FATIGUED by numerous calls of late,

“Say I'm not in,” the lady said. “What did they?" the lady prayed,

As from the door returned the maid. “Each in a breath the same thing said,"

Replied the maid, 'How fortunate!'”

IN WHAT MOOD ?

“ALLZEIT LRÖHLICH IST GEFAHRlich."

I.

He who is always gay is oft in danger,
He who is always sad a burden bears,
He on whom Fortune smiles is not a stranger
To strifes, illusions, envyings, dreams and cares.

ISS MARGHERITA ARLINA HAMM was

born in Montreal, Canada. She is a descendant from a long line of scholarly ancestors. Among her forefathers were literary men, theologians and soldiers. She has in her veins the best blood of southern France. Her maternal grandfather was Rev. Harold Jean Spencer, a prominent Episcopalian clergyman, who was the author of several widely-known pamphlets of the controversial order. Her paternal grandfather was General Pierre Hamm, a leader in the Liberal party in Montreal, Canada. Miss Hamm was only thirteen years of age when she began to write for the newspapers. She found her first regular position on the Boston Herald, and for four years she did all kinds of work on that journal. She then went to New York and joined the staff of the World.

Among her notable work was an interview with i Mr. Cleveland on the tariff question, in 1889, which

was cabled to the London, Eng , Times. Another well-known achievement was her Bar Harbor interview with Mr. Blaine. She has done much “special ” work for most of the New York dailies and at the same time corresponded for a number of western journals. She conducted the women's department of the United Press Literary Budget. Besides her prose work, covering everything in the line of daily journalism, Miss Hamm is a writer of much graceful verse, and her poems have appeared in Current Literature, Youth's Companion, New England Magazine and other leading periodicals. Wherever and whenever brought into direct rivalry with male journalists, she had shown her ability to do the work far better than most of the men, and as well as the best of them. In political work she has been very successful.

Η. Α. Τ.

II.

What then? Combine them all, be cheerful
When mirth the moment rules; and then, with grace
Receive each serious word, each thought that's

tearful;
And greet fair Fortune with her own sweet face.

NATURE.

There is a beauty in the early prime
Of nature seen not in the later time;
There is a freshness then, a choice perfume
That civilization hastens to its doom,
And, doomed, it ne'er can be replaced: the tint,
Mixed of the skies and earth's all-modest glint,
Fair nature wears, no art cosmetic yields;
And culture robs us of those perfumed fields.
Simplicity in character has more
Attractiveness than all a bookworm's lore.

- The Battle Forest.

THE SILENT WITNESS.