H January 29. E worked brilliantly; but he could not accept any order without trying to better it. That was the fault of his creed. It made men too responsible and left too much to their honor. The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin. January 30. THIS HIS good young man was quiet and self-contained too old for his years by far. its own punishment. January 31. Which always carries Kidnapped. PEN and obvious devotion from any sort of man is OPEN On the Strength of a Likeness. A February 1. ND so I tell you nothing - wish you luck, And wonder how I wonder ! - for your sake young, You hold to half a hundred Shibboleths. I'm old. I followed Power to the last, Gave her my best, and Power followed Me. One Viceroy Resigns. WE February 2. E are a high-caste and enlightened race, and infantmarriage is very shocking and the consequences are sometimes peculiar; but, nevertheless, the Hindu notion which is the Continental notion, which is the aboriginal notion of arranging marriages irrespective of the personal inclinations of the married, is sound. Think for a minute, and you will see that it must be so; unless, of course, you believe in "affinities." In which case you had better not read this tale. How can a man who has never married; who cannot be trusted to pick up at sight a moderately sound horse; whose head is hot and upset with visions of domestic felicity, go about the choosing of a wife? He cannot see straight or think straight if he tries; and the same disadvan tages exist in the case of a girl's fancies. But when mature, married, and discreet people arrange a match between a boy and a girl, they do it sensibly, with a view to the future, and the young couple live happily ever afterwards. As every body knows. February 3. Kidnapped. WE E rose to our feet, feeling that things were going to happen and ready to believe the worst. In this bad, small world of ours, one knows so little of the life of the next which, after all, is entirely his own concern one is not surprised when a crash comes. man - THE February 4. that His Wedded Wife. HE Colonel's face set like the Day of Judgment framed THE February 5. HERE is hope for a man who gets publicly and riotously drunk more often than he ought to do; but there is no hope for the man who drinks secretly and alone in his own house the man who is never seen to drink. THE February 6. In Error. HE smoke upon your Altar dies, the flowers decay; What profit, then, to sing or slay The sacrifice from day to day? "We know the Shrine is void," they said, "the Goddess flown; Yet wreaths are on the Altar laid- -the Altar-stone Is black with fumes of sacrifice, Albeit She has fled our eyes. "For, it may be, if still we sing and tend the Shrine, Some Deity on wandering wing may there incline; And, finding all in order meet, IF Stay while we worship at Her feet.' L' Envoi. February 7. F McGoggin had kept his creed, with the capital letters and the endings in "isms," to himself, no one would have cared but his grandfathers on both sides had been Wesleyan preachers, and the preaching strain came out in his mind. He wanted every one at the Club to see that they had no souls too, and to help him to eliminate his Creator. As a good many men told him, he undoubtedly had no soul, because he was so young, but it did not follow that his seniors were equally undeveloped; and, whether there was another world or not, a man still wanted to read his papers in this. The Conversion of Aurelian McGoggin. IF, February 8. drunk with sight of power, we loose Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe Or lesser breeds without the Law Recessional. THE February 9. HE spectacle of an armed camp at dinner under the stars was an ever-fresh pleasure to the eye. There was color, light, and motion, without which no man has much pleasure in living. The Light that Failed. February 10. BE no ECAUSE Mrs. Reiver was cold and hard, he said she was stately and dignified. Because she had no brains, and could not talk cleverly, he said she was reserved and shy. Mrs. Reiver shy! Because she was unworthy of honor or reverence from any one, he reverenced her from a distance and dowered her with all the virtues in the Bible and most of those in Shakespeare. In Error. February 11. ROPERLY speaking, Government should establish a Matrimonial Department, efficiently officered, with a Jury of Matrons, a Judge of the Chief Court, a Senior Chaplain, and an Awful Warning, in the shape of a lovematch that has gone wrong, chained to the trees in the court-yard. All marriages should be made through the Department, which might be subordinate to the Educational Department, under the same penalty as that attaching to the transfer of land without a stamped document. But Govern ment won't take suggestions. It pretends that it is too busy. Kidnapped. |