  OUR little lad, our bonnie twelve-year-old, Has journeyed to the city of the King; Our happy boy—ere heart could grow a-cold, Or soul turn bitter—in youth’s joyous spring, Went up to keep the feast in that bright place, City of Peace, where restful mansions be; And straightway looking on the dear King’s face, Remembered naught but joy that face to see! Long time ago, when He was twelve years old, The Holy Child climbed fair Judea’s hills, And his young mother in her heart did hold Strange words concerning him, whose mystery fills Her soul with wonder.—On their homeward way, The reverent pilgrims haste; and sorrowing She seeks her Son, and lo, in calm delay, He lingered in the temple of the King! She, coming to the sacred portal, waits With tear-wan face; her fair first-born she seeks; Weary and grief-worn, at the shining gates, With faltering lips his sweet home-name she speaks, And He is in her arms!—With tender word Of gentlest chiding, each to each revealed The love that to the depths of feeling stirred Hearts that brief absence near and dearer sealed. O mother, mourning for thy fair first-born, He tarries in his Father’s House of Light, With God’s beloved; and thou in some glad morn, Finding the glorious gates beyond the night, Shalt breathe his name, and ere it leaves thy lips, In thy dear arms, aglow with life and joy, All strong and beautiful—death’s long eclipse Forgotten in the first kiss of thy boy! Rosa Evangeline Angel. double line MISS HALSEY read a letter from Miss Patton, of India, who after wittily describing some of the daily trials of housekeeping there, between her rising hour, five o’clock, and that of reaching her first school, says: “This school, over a mile away, is upstairs in a large house in an alley. The children looked so nice and bright this morning, I wish you could see them. Prayers are over, so I begin by taking the wee tots in the first class and teach them the Lord’s Prayer. Then I take class after class until half-past nine, when with pony and queer little two-wheeled tonga I go on about half a mile to the other school. There I teach until nearly eleven and then drive home to breakfast, after which we have English prayers. By that time the gun has gone off, and that means twelve o’clock. The gun is the signal for our servants and native Christians living near to come in and have Marathi prayers. “Then I teach my servants to read, and ask a few questions in the Catechism, then teach the Christian girls and young women whom we want to train for Bible women, from two until three P. M. At three o’clock we have a cup of tea and some bread and butter; then I am free to settle ‘cases’ and hear ‘tales of woe’ until half-past four, when I go into town to teach the women and girls in the zenanas. I get home in time to have a good bath and get into a fresh dress before dinner at half-past seven. After dinner we talk over our experiences and plans of work, and sometimes one reads aloud while the rest of us sew until it is time to retire, generally an early hour.”—Interior. Mongol warrior AN OLD-TIME WARRIOR. girl who has put clown doll in bowl of milk THE MILKY WAY. double line
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