under the birches
which rained down on us, and there in the shadow I have fancied I
caught the flutter of her dress; I have thought I heard her startled
note of fright. And on my way home at night, at every step I have
found a recollection of her in the distant barking and the breaking
branches, as in the trembling of her hand on my arm and the kiss which
I gave her.

Once I went into the wood-hut. I saw it all as before,--the family,
the smoky interior, the little bench on which we sat,--and I asked for
something to drink, that I might see the glass her lips had touched.

"The little lady who makes such good omelettes, she isn't sick, for
sure?" asked the old woman.

Probably she saw the tears in my eyes, for she said no more, and I
came away.

And so it is that except in my heart, where she lives and is, all that
was my darling grows faint and dark and dim.

It is the law of life, but it is a cruel law. Even my poor child is
learning to forget, and when I say to him most unwillingly, "Baby
dear, do you remember how your mother did this or that?" he answers
"Yes"; but I see, alas! that he too is ceasing to remember.

Translation of Agnes Irwin.

HENRY DRUMMOND

(1851-)

[Illustration: HENRY DRUMMOND]

One of the most widely read of modern essayists, Henry Drummond, was
born at Stirling, Scotland, in 1851. Educated for the ministry, he
passed through the Universities of Edinburgh and Tuebingen, and the
Free Church Divinity Hall, and after ordination was appointed to a
mission chapel at Malta. The beauty and the historic interest of the
famous island roused in him a desire for travel, and in the intervals
of his professional work he has made semi-scientific pilgrimages to
the Rocky Mountains and to South Africa, as well as lecturing tours to
Canada, Australia, and the United States, where his addresses on
scientific, religious, and sociological subjects have attracted large
audiences.

A man of indefatigable industry, he has published many books, the most
widely read of these being 'Natural Law in the Spiritual World' a
study of psychological conditions from the point of view of the
Evolutionist. This work has passed through a large number of editions,
and been translated into French, German, Dutch, and Norwegian.
Scarcely less popular were 'The Greatest Thing in the World' (love),
and 'Pax Vobiscum.' In 1894 he published a volume called 'The Ascent
of Man,'