Class __ES3_£i 
 Book. , f\By '' 
 
 COPYRIGHT DEPOSHi 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2011 with funding from - 
 The Library of Congress 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/ourredletterdaysOOmatt 
 
Dedicated with love 
 
 to my sister 
 
 MES. HELEN MATTOCKS SPENCER 
 
 who suggested and makes 
 
 feasible this little 
 
 volume. 
 
COPYRIGHT 1909 
 
 BY 
 
 BREWER MATTOCKS 
 
 ARRANGEMENT AND DESIGN BY 
 
 Norton Mattocks 
 
 PRINTED BY 
 
 The O. F. Colliee Press 
 duluth, minn. 
 
(§m l&th ^Mtn iaga 
 
 Being a Collection of 
 
 Verse Selected from 
 
 the Writings of 
 
 BREWER MATTOCKS 
 
 Published by the Author 
 1909 
 
-\<b 
 
 ^r^^ 
 
 € 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 A3Y of CONGRESS 
 Two CoDies fic-ceived 
 
 Copyritf.it Eiitrii _ 
 I COPY B. 
 
1- 
 
 3- 
 
 JANUARY, GARNET, Constancy. 
 
 The two-faced Janus steadfast waits, 
 God of the Ways, beside the gates 
 Of Past and Future ; in whose hands 
 He holds the Days. The garnet stands 
 For January, Constancy, 
 To retrospectively foresee. 
 
 The future of a life is like to be 
 As was its Past, and Present carried out. 
 And who would read his future need but cast 
 His gaze behind and look upon his past. 
 
 Horoscoping the Future. 
 
 As some fixed headland bears a beacon light 
 To guide, or cheer some storm-tossed mariner 
 Into his harbor with all dangers passed, 
 So stands good Purpose, constant and steadfast ! 
 
 Fixed purpose. 
 
 Tho Hell, men say, is paved with Good Intent, 
 
 A On which lost Souls must here forever tread ; 
 
 'Tis no less true that Heaven's azure dome 
 
 Is starred with Right Resolves all hither come. 
 
 Good resolutions. 
 
 I know but one Evangel that will- lift 
 
 5 The drooping hearts of all these sons of men 
 
 To bring them to repentance, and new life. 
 One sweet Evangel which is known as Help. 
 
 ^ongs oj Help. 
 
 6- 
 
 A good impulse seemed to lift me, 
 Such as comes with lifting wings 
 To upbear one, for the moment, 
 Above Self, and selfish things. 
 
 n Doubt may be honest, as God's truth is true, 
 
 Belief, unreasoning, may all faith undo! 
 
 My good Angel. 
 
 Honest Doubt. 
 
JANUARY, GARNET, Constancy. 
 
 Wee Pilgrim, at the threshold of Life's door, 
 Why dids't thou enter not, but timidly 
 Pass on as if there was no room for thee? 
 There was both room, and welcome, and a store 
 Beyond thy needs, with full hearts running o'er 
 Of love, which looked-for-ones alone may claim ! 
 
 Stillborn. 
 
 Occasion comes to all who ready wait, 
 
 o The gods will set a target for each shaft; 
 
 And happy he, this brought within his view. 
 With steadfast aim to put the arrow true. 
 
 Advantaging occasion. 
 
 Yet, if our lives go with fixed, good intent 
 
 l« We may with hope much coming good expect. 
 
 An oak within the acorn lies concealed, 
 Altho each nut does not its oak tree yield ! 
 
 The worth of good intent. 
 
 When an Age doth fall in labor 
 
 II With a Principle, the Earth 
 
 With all Nature, seem convulsed, so great 
 Are its throes and pangs of birth ! 
 
 The closing of the Gates of War. 
 
 Once break the routine of Morality 
 
 *y And it has all but ceased to be a force. 
 
 Fixed Habit, more than Motive or Intent, 
 Will furnish living its best nutriment. 
 
 A fixed moral habit. 
 
 Nothing dies, and nothing can die, 
 
 I .J Till in some form it doth give. 
 
 From itself, or resolution. 
 Life for other lives to live. 
 
 Life at sixty. 
 
 ^. The peals of Peace must first be rung 
 
 ** Upon the chimes of Home ! 
 
 The return of the trophies. 
 
JANUARY, GARNET, Constancy. 
 
 "Give me the good intentions of the Day 
 15 — — I mean intentions had in all good faith — 
 Full half the ills of Life J will engage 
 To cure." Once said Autoritas, the Sage. 
 
 The Worth of Good Intent. 
 
 Life's only constant happy man is he 
 
 j^ Who lives his love, to love Life as he lives ; 
 
 Nor shirks its shove, or seeks the World's caress; 
 Who hugs less, than imparts his happiness. 
 
 Life's Happy Man. 
 
 Child-sight is the clearest, therefore, 
 
 *m Should we not expect from Youth 
 
 Clearer views, more Right Perspective, 
 Truer notions of the Truth? 
 
 Child'Sightedness. 
 
 An hundred men may think, where one talks well ; 
 
 |o An hundred may speak w^ell, where one speaks wise; 
 
 An hundred wise men, yet scarce one can find 
 Exact, and fit expression for his mind ! 
 
 Adequate Expression. 
 
 A man who sees too much, sees little right, 
 
 in While who sees less than truth sees mostly wrong. 
 
 A man who sees exactly of his Kind 
 
 Has much less need of men to change his mind. 
 
 The Perversion of a Sense. 
 
 "Why do the eyes of Age grow dim ?" Youth asked 
 
 ^A An old man, who at once replied, "So that 
 
 He cannot see the little things which vex, 
 And Life, unnecessarily, perplex !" 
 
 Why Age has Dimmed Eyes. 
 
 Who borrows Trouble pays usurious rates ; 
 
 21 And more like than not, the principal 
 
 May not be called, the interest to accrue 
 May tenfold equal all the obHgation due. 
 
 Borrowing Trouble. 
 
JANUARY, GARNET, Constancy. 
 
 "Man's life is but a span ! Aye, if be so 
 
 22 My heart has ever questioned what ' 
 
 Would the pleasures of the next world be 
 If nothing of this one remained of me?" 
 
 The Shepherd 's Wish for Immortality. 
 
 23- 
 
 24- 
 
 25- 
 
 26- 
 
 27- 
 
 Tomorrow is the surest day in Life ! 
 One may pass by Today, or Yesterday, 
 With all its happenings of time and place, 
 But his Tomorrows, Man must surely face ! 
 
 Man's Future he must Face. 
 
 What is so secret as a Human Life ! 
 How curiously its tenement is built 
 With view to hide all inner passages ; 
 Trap-floors, blind stairways, and wainscoted-doors. 
 
 The Soap-Baron's secret. 
 
 Vibration is a force omnipotent 
 The World to hold in place, and to destroy; 
 It is not Matter, lacking weight and size. 
 Yet, 'tis the biggest Power below the Skies ! 
 
 Omnipotent Vibration. 
 
 "It was us on the one side, an' him on that; 
 
 But, there stood the fence between 
 
 Which he wouldn't climb over. Him! Truckle or stoop? 
 
 Why, he wouldn't so much as lean !" 
 
 Nothing but a Man of God! 
 
 The nearest that Man can approach 
 To God's prerogative 
 Is, when a Father to his Son 
 Says, "Fully I forgive !" 
 
 The Divine Fatherhood in Man. 
 
 And so for years it stood a house 
 
 2© Which best fulfilled the purpose of a house, 
 
 To stand the best for what a house was built, 
 Than all the houses in its neighborhood ! 
 
 Edifying Character. 
 
29- 
 
 30- 
 
 31- 
 
 JANUARY, GARNET, Constancy. 
 
 What shall the New Year bring to you ? 
 The blessings of the going Year, 
 And of the coming, give to you 
 Rich gifts of loving, helpful Cheer. 
 What shall the New Year say to you? 
 "I love you, and T wish you well! 
 May Peace, and Toy and Happiness 
 In rightful living with you dwell." 
 
 What shall the New Year show to you? 
 Approval of the past Year; too, 
 Strong vantage-ground whereon Life may 
 Appear from larger point of view. 
 What may the New Year do to you? 
 Enlarge your outlook, to inspire 
 Endeavor to a steadfast aim 
 Unto the End of living higher. 
 
 What shall the New Year be to you? 
 A Benediction ; and, the blest 
 Assurance, that while God is Good, 
 Life has no better, all is best ! 
 So shall the New Year bring to you. 
 And say, and show, and do, and be 
 As He would have it ; spent in Hope, 
 And lived, thro Faith, with Charity. 
 
2- 
 
 FEBRUARY, AMETHYST, Sincerity . 
 
 February wakens life. The Month 
 Of Expiation, and Self-Sacrifice ; 
 Bird-mating, and love-making, When New Life 
 Emerging, swings the gates of Paradise, 
 Becrowned with amethyst, in whom we see 
 Both grace, and face of sweet Sincerity. 
 
 He goes not wholly wrong who is sincere ; 
 Tho lack of signboards, while crossroads mislead 
 By indirection, that one's footsteps stray, 
 Sincerity will yet show him the way. 
 
 Following Sincerity. 
 
 Hers was a life of Loving Kindness which 
 
 X In every act of living did appear ; 
 
 A life of sweet Self-Sacrifice, withal, 
 And utterly sincere! 
 
 An Helpful Remembrance. 
 
 Size, with Truth, is not a factor, 
 
 A Small or great. Truth must be true ; 
 
 These great Waters are no truer 
 
 Than the bluebell's drop of dew ! 
 
 Baptism River. 
 
 5- 
 
 6- 
 
 7- 
 
 Such as a Soul would be, so is its God. 
 
 One asked a slave, "Why place your gods so high?" 
 
 "That they look down benignently to greet 
 
 My worship, as 1 rise ro kiss their feet !" 
 
 Each Makes his Own Gods. 
 
 Most men have fear of some one righteous man. 
 While each good man inspires a deal of awe. 
 Tho some fear E\ il, more do fear the Good, 
 Were moral fears but rightly understood. 
 
 Fear Inspired by Virtue. 
 
 How I its living, can the Ideal best 
 Be both upheld, exemplified, expressed? 
 
 The Old Question of Ideals. 
 
9- 
 
 FEBRUARY, AMETHYST, Sincerity. 
 
 Sincere endeavor is a cause half-won ; 
 
 And tho it fails to bring- its wished for goal, 
 
 Nor breaks one's fall, or lifts him from the ground, 
 
 It does salve smarting to soon heal the wound. 
 
 Sincere Endeavor. 
 
 "He made no woman blush, no youth to err, 
 No weak one stumble, and no true Knight frown. 
 He broke his life for others whom he lent. 
 Asked little for himself, and lived content." 
 
 The King' s voice. 
 
 All great men have no ancestors : 
 The gods build on a plan 
 1" Entirely new when they put up 
 The framework of big men ! 
 
 The Return of the Trophies. 
 
 "Act in sincerity, and with 
 Great loving-kindness, Dear. 
 11 For an happy married life must be 
 Entirely sincere !" 
 
 Those good words I read yesterday 
 May be in Heaven felt, 
 1-^ Live with Eternity, nor all 
 Perdition's fires can melt ! 
 
 The Wifely Way. 
 
 Recasting Type-plates. 
 
 A man in selfish pride threw down, 
 But to trample on a crown 
 Set about with gems of priceless worth ; 
 13 — Yet to find out. to his cost. 
 All too late, what he had lost 
 When he strove to pick the jewels from the earth! 
 
 The Wife. 
 
 "Who sings to an Heart," said a Voice profound, 
 14 — "Must take his stand on f.ife's higher Ground !" 
 
 The Voice. 
 
FEBRUARY, AMETHYST, Sincerity. 
 
 Continuous endeavor makes 
 A life, tho short or long, completed. 
 He who falls fighting on Life's field 
 May hold his warfare not defeated. 
 
 JVAa^ Constitutes Completion. 
 
 In the cold grey days of Lent 
 
 Biting, bitter winds are sent 
 
 By the Master, with intent, Lenten Leaf, 
 
 To replace you with a shoot, 
 
 Bearing buds, and blossoms, fruit; 
 
 For thy loss what substitute ! Lenten Leaf. 
 
 Lenten Leaves. 
 
 Good to he better, but best to be good, 
 For then there is less need for betterment. 
 The being good, e'en in a less degree, 
 Is better than the largest best, to-be ! 
 
 Being, Better Than to-be. 
 
 Who, like a sneak, peers through its window blinds 
 Or listens at the ke3'hole of his Soul, 
 (To call this moral introspection) will 
 Find but a darkened room where all is still ! 
 
 Fingering Faults. 
 
 Materialities all fail 
 
 To satisfy the Soul's desires 
 
 For something tangible : all such 
 
 Fail to respond to Life's nice sense of touch. 
 
 Lije's Moral Tact. 
 
 It is far easier to talk, than speak the truth. 
 While who would scorn to tell them, may talk lies. 
 And, too, far easier to appear 
 With great Sincerity, than be sincere ! 
 
 A False Life may tell the Truth. 
 
 Wanton perversion of one's senses is. 
 Against himself, the sin unpardonable ! 
 
 Life's Unpardonable Sin. 
 
22- 
 
 23- 
 
 FEBRUARY, AMETHYST, Sincerity. 
 
 The greatness of a State lies in the man 
 Who will walk upright, and dares walk alone ; 
 Who would stand steadfast, and believes he can ; 
 Who holds the Peoples' good before his own. 
 When such men die their memories and bones 
 For States to come, make best foundation stones. 
 
 National Greatness. 
 
 A mother once was proffered choice between 
 
 Good Fortune, with all favor at command, 
 
 Or sweet Sincerity with empty hand. 
 
 She chose Good Fortune, all so mother-like; 
 
 When, at the Font, where now the mother stood, 
 
 "Sincerity!" outcried her Motherhood. 
 
 A mother'' s choice. 
 
 A Roman Censor who had great repute 
 Advising parents for their childrens' good 
 24 — Held, proper training of its Youth did more 
 To raise the State, than all the arms it bore. 
 
 Breeding a Boy. 
 
 Encourage each lad's competition with 
 His fellows, to obtain the mastery 
 
 25 In less, as well as larger things ; for strife 
 In competition, is the wine of Life. 
 
 Striving for Life's Masteries. 
 
 Who loaded, lifts ; who knows, but is unknown, 
 
 26 Save in his work, which he fears not to own ! 
 
 Human Helpfulness , 
 
 27- 
 
 Who fain would seek to verify each truth. 
 Or prove Devotion, or true Friendship test. 
 To Motive weigh, may find out in the end 
 He loses hundreds, where he gains one friend ! 
 
 How Friendship may be Lost. 
 
 2g True, yet no good can be purchased 
 
 Without paying what it cost! 
 
 Baptism River. 
 
FEBRUARY, AMETHYST, Sincerity. 
 
 There is one extra day in each man's life. 
 29 One d:.y, above all others, that he may, 
 For one day lacking, in some part atone ; 
 Thrice happy he to whom this day is known ! 
 
 Life's Extra Day. 
 
2- 
 
 MARCH, BLOODSTONE, True Firmness. 
 
 Mad March blusters in with blowing, 
 When red tuhps may be seen, 
 Like its gem, the Bloodstone. showing- 
 Sanguine drops on ground of green. 
 Month of Mars, the war-god, who 
 Stands for what is firm, and true. 
 
 Life's firmament may have full many stars 
 To hitch Man's wagons of Ambition, and. 
 There should be stars of Promise, but there must 
 Be one fixed star, on which to tie his Trust! 
 
 Life's fixed star. 
 
 ^ A truth, ill put, is halved of its full force, 
 
 While truth, well uttered, is a truth twice told. 
 
 Effective Truth, 
 
 Subject begot, yet born to Sovereignty 
 
 On natal day of all our presidents; 
 
 Who, subject to the service of the State, obey 
 
 4 Its servants only, with Imperial sway. 
 
 Our Father, and our Family-tree-trunk, and, 
 Who firmly rooted as a tree, did stand! 
 
 {^Grandfather once said: I was begotten an English subject , but -was 
 bern an American citizen. The Constitution was adopted in J777.) 
 
 JOHN MA TTOCKS. 
 
 "The courage of Conviction may speak low, 
 The courage of Convention must cry out; 
 5 The courage of Conviction may bide home, 
 The courage of Convention must face Rome !" 
 
 A ui or it as the Sage. 
 
 Strong Personality precedes most good 
 
 r To force a following. Self-Assertion gives 
 
 Endeavor energy, when used aright, 
 
 But, if worked wrongly, will work it despite. 
 
 The Force of Personality. 
 
 7- 
 
 A Fool's conviction is his stumxbling-stone, 
 
 A Wise man's is the rock on which he stands. 
 
 A Fool's Convictions , 
 
MARCH, BLOODSTONE, True Firmness. 
 
 All things mean something, each event has cause; 
 
 o The Weather's not as fickle as it seems. 
 
 Each wind would give an answer if it could, 
 Each Mood might give a reason if it would ! 
 
 The Matter of Moods, 
 
 The thorn-circled flower seems the sweetest ! 
 Our fears are the thorns of the hour, 
 
 ^ The sweetest of all to the Parent, 
 
 That rare crowning hour of the Day 
 Around which the Sleep Angel hovers, 
 To bear us, with our children away. 
 
 The Parenfs Hour. 
 
 For, be it understood, 
 10 — To hold our Country to her place 
 Needs the largest Womanhood ! 
 
 The closing of the Gates of War. 
 
 Firm moral fibre does it often take 
 
 II To rise, and hold, that two and two make four; 
 
 Then, with face fixed, and back against the wall, 
 To dare maintain it tho the Heavens fall ! 
 
 Recognizing Facts. 
 
 The force of arms lies less in might. 
 12 — Or in the temper of the blade ; 
 
 More, in the impulse of the Heart 
 The moment when the thrust is made! 
 
 Heart-giving Impulse. 
 
 "Less-walls, or towers, with well cut phrase, 
 Or, tabulated fact 
 1^5 Which guards the Marches of a vState, 
 More, by whom her walls are backed !" 
 
 Manlius Torquatus. 
 
 Man, made in God's image. He fashioned perfection, 
 14 — Nor stamps His own face, there to add superscription, 
 To that which is base ! 
 
 The Organist of St. Marks. 
 
MARCH, BLOODSTONE, True Firmness. 
 
 "But, in the blast 
 
 |c You may not hear!" "I holds her fast 
 
 By orders that he gave me last, 
 
 And bv them turns the wheel, the wheel !" 
 
 The Ship of Life. 
 
 16- 
 
 "The grizzled man was rough, 
 
 But, in his actions firmly true. I've seen 
 
 Him roundly curse base cowardice, 
 
 Then softly read the prayers for dying braves !" 
 
 Our Colonel, 
 
 ^m If you have a word. Young Man, don't delay it, 
 
 Some truth which lies next your heart, bravely say it! 
 
 The Rights of Youth. 
 
 18- 
 
 IJfe's obstacles to doing, bravely met, 
 Tho first they hinder, at the last must help 
 One to arrive at what is best in life. 
 Which ever comes but by the way of strife. 
 
 Helpful obstacles. 
 
 19- 
 
 Now, whenever cast down, and discouraged, 
 
 (May be with the burning smart 
 
 Of a cruel word, while welding 
 
 An Aim to Endeavor) I turn 
 
 To that Smith who rather than lose a weld 
 
 Would suiter the smart of the burn! 
 
 Don't Lose a Weld for a Burn. 
 
 ****** Is defeat 
 The measure of Endeavor? Can but they 
 Who wear Life's laurels only claim the day? 
 20 — Think you the Master held the sheaf of wheat 
 Completer than the lily at His feet 
 Which nodded greeting as He passed that way? 
 
 A young life's measure. 
 
 21 There is no honest effort comes to nought, 
 
 Or firm Resolve without good left behind ! 
 
 Good Purpose Always Effective. 
 
MARCH, BLOODSTONE, True Firmness. 
 
 22- 
 
 23- 
 
 Fiill half true Joy and Happiness in Life 
 Is that sweet incense which to Pleaven ascends 
 From votive offerings of spice, and oil, and wine 
 Of Self-Denials, which makes Motherhood Divine. 
 
 True Motherhood, 
 
 "Our Mother!" 
 Like the honeysuckle's drip, 
 Never fell from human lip 
 Sweeter words, or yet another 
 With so sweet a sound as Mother. 
 
 Life's sweetest word. 
 
 Where across shone a sheen of fields Emerald green, 
 When, I saw a fair Being in white, 
 24^ With both arms outstretched, hover down from above, 
 Where she nestled her Child, like a sweet mother-dove. 
 Who had slipped from great Vanity Fair ! 
 
 My vision of Life. 
 
 Teach me, will you, lesson brief 
 •^^ From your falling, Lenten Leaf! 
 
 Lenten Leaves. 
 
 26- 
 
 "Lenten leaves are dry and sear. 
 
 Sad memorials of a Year, 
 
 And of Times departed. 
 
 Lenten thoughts are sad and drear, 
 
 Lenten memories make us fear 
 
 We are empty-hearted !" 
 
 Lenten Leaves. 
 
 27- 
 
 Life, at best, is always natural 
 To a Reason self-possessed 
 Tho to follow Natural Impulse, 
 Without Reason, is not best. 
 
 Baptism River 
 
 28- 
 
 Restrictions limit less than they enlarge, 
 To Force subserve wherein they do restrict. 
 
 Its restrictions deepen Life 
 
MARCH, BLOODSTONE, True Firmness. 
 
 'T have a firm conviction" — whispered one, 
 
 29 "Then out with it ! ten paces from our throne, 
 
 That while we hear it, we may see the face 
 
 Of your Conviction !" roared the King of Thrace. 
 
 The courage of Convention. 
 
 He cut his finger, while in vain he tried 
 To bring forth music striking willow wood, 
 
 ^Q Meanwhile, he scolded, stormed, and said, "I'd make 
 
 A man of you if I but had good stufif!" 
 
 The lad replied, while scratching his sore toe, 
 
 "Yet, with good stuiif you can't make whistles blow !" 
 
 The irascible Poet. 
 
 Altho one's life be very large, 
 
 »l And for all wants and wishes ample, 
 
 Right living it is hard without 
 The inspiration of Example. 
 
 The biggest help in life. 
 
 31- 
 
 The wind without is blowing fierce and cold, 
 The snow falls, and its drifts are piled apace ; 
 And yet our Lamb is safe within the fold 
 Of our warm hearts, where is no vacant place, 
 For thou hast been our baby all these years! 
 
 Stillborn, 
 
APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 Both entering life upon one natal day, 
 
 (Red-lettered to us all) the one 
 
 Saw nothing but the diamond in her son. 
 
 Of the serenest ra}'^ — Bright April's gem, 
 
 Emblem of Innocence — The other 
 
 Saw in our grand, his grandest mother! 
 
 The Diamond ever reigns the Queen of gems; 
 
 2 Tho royal born, of homeliest elements. 
 
 A perfect jewel, yet without the sense 
 
 Of its great worth. So, too, with Innocence. 
 
 The genesis of the diamond. 
 
 7r- 
 
 Who picks his seed, to plant and till with care. 
 Need not depend on harvest for his yield. 
 Tho Nature, in her moods, may blast or blight. 
 She cannot undo what has been done right! 
 
 Good planting yields satisfaction. 
 
 The will of Justice lies in the first thought; 
 
 » The act of Justice is that soonest done; 
 
 The aim of Justice is the right Intent ; 
 The end of Justice is the just Event! 
 
 The means of Justice, 
 
 The old Patrician answered: "Happiness 
 
 c I find in Misery. Where Duty led 
 
 I followed, and, in exile find an home 
 
 With Sorrow, happier than with Joy in Rome !" 
 
 The happiness ofunhappiness. 
 
 , Of all God-given powers the one that comes 
 "~ Most near to the Divine is Influence. 
 
 Inflowing inertia. 
 
 Mother means so much of mothering 
 
 ^ In ill times, as well as good. 
 
 ' Pain must alternate with Pleasure 
 
 As the price of Motherhood. 
 
 The price of motherhood. 
 
3- 
 
 APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 Both entering life upon one natal day, 
 
 (Red-lettered to us all) the one 
 
 Saw nothing but the diamond in her son. 
 
 Of the serenest ra}^ — Bright April's gem, 
 
 Emblem of Innocence — The other 
 
 Saw in our grand, his grandest mother! 
 
 The Diamond ever reigns the Queen of gems ; 
 
 Tho royal born, of homeliest elements. 
 
 A perfect jewel, yet without the sense 
 
 Of its great worth. So, too, with Innocence. 
 
 The genesis of the diamond. 
 
 Who picks his seed, to plant and till with care. 
 Need not depend on harvest for his yield. 
 Tho Nature, in her moods, may blast or blight. 
 She cannot undo what has been done right! 
 
 Good planting yields satisfaction. 
 
 The will of Justice lies in the first thought ; 
 
 A The act of Justice is that soonest done; 
 
 The aim of Justice is the right Intent ; 
 The end of Justice is the just Event ! 
 
 The means of Justice. 
 
 The old Patrician answered: "Happiness 
 
 c I find in Misery. Where Duty led 
 
 I followed, and, in exile find an home 
 
 With Sorrow, happier than with Joy in Rome !" 
 
 The happiness ofunhappiness. 
 
 . Of all God-given powers the one that comes 
 Most near to the Divine is Influence. 
 
 Inflowing inertia. 
 
 Mother means so much of mothering 
 
 ^ In ill times, as well as good. 
 
 ' Pain must alternate with Pleasure 
 
 As the price of Motherhood, 
 
 The price of motherhood. 
 
8- 
 
 10- 
 
 11- 
 
 12- 
 
 APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 While Innocence is easy simulated, as 
 The diamond, Time, skilled connoisseur, alone 
 Can tell the true from what false Art has made ; 
 Truth gleams forever, Falsity must fade. 
 
 Simulated innocence. 
 
 "Does Anger ever work beneficence?" 
 
 Q Was asked a Sage, who questioned in reply, 
 
 "Think you a thunderstorm was ever meant 
 
 For other than a cause beneficent?" 
 
 For every flood, there is an ebb-tide ; 
 For every storm there is a calm ; 
 For every dark, there is a bright-side ; 
 For every 111 there is some Balm. 
 
 The storms of Life, 
 
 Life's ebbs and flows. 
 
 Except the grain of corn die 
 There cannot rise the spray ; 
 Except the grain of corn die 
 No bud will bloom in May ; 
 Except the grain of corn die 
 No Resurrection Day! 
 
 Lenten Leaves. 
 
 "A woman's mood may break in tears, 
 A man's to anger tends ; 
 
 In both, the cloud, storm, calm, then comes 
 The sunshine of amends !" 
 
 The wifely way. 
 
 There's no incentive like Uncertainty ; 
 The fear of failure may be Life's chief spur. 
 
 13 While Pride may put forth to obtain the Crown, 
 Great Worth will rise for that it was cast down. 
 
 Incentive uncertainty. 
 
 All life fears storms, and yet Life ever lives 
 
 14 More circumspectly for the storms thus feared. 
 
 All life fears storms. 
 
APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 Why may not Man put questions? Nay, 
 
 jc Why should he not and yet be Man? 
 
 His asking proves not unbelief 
 
 In other lands, why in the Land of Grief? 
 
 Questioning. 
 
 I fciught with beasts at Ephesus 
 When hosts were there to see. 
 16 A gruesome sight ! Yet, ere it ceased. 
 Full nine and ninety cheered the Beast 
 To one who favored me ! 
 
 Fighting with beasts at Ephesus. 
 
 Tho Truth delayed may come at last; 
 
 <m Still, my Soul, why need to wait? 
 
 Were it not better to run down the lane 
 And open for her the gate ! 
 
 Meeting Truth partway. 
 
 ■JO God gives not man gifts. 
 
 He bestows on him talents. 
 
 A gift implies keeping, a talent — enlargement. 
 
 The organist a/ St. Marks. 
 
 19- 
 
 He who strikes a true note. 
 He who hath a clear voice, 
 He whose life is innocent 
 He shall sing Life's new song! 
 
 Life's New Song. 
 
 Cornelia stood by 
 
 20 — The while her sons were taught to live, 
 But she taught them how to die ! 
 
 The Return of the Trophies. 
 
 She hungers with the one she cannot feed, 
 
 21 — To wait outside with who cannot come in. 
 
 She suffers with Distress, meanwhile, she pleads 
 Guiltv with those who are convinced of sin. 
 
 St. Sympathy. 
 
APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 "The hardest thing I know of, is 
 
 22 To wear a smiling face 
 
 To Life without, and yet within 
 To feel no smile of Grace," 
 
 The wifely way. 
 
 Three simple rules give Opportunity, 
 23— Do you what other men have left undone; 
 Say you what others think, but fear to say; 
 Pick up, to use, what others throw away! 
 
 Opportunity s tree rules. 
 
 ^Ar- 
 
 "He wouldn't catch hold of the end we gave, 
 And he couldn't twig what we meant 
 When we offered him in-on-the-ground-floor, See? 
 No! he stared like an Innocent! 
 
 Nothing but a man of God. 
 
 Man's life is but an ever changing tide 
 
 y, Whose ebb and flow less on his Will depends, 
 
 Than strange attractions from the upper Skies, 
 Or nether Earth where Inclination lies. 
 
 The attraction oj Inclination. 
 
 Hearts are not scales, or measures which 
 Official gangers stamp or test. 
 26— My Sorrow's weight mayn't turn your scale. 
 Or may my measure for your Griefs avail. 
 
 The blessed Land of Grief. 
 
 Perfection perfected. Whose weight adds worth 
 In Geometric ratio, yet the least 
 27 Is as the most; whose tiniest bit detects. 
 As does the mass, the light which it reflects. 
 
 The Diamond. 
 
 If I should walk this way but once 
 
 2g I needs must mark my footsteps that I tread 
 
 No flower of Joy, and leave no print of Pain. 
 Aye, I may never pass this way again ! 
 
 Lifers careful walk. 
 
29- 
 
 APRIL, Diamond, Innocence. 
 
 A pious sacrifice cannot be lost. 
 
 Each elemental atom from the Skies, 
 
 To Earth returned, transmuted, here will shine 
 
 Supernal ever, as a gem divine ! 
 
 The genesis of the diamond. 
 
 It is not the one who helps me most 
 To whom the most I owe, 
 30 — But the one who does inspire me 
 To learn what I would know; 
 And with authorit)', doth bid 
 Me gird my loins, and go! 
 
 To -whom Life owes most. 
 
MAY, EMERALD, Happiness. 
 
 MAIA, fairest of the Sisters Seven, 
 All of Earth, yet born in Heaven ; 
 1— Sent at Springtide Man to bless 
 With her gift of Happiness. 
 vS3''mbob'zed by Emerald. Aye, 
 Life is happiest in May! 
 
 A woman's talk to Beauty drifts, 
 Her rare, God-given dower. 
 _ Whose end was, Beauty should be lit, 
 Not from without by Art, 
 But from the lamp of Love within 
 The chambers of the Heart! 
 
 The return of the trophies. 
 
 3— Mere feeling of Enjoyment one may stress 
 Beyond all tension, nor have Happiness. 
 
 Mere joy is not happiness. 
 
 Man may not be as happy as he would, 
 
 4— Or will he be as happy as he may; 
 While ever driving Happiness away 
 
 He wonders why she will not with him stay ! 
 
 Lost happiness. 
 
 5- 
 
 P^ 
 
 A kindly action can no more be vain 
 Than a clear sunray on a warm May day ; 
 Altho dark clouds may pass before it, still, 
 It must give forth, its mission to fulfill. 
 
 No kind act is vain. 
 
 6— While too much stress on Action may be laid. 
 Too little of Intent is often made. 
 
 An happy intent. 
 
 Hers, sweet, sympathetic Motherhood 
 y_ Showing Happiness, which clung 
 To every living thing which bears 
 A life, or broodeth young. 
 
 A sympathetic Motherhood. 
 
8- 
 
 9- 
 
 10- 
 
 11- 
 
 MAY, EMERALD, Happiness. 
 
 Apollo's curls made him no more the god 
 Then Vulcan's lameness made him less divine. 
 Less, how one looks, or that his form attracts, 
 More, what he looks at, and how thinks, and acts. 
 
 The deformed lad 
 
 A good man cannot pass, and leave no part ; 
 His righteous Life and Walk will yet fare on, 
 While good Example he must leave behind 
 To cheer, and to inspire his fellow-kind. 
 
 A good example cannot die. 
 
 Man rarely takes the Pleasures Life would give 
 At their full worth, but more than often strives, 
 By haggling values, to decrease their cost 
 To, in the end, find Happiness all lost. 
 
 Haggling Lifers values. 
 
 Kind Commendation is Endeavor's sun ; 
 The leaven of Life's m.eal ; the temper which 
 Gives Effort cutting edge ; the healing rain 
 Which to the dying grass gives life again. 
 
 Kind commendation. 
 
 One needs good eyes to see that which is good, 
 
 J2 And must do nicely to observe nice work; 
 
 Thus, as one's sight is either dull or clear, 
 Unto Perception must all things appear. 
 
 Good seeing precedes good action. 
 
 13- 
 
 14- 
 
 Who falling, loses not Self-Confidence, 
 Gains more than he who doubting Self succeeds ; 
 One has Self-Faith, the other one believes 
 He owes to Fortune, all that he receives. 
 
 No success in Self-Doubt. 
 
 "He trusted God, believed his fellow man ; 
 Nor hated, envied not, and spake no ill. 
 Now blazon on our dead Knight's shield 
 An out-stretched Hand. God's will be done!" 
 
 The Knight of the helping hand. 
 
MAY, EMERALD, Happiness. 
 
 An only daughter was her Father's pride; 
 His youngest, and the nearest to his heart. 
 15 — An opening rose, between the red and white 
 The fearing florist fears may mar or bhght. 
 His jewel finest, and his gem most rare 
 The goldsmith guards with the most jealous care. 
 
 Ah exacting Fatherhood. 
 
 16- 
 
 I lift a brown hand to caress it, 
 And kiss its short-comings away, 
 As I think how it tried to assist me. 
 Why thought I not this thro the day? 
 
 Tlic Parents^ hour. 
 
 17- 
 
 Why plant a wildbrier where a rose will grow, 
 Or leave to thistles land that will raise corn? 
 \^'hy lead a small Life among large ones, and 
 Mere Pleasure seek with Happiness at hand? 
 
 Why live little? 
 
 18 
 
 Motherhood's as old as Life is, 
 Yet the newest Joy which Earth 
 Bears Humanity is Springtime, 
 Or a baby at its birth ! 
 
 Baptism River. 
 
 Care carries a mortgage on every Heart, 
 
 19 And there is ever some empty bin. 
 
 Yet, what tho the rains pour outside of the door 
 So the eyes are kept dry within ! 
 
 Unhappily worrying. 
 
 Bring all Life's Pleasures to fulfillment; then 
 20 — Achieve its best Ambitions; Wishes gain; 
 Now add all these together in a sum. 
 Could one be happy, nought to overcome? 
 
 The happiness of overcoming. 
 
 21 No Pleasure to renounce or Joy resist, 
 
 Life's truest Happiness might all be missed! 
 
 The happiness of foregoing. 
 
MAY, EMERALD, Happiness. 
 
 He gives but once who does bestow, 
 
 22 While he gives thrice who sweetly takes ; 
 
 Thanks for the gift, and what it meant, 
 And, appreciation of the kind intent. 
 
 The art of nice receiving. 
 
 There are Perfections, and Perfections. While 
 
 23 Perfection, as an end, may not be reached, 
 
 Perfection as an Aim, with Self-Denial, 
 May constitute all but a perfect Trial. 
 
 Perfection, 
 
 JAr- 
 
 25- 
 
 Behind each Life there seems to be 
 Some great propulsive Force. 
 As ships pushed by inertia, so 
 Are Lives upon their course. 
 
 The inertia of goodness . 
 
 Who gave the most? Who had the least to give? 
 Who helped the most? Who had the greatest lack. 
 Who healed the most? Who suffered most of pain. 
 Who did for most? Who had the least again. 
 Thus in my vision, it was clearly shown 
 Who aided most their fellows to the Throne. 
 
 A visio?i of Helpfulness. 
 
 None can be wholly happy, yet impart 
 No Happiness to others ; or have Heart 
 26 — Without provoking large Kind-PIeartedness ; 
 Have Blessedness which others cannot bless; 
 Or have large loving that does not make rife 
 An happier, heartful and more blessed life. 
 
 Imparting happiness. 
 
 yj_ It is a test of Moral Bravery 
 
 To meet dire Disappointment without fear. 
 
 Moral bravery. 
 
 28- 
 
 None sow wild oats ; tho many reap, perforce 
 Their Self-sown Follies at the price of pain. 
 
 Reaping wild-oats. 
 
29- 
 
 MAY, EMERALD, Happiness. 
 
 There lies more doing in what one does do; 
 Belief in what he does believe in, than 
 In ten thousand things he vainly sets about, 
 Or., in a whole wide universe of Doubt ! 
 
 Doing and believing. 
 
 What is so Immaterial as Thought, 
 
 20 Or yet so light as is a spoken Word? 
 
 And, still, all Nature may have no recourse 
 Against the cither's all-impelling force ! 
 
 0?nnipotent vibration. 
 
 31- 
 
 31- 
 
 In life nought is material. 
 Save good Intent with kindly Act. 
 All other substance in a day 
 May wing itself to fly away. 
 
 Material immaterialities. 
 
 How happy he was ye may not know 
 Who have never let down Life's bars, 
 And given godspeed to a soul who has sought 
 To find his way to the Stars ! 
 
 The way to the Stars. 
 
JUNE, PEARL, Health. 
 
 Juno, Queen of Earth and Heaven, 
 Guardian-goddess of all good ; 
 
 I Patroness of all pertaining 
 
 Both to Maid and Motherhood. 
 Health, and length of days, her boon, 
 Pearl-jewelled, is her Month of June. 
 
 Of all good gifts Man's chiefest is good Health. 
 
 2 His pearl of greatest, and transcendent worth. 
 
 While other gems are crystalled. Pearls alone. 
 Like Healthfulness, are by accretion grown. 
 
 God^ s best gift is Health. 
 
 3- 
 
 The kneeling at the Cross, 
 
 Pressed palms that supplicate; 
 
 The World without, the Christ within 
 
 Lord, help me imitate ! 
 
 Christ Imitation. 
 
 Month of sunshine, song, and blossom, 
 
 4 Month of promise, opportune 
 
 For a month of Love, and loving, 
 Is the Lover's Month of June ! 
 
 Happy June days. 
 
 Who looks to Wealth to ease him of Life's loads, 
 
 5 Or to relieve him of all cares, and cure its ills ; 
 
 Or fence him from Life's Disappointments which 
 Cause Discontentments, has been never rich ! 
 
 What Wealth cannot do. 
 
 "What has this type of beauty wrought for Greece? 
 {^— This mindless face, this breast without an heart? 
 Nay, take it hence ! The Mother in her home 
 Best typifies the Womanhood of Rome." 
 
 The Censor and the Venus. 
 
 A man may beg, or buy, or borrow wealth. 
 
 Or even steal it. He must earn Good Health ! 
 
 Working for health. 
 
JUNE, PEARL, Health. 
 
 "He is beside himself !" The World cries out 
 8 — Of every man who strives to help his kind. 
 Of course he is and must be ! Who does bide 
 Within himself goes out to none beside!" 
 
 Being beside one' self . 
 
 When so little goes a great ways, a great ways, 
 
 9 As we are so often told ; 
 
 When a little goes so great ways, so great ways, 
 Then, why should we it withhold? 
 
 When a mite may lift a million. 
 
 The most Man's bitter Hatreds, Discontents, 
 And Jealousies grow from some trifling stings ! 
 
 10 — Yet, the fair Pearl is an accretion, too. 
 About an Irritation. Some good Hearts 
 Hide ever}^ Evil in a growth of Grace, 
 
 And each foul Grievance with a gem displace. 
 
 Gallnuts and pearls. 
 
 Patience, good People, Patience and Charity! 
 
 11 — Long months are taken to produce a Pearl. 
 Long years of patience go to grow a tree, 
 God exercises Patience, should not we? 
 
 How trees are grown. 
 
 Oh yes, there are some things God cannot do ! 
 
 J2 He cannot undo what has been done wrong; 
 
 He cannot lift a fallen tear, or blot 
 From ill-behavior one unmanly spot. 
 
 Limited Omnipotence. 
 
 If half Man's ills are due to Ignorance, 
 
 Y* (And this assumption be at least half true) 
 
 Then willful Ignorance must be held akin. 
 Or be itself considered as a sin. 
 
 Willful Ignorance. 
 
 |4 She ground, dissolved, and drank her pearls. Mad Queen ! 
 
 As some their Health. Small difference between! 
 
 Acts of madness. 
 
JUNE, PEARL, Health. 
 
 A Fool once asked Aiitoritas, the Sage, 
 
 |c If Life was worth the living? 'Who replied, 
 
 "To one who puts such questions I can give 
 No reason why he should be asked to live !' 
 
 Lije's Fool-question. 
 
 Each man of worth will one day wear his crown, 
 
 j^ (Tho given to but a few to wear it twice) 
 
 Like June's, the very longest of the Year, 
 Whose aureole will all his Life ensphere ! 
 
 Man's one crowning day. 
 
 Tho one gets lonesome who plays good alone, 
 
 yi Still, loneliness plays not good solitaire ! 
 
 No, one is not lonely who can truly claim 
 Against himself, alone, he beats Life's game ! 
 
 Playing moral solitaire. 
 
 As is his skin, so is the thought of Man ; 
 Each has some raw spot where the nerve lies bare; 
 lo Apparent fact, or yet some hidden truth 
 He ever fingers like an acheing tooth. 
 
 Humanity'' s raw spots. 
 
 19- 
 
 No one can say what he can do, or bear 
 
 Until Necessity comes up with him 
 
 To energize Endurance, or Endeavor, then 
 
 May come a Strength of which he had small ken ! 
 
 The strength of necessity. 
 
 A Wiseman said, "I argue with no Fool, 
 
 20 For, when the wind blows dust I step aside. 
 
 And yet, I never let a doubting Youth 
 Feed at my table on an half-baked truth !" 
 
 Foolish argument. 
 
 What is so catching as an healthful laugh ; 
 
 21 What so contagious as brave utterance ; 
 
 What so infectious as a life well wrought. 
 What is God for if blessings are not caught ! 
 
 All good is catching. 
 
JUNE, PEARL, Health. 
 
 "What think you of the Shepherd?" Head bent down 
 
 22 The beast replied, '"I'm nothing but a sheep, 
 
 And 3'et, I often yearn to know what he. 
 
 My Friend, Protector, Shepherd thinks of me?" 
 
 What Omnipotence thinks of Man. 
 
 One cannot keep his sitting and touch stars, 
 
 23 Or make smart sayings as he dives for pearls ; 
 
 Alost difficult Convention's skirts to hold 
 
 By one who mines for gems, or digs for gold. 
 
 Baiting eagles with pinhooks. 
 
 On all nights of the Year, save one, in dreams 
 The Souls of men again float down Life's stream 
 Revisiting the scenes of earlier Youth, 
 24 With Joy or Sorrow ; but one night, forsooth, 
 The Church holds that the dreamng Soul 
 Seeks out the place where one day bell shall toll 
 Its final passing. 
 
 St. John' s eve. 
 
 25 For, Nature, in herself, has not the power 
 
 From faulty bud to bloom a perfect flower. 
 
 Nature'' s limitations . 
 
 O ! a cry speaks to a woman 
 
 26 — In a language that does tell 
 
 All so little to the men-folk, busy, 
 
 As they come and go, and buy and sell. 
 
 Woman's opportunity. 
 
 What is, or will be, may not be the best, 
 
 27 — Tho it be best to wisely use what is. 
 And leave it better, as one always may. 
 
 Making good of what is. 
 
 I had liefer be bitten than have no dog. 
 Betrayed, than to have no friend ; 
 And rather endeavor, to fail of my aim. 
 Than no good to resolve, or intend ! 
 
 Some preferences. 
 
2^ 
 
 30- 
 
 JUNE, PEARL, Health. 
 
 1 loved thee, for thy heart was all inclined 
 
 To Tender Mercies. Thou was't good and kind. 
 
 I loved thee, for thou had'st so much, forsooth, 
 
 Of sweet Sincerity, such love for Truth. 
 
 I loved thee, for all other traits above, 
 
 Thy great capacity of Heart to love ! 
 
 Sonnets to a Saint. 
 
 A fairy tale? A fairy once 
 Did promise all the girls 
 Who brot her most Unselfishness 
 A necklace of rare pearls. 
 
 The Year rolled round, when each one brot 
 Now, to the Fairy's ear 
 Her loving-work, save one poor child, 
 "What have you brot, mv Dear?" 
 
 "I've brot a kiss to her who wins 
 The dear, good Fairy's pearls." 
 "Then give to her the necklace !" cried 
 Each one of all the girls. 
 
 The Pearl of Unselfishness . 
 
3- 
 
 4r- 
 
 6- 
 
 7- 
 
 JULY, RUBY, Love. 
 
 Color of the heart's best Hfeblood ; 
 Color of young- Manhood's flush ; 
 Color of a Day's new dawning; 
 Color of fair Maiden's blush. 
 Love's bright color, wooing, wed — 
 July's gem is Ruby, red. 
 
 Give but the Marriage day to Wisdom, and the State 
 May yield the rest to Folly and yet thrive. 
 Yet, of this day let Folly be possessed 
 Wisdom will fail tho she have all the rest ! 
 
 T/ie Marriage day 
 
 IvOve is a light, a leaven, an atmosphere 
 Whose warmth makes bud to blossom wedded life. 
 But Love grown chill and cold, why then, alas ! 
 Wedlock is soured, or falls a sodden mass ! 
 
 Marital love. 
 
 The independence of a »State consists 
 Less in mere phrasing of whate'er attends 
 The declaration of its oneness, more, 
 On what the vSelfhood of the State depends. 
 
 Independence day. 
 
 All is natural with Nature ; 
 But, than all things else beside, 
 ^ Nothing seems so sweetly natural 
 In all nature as a Bride ! 
 
 Bridal days. 
 
 All in Nature seems mysterious, 
 Still, in mysteries above 
 What is mystic is the mystery 
 Of reciprocal true Love ! 
 
 Reciprocal affection. 
 
 Love multiplies itself, yet freely gives ; 
 And giving, feeds the heart on which it lives. 
 
 Reciprocal love. 
 
9- 
 
 JULY, RUBY, Love. 
 
 Her loss was nothing! but what was his? 
 So foolish, false, and fickle, 
 He had cast this mass of gold away 
 To marry a bit of nickle ! 
 
 His loss. 
 
 The world seems very full of men, and yet 
 But three of these count much in most of lives; 
 The man one fears, or hates, or loves the best, 
 Save these, he can get on with all the rest. 
 
 Life's most impossible three. 
 
 Love beautifies the very homeliest face 
 
 ^« To make it as an Angel's to appear. 
 
 So, one imselfish act may add such grace 
 As to both lift, and beautify the Race ! 
 
 Transforming love. 
 
 I hunger so for loving food, 
 J j_ And yet, too often sate 
 
 i\Iy hungerings from off the dish 
 Whereon is served my hate ! 
 
 Feeding on hate. 
 
 12- 
 
 I often in despondency 
 
 Said in a fretful tone, 
 
 "I am so lonely!" But, ah me. 
 
 Until I saw one prone 
 
 Upon Love's grave T never knew 
 
 What it meant to say, "Alone !" 
 
 Life''s true loneliness. 
 
 13- 
 
 14- 
 
 — Comes a time when Spring brings promise 
 To young lovers of Love new; 
 Stays the time that proves long loving, 
 To old Lovers, as love true I 
 
 Life at sixty. 
 
 God is good ! Eternal hatred 
 Never has, or can prevail. 
 
 Not with a loving God. 
 
15- 
 
 JULY, RUBY, Love. 
 
 Great lives, like maps, are drawn upon a scale, 
 Enlargement needs must be symmetrical. 
 
 Life's enlargements. 
 
 But the way of Art was a long way, 
 An hard path, and footsore 
 *" Who treads it must be. Yet, Life's Masters have 
 All trodden this way before ! 
 
 The way of Art, 
 
 17- 
 
 "Wifehood" is put in just one word, 
 Before, nor since the Fall 
 Has God said more, which was, "Helpmeet," 
 Helpmeet, and this was all !" 
 
 The wifely way. 
 
 10 Tho mere respect ma)^ no Maid's love secure, 
 
 Without Respect mere love may not endure! 
 
 Self-Respect woos best. 
 
 19- 
 
 Nay, but to him who knows no sterile plain ; 
 Who plows to plant, and holds no labor vain : 
 Who never asks will there be rain, or sun? 
 But questions only is his work well done? 
 To such an one will God Himself disclose; 
 Whose "wilderness shall blossom as the rose!' 
 
 Good work. 
 
 The inauspicious moment, as men count, 
 
 20 Time often takes to bring his great events to pass. 
 
 So, happy he who with girt loins doth stand 
 With fixed Attention, and with ready Hand ! 
 
 Await with readiness. 
 
 My Father called his Mother good ; 
 His Children call her Grand — ; 
 21— My Children call her Great — while theirs 
 Say "Great-great-good Grand mother, and 
 Great adds each Generation, so 
 Good Motherhood must wax and grow! 
 
 Mrs. John Mattocks. 
 
JULY, RUBY, Love. 
 
 All the World may love a Lover, yet 
 22— Than all the World above, 
 
 A Lover, in his loving, loves 
 With a world-full, but his Love! 
 
 Maid Mercy. 
 
 Strong men create the Worlds in which they live, 
 23 Life's weakest ones let others fashion theirs, 
 While all between, put up with, or content 
 Themselves to live with their Environment. 
 
 World creators. 
 
 Each strong, good man needs much of Helplessness, 
 24_ To work upon, to make him fit and strong. 
 Benevolence, like other powers, at length, 
 Unexercised, is like to lose in strength. 
 
 Exercising one's Virtues. 
 
 True Excellence may not find ready sale, 
 
 25 — Yet, soon or late, someone will come to buy. 
 W^hat tho they do not, nay, and never should? 
 Who has it by, holds that much to the good ! 
 
 Retained Excellence. 
 
 It is not the robe of satin or silk, 
 So fine, or as gossamer thin, 
 
 26— Which dresses Life best. Oh, no, my girl, 
 But the good Heart's wrappings within! 
 
 The sea snail. 
 
 27- 
 
 Love is reciprocal. No annual roots 
 But that it leaves its little to, the soil 
 In its decay, to pay for nourishment. 
 So, Loving-Kindness never can be spent. 
 
 Love must be reciprocal. 
 
 Who would reveal an hidden mystery 
 Must first prove it is not mysterious ! 
 28 — And this once proved, full easy then to reach 
 The minds of those one goes about to teach. 
 
 A wise Teacher. 
 
JULY, RUBY, Love. 
 
 The test of a man is less in his strength 
 29 When in fine condition, and strong. 
 
 ]\Iore, when he is down, or up against odds, 
 And still he will not do wrong! 
 
 The best test of Manhood. 
 
 Altho availability be not 
 
 30 Always a Virtue, still, a virtue which 
 
 Is not available in time of need 
 
 Counts no more than a Vice without the deed ! 
 
 Life's availabilities. 
 
 Up to Man's line of duty, 
 
 ^- No further could he go ; 
 
 Or from it did he ever swerve, 
 While he never fell below! 
 
 The Roman Soldier. 
 
AUGUST, SARDONYX, Felicity. 
 
 But with the diamond's tooth, whose bite is hard, 
 Gnaw to the oynx base down thro the sard 
 (A single stone, and yet two-colored) lo, 
 In clear relief looks up the rare stone cameo. 
 So, based on Happiness, thro Self-denials, see ; 
 The August face of fair Felicity ! 
 
 "Let furrow, and each line, and angle show ; 
 
 2 Mine was an harsh experience, let my Son 
 
 Know each line, with its cost, to understand 
 The Father's face he wears upon his hand !" 
 
 The cameo face. 
 
 3- 
 
 When, lo, deep sunken on his shield. 
 And there inlaid with rarest art. 
 He read the legend long forgot, 
 "God healeth but with Heart-to-Heart." 
 
 The burning wound. 
 
 5- 
 
 6- 
 
 7- 
 
 The fittest vantage ground by Man possessed 
 Is where Endeavor stands to do his best. 
 
 The advantage of endurance. 
 
 — Came a Youth to Carara, Ambition 
 Looked thro the clear blue of his eye, 
 As the Peaks of the marble Mountains, 
 Sun tipped, pierced the blue of the sk}'-. 
 
 The challenge of Art. 
 
 Thro constant suffering the clear-cut face 
 
 Of Patience looked from hers. Who saw it, fain 
 
 Must needs felicitate an inborn Grace 
 
 Which from Self-loss could get such soulful Gain! 
 
 Patience exemplified. 
 
 It is unnatural to be satisfied, 
 All but unmanly to rest with Content. 
 Roused Energies, oft Restlessness, with Strife, 
 Dissatisfactions — All add Power to Life ! 
 
 Endeavor^ s unrest. 
 
AUGUST, SARDONYX, Felkity. 
 
 What feeds, nor warms is of fictitious worth, 
 
 « Save Excellence, whose price appreciates ; 
 
 For this involves both Trial, Truth, and Time, 
 
 Three T's with which Right Effort needs must rhyme ! 
 
 Life's three T's. 
 
 With First to have, why take at Second hand? 
 9 — With power for Great things why put up with Small ? 
 With large Desire, why should Life be content 
 With less Endeavor, and thereto consent ! 
 
 Living Small among Large lives. 
 
 10- 
 
 "I am the child of Circumstance myself," 
 The Prince said, thinking that it sounded well. 
 Old Thrace wheeled quickly with an angry glance, 
 "Yet we are father of your Circumstance !" 
 
 By force of circumstance. 
 
 She thought but Truth. True as herself, 
 
 II With Hope her Heart was rife. 
 
 Hers was the fullness of a large belief 
 In the Truthfulness of Life ! 
 
 The hopeful Heart. 
 
 One's Self-Denials are the doors thro which 
 
 12 He enters on Life's rare Felicities, 
 
 Where little is worth having, save at price, 
 And purchase of some great Self-Sacrifice ! 
 
 Life's felicities. 
 
 Too open he to hide a Thought. 
 
 13 — Nor yet, could he disguise 
 Emotion, or could he conceal, 
 Persuade, or compromise ! 
 
 Manlius Torquatus . 
 
 Work completed, then he slept. 
 
 14— Which is all m.y tale. A riddle? 
 
 No, but some folks tread Life's maze 
 Without keeping step to fiddle ! 
 
 Results. 
 
15- 
 
 16- 
 
 AUGUST, SARDONYX, Felicity. 
 
 Happy the man who masters Circumstance, 
 Nor serves it as its creature, as bond slave ; 
 Or bent thereby, but who himself may bend 
 The happenings of Life unto his end ! 
 
 Mastering Circumstance. 
 
 Long years have passed. Still God is good ! 
 
 Who has given to me enough ; 
 
 And T yet am weaving behind the Town, 
 
 For the neighbors, my Kersey-Stuft". 
 
 Of which, they tell me it is all wool, 
 
 While each yard is more than full ! 
 
 The. iveaver of Kersey-Stuff. 
 
 'Twas a great big thought which held him up, 
 
 Yj While it filled his Soul with awe, 
 
 And the deeper his depths, so strange, so strange, 
 The clearer the Stars he saw ! 
 
 Finding his way to the Stars, 
 
 How may I recompense the help, 
 Great debt I owe to you? 
 
 |Q "You owe me nothing, but to those 
 
 Who need a Friend, God only knows 
 How much a Man may do !" 
 
 Pass it alonsr! 
 
 19- 
 
 Griefland, at first view, seems a vale 
 Of deepest shadows. When, a ray. 
 And then a radiance floods with light 
 To show the Vale of Grief may be an height ! 
 
 The blessed Land of Grief. 
 
 Who fain would rear a son to usefulness, 
 
 2A Or daughter of rare parts, and womanly, 
 
 Should bear in mind the natural law, perforce, 
 A stream can rise no higher than its source ! 
 
 Example the best parent. 
 
 21 — Their children are the parents of wise men. 
 
22- 
 
 AUGUST, SARDONYX. Felicity. 
 
 Some good men moan their lives of uselessness ! 
 As if God made a man of no account 
 In His own image, or that He could make 
 Of Human Nature, a divine mistake ! 
 
 No good can be useless. 
 
 One said, "For such a trifling loss 
 23 Why need it so appall?" 
 
 Until he was appalled to learn 
 That this little was his all ! 
 
 Tho little, his all. 
 
 lAr- 
 
 25- 
 
 Perpetual Motion, Airships and the Poles 
 Form but a trinity of great ideas 
 Which matters less be they not all achieved. 
 Than if by stout Hearts they have been believed ! 
 
 Life' s large ideas. 
 
 Life is felicitous to him alone 
 
 Who lives his Love, to love Life as he lives ; 
 
 Nor shirks its shove, or seeks the World's caress. 
 
 Who hugs not, but imparts his Happiness. 
 
 Whom Life felicitates. 
 
 We all, dear, sweet Evangel, are thy priests 
 
 yc Ordained by laying on of Christ's own hands. 
 
 Our Parish is the Fireside, and the Home, 
 Or, where'er men faint, and weary grow. 
 
 The evangel of Help. 
 
 The beauties of a Life do e'er attract ; 
 27^ The sweets of Life come ever from kind act ; 
 The harmonies of Life always inspire 
 The actions of a Life to something higher ! 
 
 Life is worth living! 
 
 28- 
 
 Health, Light, Love with Aspiration ; 
 Given these, one may endure 
 All the frowns of evil Fortune 
 Yet, at sixty, not be poor ! 
 
 Life at sixty. 
 
29- 
 
 31- 
 
 AUGUST, SARDONYX, Felicity. 
 
 Full content, with Disappointment, 
 Miserably happ3n And 
 With no real fears, yet scareing 
 At mere footprints in Life's sand ! 
 
 Baptism River. 
 
 The Wiseman said : "A nice observance gives 
 
 OQ A just conception, and, what thus conceived. 
 
 In mind or body, must bring forth, indeed. 
 By birthright, living of superior breed ! 
 
 Nice punctiliousness. 
 
 — When, I heard a loud burst, a glad chorus of song — 
 
 And then I beheld a bright Angelic throng — 
 
 As balmy as Springtime the air — 
 
 Now I learned, as I looked, Death to some was as night — 
 
 While to others a bright morning pathway of light 
 
 Leading upward from Vanity Fair ! 
 
 A vision of Life. 
 
3- 
 
 4- 
 
 SEPTEMBER, SAPPHIRE, Wisdom. 
 
 A crystal based like common clay, 
 
 The Sapphire, of cerulean blue, 
 
 Yet clear as a September's day. 
 
 Its gem. The Alonth of fruitage ; too, 
 
 It symbols Wisdom. Therefore, who are wise, 
 
 Tho grown from Earth, are fruited from the Skies ! 
 
 I prayed Thee to pull down where I upreared, 
 Should I build wrong. Did I to Folly fill. 
 Or of Presumption, or with Pride, Life's cup, 
 I prayed Thee, Lord, its contents all to spill. 
 Now, what I have of Manhood, or of Grain, 
 I had it rising from a bed of Pain ! 
 
 The prayer of Wisdom. 
 
 Who would have "Wiseman" carved upon his tomb 
 Must live his life in being called a Fool ! 
 
 The price of epitaphs . 
 
 "Where shall I find thee in my time of need?" 
 Asked Mind of Wisdom. Who made this reply. 
 "Your need will be where Folly does abound, 
 Face thou from it, lo, there will I be found !" 
 
 Where to find Wisdom. 
 
 One called a Wiseman, "Master." When he smiled, 
 5 — "I cannot make your bread, yet may, at least, 
 With homely maxims, mix you rising yeast!" 
 
 Mixing maxims for yeast. 
 
 Intensest feeling lacks expression most: 
 
 , A quick brain oft is slowest in its speech. 
 
 "The gift of tongues" prates Knowledge in his school 
 Where tongue-tied Wisdom stutters like a fool ! 
 
 Tongue-tied Wisdom. 
 
 My Father! to my Soul new life he brought, 
 
 7 My Brother! for together had we wrought; 
 
 Our Teacher! whose example Wisdom taught. 
 
 Father St. Jean. 
 
10- 
 
 11- 
 
 12- 
 
 13- 
 
 SEPTEMBER, SAPPHIRE, Wisdom. 
 
 The flush, with sweat, shows the red blood of Brawn, 
 While Fibre comes at cost of Effort spent. 
 And Strength from Burden-bearing. Thought to seam, 
 Or channel brow shows a great depth of stream ! 
 
 IV/iai shapes Manhood. 
 
 Man would stride firmer did he fear no slip, 
 
 And might climb higher, not afraid to fall. 
 
 Rash, dauntless Folly oftentimes attains 
 
 What cautious Wisdom strives for with great pains ! 
 
 Preventive Fear. 
 
 "A boon I pray thee ! Hold thy glass, 
 
 Lest, with its sands, my Beauty pass." 
 
 "Nay, hold thy Cheer, thy Faith, kind Heart 
 
 And from thee Beauty cannot part, 
 
 But add perfection to thy Prime." 
 
 She smiled, "God helping — Father Time!" 
 
 How Beauty holds her own. 
 
 To this wise man, each victory of his Soul 
 Was a departure, not its final goal. 
 
 Father St. Jean. 
 
 Wise men carefully develope 
 What Life's wiser hold as best ; 
 While his wisest drop but Seedthoughts 
 WisdQm only to suggest. 
 
 Life at sixty. 
 
 Why birthday maxims ? Nothing but a task 
 For those to work at who such questions ask ! 
 
 Birthday maxims. 
 
 A Friend, of all my other friends, my best! 
 A Friend, of all my Friendship full possessed: 
 Friend of my Joy and Sorrow, Health and Pain, 
 14 — Friend in my Losses more than in my Gain. 
 Dear Friend, on thee I did the most depend, 
 Whose friendly Life did mine the most befriend ! 
 
 Sonnets t» a Saint. 
 
SEPTEMBER, SAPPHIRE, Wisdom. 
 
 Wisdom, most wise, is often ig^norant ; 
 
 25 Yet Ignorance is at his wisest, when 
 
 He will not hire Experience at the price 
 Of winning knowledge at the cost of Vice ! 
 
 When Ignorance is wise. 
 
 Tomorrow we may wisely ask ; 
 15 — Tomorrow we may listen. Wait ! 
 
 Tomorrow we may learn to walk God's way; 
 Tomorrow, Lord, Forgive our blind Today! 
 
 The blessed Land of Grief. 
 
 17- 
 
 Ten thousand things a man may know, 
 To learn ten thousand more, 
 And then not know one tenth as much 
 As he thought he knew before ! 
 
 Something worth knowing. 
 
 In life, is nought so old as Wisdom, or 
 
 1Q Is there so new in Life, as something wise. 
 
 Still, few know Wisdom when they see her, and 
 Still fewer can her teachings understand ! 
 
 Unrecognized Wisdom. 
 
 19- 
 
 A Wiseman said, "When once a fool will learn 
 My weathers and my language, and, despite 
 The first will hear the second ; then, in my school 
 I can learn from, and teach that sort of fool ! 
 
 A wise fna?i^ s moods. 
 
 Wisdom must stand, when Knowledge ever sits ; 
 
 20 Crass Pedantry reclines ; weak Folly needs must lean, 
 
 While Ignorance sprawls prone ! So much depends 
 On Mind's position to attain her ends. 
 
 The attitude of the mind. 
 
 A kindly Simple softly stroked its ears 
 21 — To gain the liking of a vicious mule ; 
 
 Which, nodding, said, "Poor simple fool alas! 
 And yet he knows the wise end of an ass !" 
 
 A fooVs Wisdom. 
 
22- 
 
 SEPTEMBER, SAPPHIRE, Wisdom. 
 
 Hence, in mind interpretation. 
 Who with Life makes least mistakes 
 Is whose point of view is largest, 
 And the most allowance makes. 
 
 Life ai sixty. 
 
 Life has no depth, or falling lower than from 
 Man's faith \x\ God, Himself, and Fellow kind, 
 Or hath it heights, or rising higher than 
 The hopeful helping of his fellow Man ! 
 
 FaiW s trinity. 
 
 How long should Wisdom sleep? A Sage was asked, 
 Who figured on his tablet, and replied, 
 "Wisdom in sleep, as many hours may take, 
 Year in and out, as Folly spends awake." 
 
 That question of sleep. 
 
 Most seek for Wisdom, yet turn when she comes ; 
 They coax her to receive her with a frown. 
 And then to wonder, with a fool's surprise. 
 Just why it is that so few men are wise ! 
 
 Coaxing Wisdom with a frown. 
 
 A Dacian frog, the wisest of his time, 
 When asked the secret of his wise old age? 
 Said, "Father taught me I should never try 
 To jump beyond the most convenient fly!" 
 
 The wise frog of Dacia. 
 
 The pioneer of Wisdom is the fool ; 
 
 So Falsehood goes before the coming Truth 
 
 The gyves, the lash of cruel tyranny 
 
 Do most conduce to set slaved People free. 
 
 Worth considering. 
 
 In his age God said. "Come down and die!" 
 When he cried out from his steeple, 
 "Where art thou. Lord?" And the Lord replied, 
 "Down here among my People !" 
 
 The Parish Priest of Austerite. 
 
SEPTEMBER, vSAPPHIRE, Wisdom. 
 
 September days. 
 
 Perfect days may come in June 
 29 — But the splendid ones, remember, 
 Days of purple, days of gold, 
 Come by waiting till September! 
 
 They'd hitched their wagon to a star 
 30 — (By Emerson's advice) and tarried 
 Till (Lowell's) perfect day in June 
 When cultured lovers do get married. 
 
 Meanwhile they transcendentalized — 
 Till, on that perfect day in June, 
 The bank suspended payment, and 
 Left them without a pickayune ! 
 
 "Noblesse oblige, we'll wait !" 
 In her upright script, which pleased him — 
 "Don't write downwards !"' Then she Catoed, 
 Platoed, and Euripidesed him ! 
 
 Oh ! these wagons to the stars, 
 
 Aren't they long in getting started? 
 
 Three years, six years, nine 3'^ears, twelve years! 
 
 Since this cultured pair were parted. 
 
 So, at length, uprose their star, 
 
 Lo! that wagon where the)'-'d hitched it 
 
 Now was their triumphal car, 
 
 And the tune as first they pitched it. 
 
 Now they sang as they rode 'round 
 Nodding to their rich relations ; 
 Visiting the Nobs and Dons 
 In Life's higher Constellations ! 
 
 September days. 
 
3- 
 
 5- 
 
 OCTOBER, OPAL, Hope. 
 
 As the October skies seem to ensphere, 
 
 In one, the several months of all the Year; 
 
 As, in its gem, the Opal, do we find, 
 
 Tn one, the glamor — sheen of all combined ; 
 
 So. too, each Virtue, and each Grace finds scope 
 
 Within the Gift of opalescent Hope. 
 
 Of all the potent factors of Success 
 Grim Perseverence holds the chiefest place, 
 Without which large Ability may grope, 
 While with it fixed Endeavor must have Hope. 
 
 Hope goes with Perseverence, 
 
 The Heights of Hope the Lord God raised 
 That all Mankind might share 
 Their beautiful scoj^e with Him. while Man. 
 With Doubt, digged the Depths of Despair. 
 
 The Ancient City of Man. 
 
 Life might be happy, if Man did not fear 
 From bitter Disappointment further on ; 
 And might be miserable, with Doubt to mope 
 Among its shadows, were it not for Hope. 
 
 What Life might be. 
 
 In vain horizon of Man's hopes to reach 
 
 While each height climbed but gives him further view. 
 
 In chief attainments he sees little gained. 
 
 As each one had, sees others unattained. 
 
 Endeavor'' s Horizon, 
 
 There is one instinct, and one only, which 
 Transcends all Reason, in one Grace unites 
 " God, Man, and Creatures as no Reason could, 
 Maternal Instinct, known as "Motherhood." 
 
 The maternal instinct. 
 
 Rut few of Man's attainments are attained 
 ' As he had hoped for. Still, worth-while, was gained! 
 
 Ten ways to Attain. 
 
OCTOBER, OPAL, Hope. 
 
 An habitation with a Character; 
 
 jj A structure not yet old, but were you told 
 
 "Their Fathers built it," you must needs reply, 
 "It looks as if had by Inheritance." 
 
 The building oj Character. 
 
 A disappointment sours a little Soul. 
 9 — Or shrivels, to embitter, most its fruit ; 
 
 T.,arge Hearts it sweetens. Effort it upstirs. 
 Frees Manly traits, as frost, ripe nuts from burrs. 
 
 Ennobling disappointment. 
 
 "I takes a turn, to feel the rope 
 
 J0 Which stiffens, while it gives me hope, 
 
 To feel I'm lashed agin the Avhcel, 
 Tight lashed agin her wheel." 
 
 The Ship oJ Life. 
 
 For fear of hawks it hid itself by day, 
 
 y\ Afraid of owls its heart beat fast all night. 
 
 Yet neither came. Poor bird, whose fearing cost 
 The song, and pleasure of its Summer lost! 
 
 The fearing lark. 
 
 There is no Mentor like true Self-Respect, 
 
 12 Which cannot be deceived tho one try hard. 
 
 A man may bind his Conscience ; Self-Respect, 
 Despite ill usage, fain would stand erect. 
 
 An erect Self Respect. 
 
 13- 
 
 14- 
 
 Contentment at sun-rising is a Vice, 
 Tho it be virtuous with the sun gone down ; 
 One should not stake much on it in a race, 
 While in defeat 'tis altogether base ! 
 
 His hands were clean, his life was pure. 
 He dressed in homespun cloth 
 To serve his Country, and his gods. 
 While he never broke his oath ! 
 
 A vicious content . 
 
 The Roman soldier, 
 
15- 
 
 OCTOBER, OPAL, Hope. 
 
 There never dwelt in tenement of Man 
 A Soul so small it could not be enlarged, 
 To yet grow larger, when it once was backed 
 By some big-brother-soul's heroic act ! 
 
 How Souls are enlarged. 
 
 Born at one birth, and suckled at one breast. 
 Where goes the one, the other is addressed. 
 
 ■i/j .... Again, at midnight, as Hope walked alone 
 
 From out Life's darkness, now she heard a moan 
 Faith's feeble cry "I do believe ! yet grope" 
 Quick flashed a ray from his sweet sister Hope. 
 
 Hope lighting Faith. 
 
 |- There is no honest Purpose comes to nought, 
 
 Or Effort had without good left behind. 
 
 Honest Effort. 
 
 18- 
 
 — Comes a day when early Springtime 
 Blossoms with her first-blown rose. 
 — Comes a day in later Autumn 
 When his last, and best one blows ! 
 
 Li/e at sixty. 
 
 For want of right Perspective, Life at times 
 
 Y^ Looks ill, things seem awry, and all displaced, 
 
 Relations disproportionate, untrue 
 
 All from not choosing its right point of view. 
 
 Lifers point of view. 
 
 20- 
 
 There is a great responsibility 
 Attached to wearing an illustrious name. 
 
 A good name means much. 
 
 The old man, waiting, saw a wondrous sight; 
 His locks, and flowing beard, were now snow-white ! 
 The Ancient bowed with joy. The gods said, "Nay, 
 21 Hold up your head that all men bow to you, 
 
 To say, with Truth, when your white locks they scan, 
 'This, the gods' latest, yet best gift to Man' !" 
 
 Ebenezer Brewer. 
 
OCTOBER, OPAL, Hope. 
 
 Aye, sad, alas ! yet no less true, 
 
 22 — From the sun-tipped Trl eights of Hope 
 Descent is had to the Depths of Despair 
 By the way of Despondency Slope. 
 
 The ancient City oj Man. 
 
 Today is plastic, may be moulded, shaped; 
 
 23 — While Yesterday is fixed. Tomorrow void. 
 For ills once passed, too late for T.ife to cope, 
 For Future good one can plan for, with Hope. 
 
 The plastic present. 
 
 When is Man's wisdom ripe? One asked a Sage, 
 
 24 — \\\\o touched his radish to the salt, and said, 
 '"Eight days ago this was not large enough. 
 In eight days more it will be stringy, tough !" 
 
 Ripening Wisdom. 
 
 Of Life's past ills, or pleasures yet to come ; 
 
 25 — Of all old Disappointments, or new Hopes ; 
 
 Of all Mankind, this truth must stand confessed. 
 Not what we hope for, but what is. is best ! 
 
 Lifers vain hopes. 
 
 Warm-Heartedness, Oh Christian Women, 
 
 2^ Is more needed than much art 
 
 In doing! If not heal Life's paining, 
 
 You may lessen, somewhat, its sore burning smart! 
 
 Woman's Opportunity. 
 
 Some fruits do ripen early, others late, 
 
 27 — (Tho none may ripen twice) then comes decay. 
 As for Ivife's Ijest achievements, few careers 
 Strike twelve on either side of fifty years! 
 
 Pe-w excel both sides of fifty. 
 
 A sleepy Crane once asked an Eagle why 
 
 28 — He had such awful talons, beak, and will? 
 Who made reply. "We eagles do not beg, 
 
 Or hope for Luck, while standing on one leg!" 
 
 The Eagle and the Crane. 
 
29- 
 
 30- 
 
 OCTOBER, OPAL. Hope. 
 
 Who seeks Prosperity two purses needs, 
 The one to speed, and one to fetch him back ; 
 For most men in their searchings for her find 
 What they thought was before, they left behind. 
 
 Coming back to Prosperity. 
 
 Without the hopes of ITeaven, Man might be good, 
 For very good's sake, which is good enough. 
 And yet. to make most men do fairly well 
 They needs must have a lively fear of Hell ! 
 
 Fear as a /actor. 
 
 A scholar came next, and his head was bent low 
 While his thin hands were crossed on his breast. 
 ''Sir! what have you learned in your studies today?" 
 31 — "I have learned that Life's least was its best; 
 
 To unlearn what I learned, most my teachers were wrong, 
 I have learned to unlearn — " and he hurried along, 
 "Most they taught me in Vanity Fair!" 
 
 A Vision of Life. 
 
NOVEMBER, TOPAZ, Fidelity. 
 
 November Nature spreads for man and beast 
 
 Her largess at its largest, as she throws an haze 
 
 Of Indian Summer at her annual feast. 
 
 To which all come with thankfulness to praise 
 
 The God of Nature; in whose diadem, 
 
 Type of fidelit3% shines Topaz as her gem. 
 
 Who seeks Fidelity need not go far, 
 
 2 — Or would be led ])y her, ma}^ gird his loins 
 Upon the instant : to demur, or wait 
 
 For questioning, alas ! may make him late. 
 
 Questioning Fidelity. 
 
 Of all things binding is !^Ianhood"s Freewill. 
 
 3 — Nor ever he so free as when fast bound 
 By thongs of stern Fidelity to Right 
 Whose lash each dereliction will requite. 
 
 Bound by Freewill. 
 
 Temptation rarely follows but when led ; 
 
 4 — And seldom comes until it has been called. 
 Toying Temptation, fondling low Desires, 
 Is blowing up, not blowing out Sin's fires ! 
 
 Leading Temptation. 
 
 A word may uplift, or a word may depress one ; 
 
 5 — Words lead to action, while great men are stirred, 
 Life's lesser, and weaker ones often are sodden 
 For the uprising leaven contained in one word. 
 
 Word leaven. 
 
 He dwelt so much on a righteous death 
 
 6 — That his preachments often led one 
 To believe God cared far less, indeed, 
 For a live man than a dead one! 
 
 The parish Priest of Austerite. 
 
 7 — A long straight line when it begins to bend 
 Is but a crooked line with one straight end ! 
 
 A crooked life. 
 
NOVEMBER, TOPAZ, Fidelity. 
 
 To lead a pious life while playing knave, 
 
 Q To be religious with no reasoning sense ; 
 
 Or creed one's self on foolish credence, can 
 Commend itself to neither God nor Man. 
 
 Mere faith is not Fidelity. 
 
 The test of Manhood is to weight it down 
 
 q With obligations, balancing the scales; 
 
 Then, if it turn, with but an hair, we see 
 The perfect niceness of Fidelity. 
 
 How nice scales are tested. 
 
 They there, turned loose on me such beasts 
 As hurts me to but name: 
 10— What tho I put them all to rout, 
 So vile they were ! to think about 
 I hang my head with shame! 
 
 Fighting with beasts at Ephesus. 
 
 "Of twelve Temptations I have had today, 
 
 yi Two came at call, and by permission two ; 
 
 One forced itself, and one was on me pressed, 
 While two I fled, I followed all the rest !" 
 
 An Honest Confession. 
 
 Oh ! the freezing blasts which blow 
 On poor Human Nature naked; 
 l"* Oh ! the noxious weeds that grow 
 In the fields of Man's Fidelity 
 How little do we know ! 
 
 Sergeant Grey. 
 
 The World is not so rich, Young Man, or strong, 
 13_ That it can buy, or bind you with its thong. 
 
 The World can't make, or mar a man with wrong! 
 
 The World's limitations. 
 
 14- 
 
 Mere good-enough is good-for-nothing, and 
 Who builds on it, but edifices on sand. 
 
 Little good in good enough. 
 
15- 
 
 NOVExMBER, TOPAZ, Fidelity. 
 
 There is a Faith which is no more than Fear ; 
 There is right Doing that will lay all Doubt. 
 There is a Trust in Providence; and, too, 
 There is crass Folly which can Faith undo ! 
 
 Folly may undo Faith, 
 
 If half Life's Wrongs are done to set it Right, 
 
 ->. And half its Good to undo some past Wrong; 
 
 It is not just too closely Motive ask, 
 Or fair to nut Intention to the task. 
 
 Quesiiojiing Motive or Ifitent. 
 
 Ye Souls who walk Life's battlements 
 Pray tell us what ye see, 
 1' For that }e walk uprightly, 
 Is it nearer God ye be? 
 
 Sergeant Grey. 
 
 18- 
 
 19- 
 
 A Mind which follows Aspiration fain 
 Must leave behind a lot of worldly truck ; 
 So he who sails the Seas new Worlds to find 
 ]\Iust lea\'e a lot of paying freight behind. 
 
 Aspiration cannot be hired. 
 
 Age may wear a face of sunshine 
 In Life's chill November; must! 
 Be the frowns of Living fronted 
 With a Providential trust. 
 
 Life at sixty. 
 
 For she loomed big, where others looked small ; 
 Was strong, where others seemed weak. 
 
 20 Thus she held her own till she came to go. 
 
 And then ; God rest her soul ! 
 
 If twenty big men fell into her grave 
 
 It wouldn't half fill the hole! 
 
 Her large life. 
 
 Of Gifts, in giving, that which highest ranks 
 ■^^ Is Gratitude, the Grace of giving thanks. 
 
 Thanksgiving as a Gift. 
 
NOVEMBER, TOPAZ, Fidelity. 
 
 Upon Life's hilltops we may see 
 With clearer eye 
 22 Where in its lower valleys most 
 Our sweet possessions lie ! 
 
 Lift^s nearer blessings. 
 
 23- 
 
 Her's was a Motherhood, so larc^e, it threw 
 Her mothering mantle over all, nor knew 
 Between her own and others, save but in degree, 
 To every Child-need she proved motherly. 
 
 The Mantle of Motherhood. 
 
 Who lays a plate at his Thanksgiving feast, 
 
 24 And giveth thanks for nothing l)ut his own, 
 
 To make none others thankful but himself; 
 His thankfulness will hardly reach the Throne ! 
 
 7'hanksgi7ii)ig. 
 
 25- 
 
 26- 
 
 Where nine men plan, scarce one will carry out ; 
 Where nine men carry out, but one completes ; 
 Where nine men reach completion, hardly one 
 Will add Perfection to a work well done. 
 
 A ccomplished finishing. 
 
 There is no keener happiness in life 
 Than satisfaction with Accomplishment, 
 Which, always does, and ever will attend 
 On full attainment of some worthy end. 
 
 A ccomplishment. 
 
 And who bade us to rate 
 Necessity? What did the Master teach? 
 27 He taught us, to the Poor, we were to give. 
 Mow rarely did He deal in adjective! 
 
 If God gave but to Worthiness. 
 
 28- 
 
 Sat the parish Church of Austerite, 
 
 With Dives, at Christ's table, 
 
 W^ith no seat for Him who was giving thanks, 
 
 With Lazarus, in the stable! 
 
 In the parish church of Austerite. 
 
NOVEMBER, TOPAZ, FideHty. 
 
 As her little blue hands were clutching the shawl, 
 
 While the wind blew cold and strong ; 
 
 I could not help wishing, as you have wished 
 
 So often, good People all. 
 
 That Povert3'''s parcels need not to be \\ rapped 
 
 In packages quite so small ! 
 
 Poverty parcels. 
 
 Say! where did you come from, cold Northwind? 
 "I have come from o'er City and moor 
 Right past the houses of they who were rich 
 And into the homes of the poor." 
 
 And what did you hear while passing, Northwind? 
 "The rich Mother say, 'To be sure,' 
 As she gave hers an hug. 'We are all warm and snug. 
 But a sigh from the Mothers of poor." 
 
 And what did you see on your travels, Northwind? 
 "I saw the rich people procure 
 Their bins full of coal against all their needs, 
 And the empty sheds of the poor." 
 
 And what did you say on your wa3^ Northwind? 
 "I whispered the rich folks, 'S-e-c-u-r-e!' 
 Thro their closed fast doors, but rattled, and hurled 
 Thro the cracks of the poor, 'E-n-d-u-r-e' !" 
 
 And what did you do, as you blew, Northwind, 
 And blustered o'er City and moor? 
 "I hope that I touched some rich folks' hearts, 
 But am sure that I frightened the poor!" 
 
DECEMBER, TURQUOISE, Success. 
 
 Save one, no gem is of intrinsic worth; 
 No more are Months but as each does attend, 
 One on the other, to some fruitful end. 
 1 — So, too, each Grace and Virtue must give birth 
 To others, Life to fructify and bless 
 And, like December's gem, the Turquoise, 
 Type the Year's success ! 
 
 Defeat makes more successful than Success ; 
 2_ The wise owe most to their own ignorance. 
 Worth, once fallen, has begun to rise; 
 When Wit knows nothing, she is halfway wise ! 
 
 T/ie genesis of Success. 
 
 One foot before the other falling marks 
 
 3 — Progression forward. First the fallen seed ; 
 Then falling husk precedes the downward root. 
 Then, falling flower, when, lo, the falling fruit! 
 
 Rise comes by falling. 
 
 Why not hold growth as something won? 
 
 4 — There lies perfection in the shoot, 
 
 As marked as in the bud, the flower, or fruit. 
 
 Growth as a success. 
 
 Most men are quick to ask the reason, why? 
 
 5 While more are slow to reason out the, how? 
 
 The first could tell them why they failed in deed, 
 The second might tell them how to best succeed ! 
 
 Efforf s whys and hows. 
 
 6- 
 
 Life means to do, surmount, and overcome. 
 And who does most of this makes most of Life. 
 Who fails nine times, then one success, may boast 
 Of having helped nine tenths of his kind the most! 
 
 Life lies in overcoming^ 
 
 y Life's large achievements are consecutive, 
 
 Each one an output of the one before. 
 
 Consecutive growth^ 
 
DECEMBER, TURQUOISE, Success. 
 
 When December, naughty neighbor, 
 
 a Shot his love-ray, Nature, nice, 
 
 In her wifely wisdom, coyly 
 Caught it on a shield of ice ! 
 
 December love. 
 
 Wealth may be gained, or yet be lost, by Chance! 
 9 — Not so the steady gain of Mind and Heart ; 
 This comes b}'" growth sustained, consecutive 
 Which Perseverance, in the end, does give. 
 
 Sustained growth , 
 
 A worthy artist, trembling, does serve 
 
 1 A A Jealous mistress between Hope and Fear ; 
 
 To doubt her smiles, while he believes her frown ; 
 One lifts him little, while one casts him down. 
 
 Distrusting Attainment . 
 
 Could we see others as we see ourselves, 
 
 1^ And heft their burdens, as we lift our owai ; 
 
 We might show more forbearance, while we must 
 In all our judgments be more justly Just. 
 
 The basis of just judgment . 
 
 It is less burdens, more ill-balanced cares 
 
 J2 Which chafe so with their shifting, Life so wear; 
 
 One can bear easier added self-denial, 
 
 Or two Cares, steadier, than one petty trial. 
 
 More weighty steadier gait. 
 
 One stumbles on full more than he attains ; 
 
 13 — While every beggar has his lucky-day; 
 
 So, happy he who well conserves such day, 
 To make the most of that thrown in his way ! 
 
 Why Fortune is blind. 
 
 "We know our weakness, let us learn our strength ! 
 
 14 — My Brother's brow is false-crowned, mine is bare; 
 My non-success means gristle, brawn and bone !" 
 The next campaign won the Usurper's throne. 
 
 The Realm of Non-Success. 
 
15- 
 
 DECEMBER, TURQUOISE, Success. 
 
 A Life, in passing, said to Death. "Strike quick ! 
 
 Why do you Hnger. while I am in haste?" 
 
 "What do you mean ?" asked Death, "Your work is done." 
 
 "Nay, nay! my life-work is but just begun!" 
 
 Death begins so7ne work. 
 
 While great success oft conies by hanging on 
 
 15 With grim determination, and brute force: 
 
 As often, does successful Effort show 
 It was achieved, by wisely letting go! 
 
 Success/ui letting go. 
 
 Mere Excellence is but a starting point, 
 
 YJ To breathe, push back the hair, regird the loins 
 
 And, get into position for a better run 
 
 For something better than has yet been done! 
 
 Success as a starting point. 
 
 "Which has most grace of all thy gracious Three, 
 Or Gifts the greatest in thy hour of need ; 
 
 Ig Strong Fortitude, good Patience, or sweet Sympathy?" 
 
 Was asked of Suffering. When she sighing said, 
 "My sisters are so much, so very much to me 
 I think of them as one, and not as three !" 
 
 The divine Sisterhood, 
 
 No man correctly of his life may judge, 
 
 1^ Or rightly estimate his handiw^ork; 
 
 For that his every action, with a change of mood. 
 Assumes before him a new attitude. 
 
 No man can judge of his own life. 
 
 .j/v A voice which speaks at times to every Soul, 
 
 "Outdo your fellows, and yourself excel!" 
 
 The Voice of Excellence , 
 
 21 
 
 How help the World? Help it by living; 
 Teach it truth by being true. 
 Stoop not that you may uplift men, 
 Stand ! when they will rise to you. 
 
 Songs of Help. 
 
DECEMBER, TURQUOISE, Success. 
 
 One asked an old man what he thought of Age. 
 
 jr. "Of Age as Age, 1 rarely ever think. 
 
 Of Wisdom's age I can with profit learn, 
 While Folly's age gives me but small concern !" 
 
 Thoughts of Age. 
 
 Once Death stood hitherside his goal, when Life 
 
 23 Now warned him otf. "You scare the runners!" "Nay," 
 
 Death made reply, *'I may the timid scare. 
 While brave r.ien 1 incite the more to dare!" 
 
 Death as an incentive . 
 
 "Defeat bears brotherhood of Aim and End ; 
 24_ Success breeds Isolation and Distrust. 
 Who rides in triumph, adulation drinks, 
 Who walks in chains, holds down his head, and thinks!" 
 
 The Realm of Non-Success. 
 
 If we should live unselfishly, and help, 
 Show kindness, and forbear, each morn 
 
 25 Would usher in for us a Christmas Day. 
 
 To bring to us a Christ new-born. 
 And, seeking not to rise, but lift. 
 Each opportunity would prove a gift. 
 
 Christmas. 
 
 While bitter Disappointm.ent often goes 
 
 yc With sore Defeat, full more of bitterness, 
 
 With Disappointnient, just as often owes 
 Both call, and coming to a great Success! 
 
 The disappointment of Success. 
 
 Each lad has the great gift of prophecy. 
 27__ He knows astrologies, interprets dreams, 
 Providing they are fashioned of the stuff 
 A Youth's dream should be made of, sand and grit! 
 
 The Soap Baron's secret. 
 
 28- 
 
 VVho never saw their parents give, 
 With Selfishness are like to live. 
 
 Parental selfishness. 
 
DECEMBER, TURQUOISE, Success. 
 
 Who can see Justice at a single glance 
 
 yn Has not to look again to act thereon ; 
 
 But, at first look, who sees her not aright 
 Will scarce discern her with a second sight. 
 
 Instinctive Justice. 
 
 Who looks back on the last da3'^s of the Year 
 
 jA With large composure, and with small regret 
 
 Is not the one to greet the coming Year 
 As if from it he nothing had to fear. 
 
 The old and new Years. 
 
 31- 
 
 "Year to som.e I proved of Sorrow, 
 Soon their sorrows will be o'er; 
 Year to others I brought Pleasure, 
 Soon their joys will be no more." 
 Said the old Year who lay passing. 
 With the new Year at the door. 
 
 L. Envoi. 
 
LE JL '03 
 
 ^ 
 
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