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Drawn by C. F. Peters

HOMESICKNESS

BEAUTY: Don't you sailors get dreadfully homesick at times?
BO'SUN: Bless yer heart, Miss, we ain't never home hardly long enough.

THE FATE OF THE "BUZZARD QUEEN"

WAS Benjamin Bejoram sailed

The airship Buzzard Queen; Its run was 'Frisco and New York; Its color, clover green.

The boldest man was Skipper Ben, Who such vocation dares;

BY EDWIN L. SABIN

But though he cruised the atmosphere,
It never gave him airs.

Now westward bound, o'er Kansas State,
The good ship swept along;
The skipper smoked a stogie stout

And hummed a little song.

When right ahead a frightful cloud
Came rolling into view.
"Oh, let us luff our steering-vane!"
Besought the startled crew.

But Skipper Ben rebuked with: "Fie!
Ye chicken-hearts, avaunt!
There lifts not any cloud in sky

The Buzzard Queen can daunt."

So slickers donned now every man,
As drove the vessel on;

The skipper not one jot he veered
From that dread portent yon.

Till suddenly they saw too late

With what that portent swarmed:
This mighty cloud which spread before
Of grasshoppers was formed!

The Buzzard Queen enveloped was
In less time than I tell,
As thick upon her green expanse
Those hungry 'hoppers fell!

And by a hundred thousand jaws
Thus greedily beset,

The Buzzard Queen, and crew, and all,
Here in mid-air were et!

The mangled remnants dropped to earth,
A shower of steel and bones
(And killed a yellow Kansas dog
Belonging to one Jones).

And this the end encountered by
The airship Buzzard Queen;
Remember, skippers, and avoid
That fatal color, green.

WITHIN THE SHADOW OF THE SAIL

BY JENNIE E. T. DOWE

WITHIN the shadow of the sail,

I and my love sit nigh. "Dear one, O dearest one," I say"Duck!" comes the captain's cry. A moment more, I feel secure,

I will my heart speak out: "Dear one, O dearest one," I say"Duck!" comes the captain's shout. I try a thousand times and one

My heart's true love to tell; Each time, oh, curses on that sail"Duck!" comes the captain's yell.

TO A CHILD

BY STELLA GEORGE STERN PERRY
I HAVE stolen a look
In the sibyl's book,

I have seen the back of a star,
The panther sleek

I have heard her speak,

I have slept in the jinnee's jar,
In the sweet-pea's snood
I have honey brewed,

On the python ridden to war,
I have fetched the spring
On the blue-bird's wing-
Oh, my magic goes long and far;
But I'm all o'erthrown
By the charm you own
And the magical thing you are!

A BALLADE OF BUILDING
BY JULIA BOYNTON GREEN

A NEW house seemed the natural thing
When John had made his modest pile.
So first we wrote an endless string

Of "must haves." Then we studied style.
John favored shingles. I love tile
For roofs, but John thinks plaster 's cold,
And brick 's too stubborn. So I smile.
"I think we'd better stand the old."

Nan likes colonial, with a wing,

Tom saw a villa on the Nile"A corker!" he declares. I cling

To baths and sleeping porches, while John 's firm for fireplaces. Oh, I 'll Be bound no house will ever hold

The things we want! Though we revile, I think we'd better stand the old.

Our lot's unbought; we 're balancing 'Twixt hill and valley sites. "A mile From town," rules John, "where birds will sing;

A pool, a pergola, a dial."

For me the city has its wile.

Who 'd think such problems would unfold! Well, though it is a daily trial,

I think we'd better stand the old.

ENVOY

Friend, do not trust (put this on file) Your dream to wood or stone; untold The snares that builders' steps beguile: You'd far, far better stand the old.

A FEW WORDS AT PARTING BY ANNIE STEGER WINSTON (Scene: A suburban parlor. The visitor rises.)

"AND now I must go, for I have n't forgotten that you have a sewing-woman this morning, which means that you have n't a minute to spare for my experience is that they are all alike and liable to make the most ridiculous mistakes if you leave them alone for a second, and even if you don't, which I never do myself in any circumstances. As for cutting every single, solitary trouser leg for the same side, they make a practice of it, which is a comparatively small matter if you can match the goodsthough of course it's always as provoking as it can be; but once I had the sweetest flowered organdie ruined that way-pink moss-roses climbing on sort of porch pillars in gray and green on a white backgroundperfectly lovely, and it was a remnant, and not another scrap to be found, though I looked everywhere.

"What? Oh, for myself, of course, though I don't often have my dresses made at home;

but this time I thought I would, and the consequence was that it was a perfect botch. I did succeed, it is true, in getting a piece for the sleeve that was remarkably like, considering it was entirely different,-plain roses instead of moss, and another background altogether-so much so that everybody that I apologized to for it said they had n't noticed it, which was very gratifying, of course; but I never could bear the dress myself, and neither could my husband, though I'm sure I don't know why, and I doubt if he did.

"You know how men are; they take such unreasonable likes and dislikes! It certainly was n't the sleeve with him, for if the whole dress had been different he would n't have thought it mattered a particle; and he probably considered the sleeve an improvement even, for he never could bear moss-roses, though they are a perfect passion with me, and I never will be satisfied until I have a bush of my own. I have set out fully half

a dozen, and they have all died. He says they look like cheap china, but I believe it is really an excuse because he hates so to bother with planting things out, and I never will dig myself, I'm so desperately afraid of earthworms-fishing-worms, the children

Drawn by Mark Fenderson

"I'M SO DESPERATELY AFRAID OF EARTHWORMS'"

call them. One of the very first things my little Wellington learned to say was 'fishingworm.' He always said it when he wanted to be very bad, and my husband said it was a form of profanity, and I ought to whip him for such language. But I did n't know whether you could really consider it language, and, anyhow, I had n't the heart to whip him, and as for my husband, he simply laughed at him; you know men never will take any responsibility. I often say I have the whole management; and as for choosing where we will go in the summer-where are you going, by the way? Oh, are you? I hear there was a very motley crowd there last year. Mrs. Baker says so; but then she is so motley herself I don't think she need talk about anybody else. But that's always the way. Do you know, she actually had the impudence to tell Mrs. Sykes that

my family were worthy people or respectable people or good, honest people, Mrs. Sykes did n't remember which; but, anyhow, it was perfectly horrid, and not true at all. Why, my father

-

"Oh, I expect to go back where we were last summer. My husband always leaves me the burden of choosing, he says one place is about as bad as another, but he does say that we might as well go to the Browns' again as fly to ills we know not of; that 's what Shakspere says, you know, and I think it's very sensible, particularly in the case of children. They are a nice, quiet old couple: two souls with not a single thought, my husband says, but that is not so at all; I never saw better vegetables, and

"Yes, indeed-just as busy as I can be getting ready; but all next week I expect to have a sewing-woman myself, and then

"No, indeed; no time for anything. Mrs. Tompkins says supervising them is too much like Egyptian bondage for her, and she is n't going to have any more sewing done in the house except what she does herself. Her experience has been worse than mine. Miss Jinks cut an entire dress wrong side out for her and utterly

"Yes, Miss Jinks. You don't mean to say you 've got her! Why

"Oh, they would have tried turning it, of course, if turning had been any use, but it was n't, not the least in the world; she just had to make two waists of it, identically alike, which was the greatest pity, because her things are always longer wearing out than anybody's I ever saw, and those two looked liked one that was simply going to last forever; though all clothes are mortal, of course, as I know to my cost, particularly children's stocking knees.

"What? Oh, the most careless I ever saw! I do wish I could have warned you, though I would n't injure Miss Jinks for the world. It is n't that she does n't know, you understand; it is just that she does n't put her mind on what she is doing. Even if you sit right by her and give her the most minute directions, she has a kind of dazed look, as if she was n't half taking it in. I would n't trust her myself with anything I was particular about any sooner than I would my little Elizabeth; in fact, she has n't half as much common sense: but then, if I do say it that should n't, that child is really remarkable-so practical, so judicious! For instance, whenever I give her a little money to spend for herself when she is out with me, instead of squandering it perfectly at random as most children do, she always says to the man at the counter, or the woman, if it is a woman, 'What is the price of your ten-cent dolls?' or 'What is

the price of your five-cent candy?' just that way, and so

"It is very lovely of you to say so, but to tell the truth, I do think she gets her cast of mind from me; for her father is n't that way at all. I would be the last person in

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Drawn by Mark Fenderson

"I AM GETTING ALMOST DISCOURAGED ABOUT FLYING-MACHINES'"

the world to run him down, but, still, I must say he and I are very different. Now, I can't bear to waste anything-though, by the way, they do say nothing in the world is really wasted. I've just been reading the most charming piece in the 'Ladies' Companion'

"Time? Oh, I don't know; I suppose that 's included, but the piece was about rags and bones and old bottles and cigar-ends and peanut shells and tin cans, and things like that-perfectly fascinating, showing how clever people are getting about disposing of everything.

"Yes, that is what I think-one of the most valuable of all arts; for all of us do sometimes have things on our hands— "Yes, indeed! I must bring you that piece; you would be just charmed with it. Not, of course, that it shows how we ourselves can turn peanut shells and things to account, which must be done on a large scale and in regular factories; but it is so interesting and full of information about the way people do things now, so different from old times. Progress is a wonderful thing, is n't it? And so rapid! Oh, not always, of course, and not in every case-I am getting almost discouraged about flying-machines—

"Do you really? Rapid transportation is a very important thing, of course, but I can't agree with you that it is the most important. There's education, now. Only yesterday, my little Gladys came to me and asked me to hear her say her Presidents, which I thought astonishing in a child not eight years old until the twenty-sixth of next month. It is true she said Washington, Adams, Cleveland, Indigo, and Violet, but it shows

I

"Oh, I don't mean at all to undervalue rapid transportation, you understand. never lose an opportunity of riding in an automobile, though I'm always literally scared to death, and, as I was saying, I'm always wishing they would hurry up with the flying-machine, which, of course, would be more perfectly charming still; but there are so many lovely inventions nowadays, and I'm so interested in everything new

"A new latch? On the front gate? Yes, I must see it. I did n't notice it as I came in. What sort is it? That kind! Why, I got one like that ages ago! If the agent told you it was new

"No, nothing under the sun, of course, as Solomon says; for they say the Chinese know all about everything and. always have; though of all the stupid-looking people! The simplest plan, it seems to me, would be to go straight to them for anything anybody wants to invent, and get it ready-made. Think what a lot of time it would save, and how-

"Can't bear to think of time! Why, how strange! Though we all realize, of course, how quickly it is passing and

"Oh, yes, I do-often! Though I can't say I ever get wild about it.

"Yes, indeed, I understand how that is. Sometimes it seems that you positively can't stand things that at other times you don't mind at all. There 's everything in a person's mood-and the weather. I myself am as sensitive as a flower; the least hint or suggestion of a thunder-storm, for example"Why, no, indeed! Did you? But you think it might have been thunder?

And

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