may darkly frown, onward to press,
And bravely do one's best.

Here's to the men who lose!
It is the vanquished's praises that I sing,
And this is the toast I choose:
"A hard-fought failure is a noble thing;
Here's to the men who lose!"

_Anonymous._

IT MAY BE

Many, many are the human struggles in which we can lend no aid. But if
we cannot help, at least we need not hinder.

It may be that you cannot stay
To lend a friendly hand to him
Who stumbles on the slippery way,
Pressed by conditions hard and grim;
It may be that you dare not heed
His call for help, because you lack
The strength to lift him, but you need
Not push him back.

It may be that he has not won
The right to hope for your regard;
He may in folly have begun
The course that he has found so hard;
It may be that your fingers bleed,
That Fortune turns a bitter frown
Upon your efforts, but you need
Not kick him down.

_S.E. Kiser._

LIFE

In life is necessarily much monotony, sameness. But our triumph may lie
in putting richness and meaning into routine that apparently lacks them.

Forenoon and afternoon and night,--Forenoon,
And afternoon, and night,--Forenoon, and--what!
The empty song repeats itself. No more?
Yea, that is Life: make this forenoon sublime,
This afternoon a psalm, this night a prayer,
And Time is conquered, and thy crown is won.

_Edward Rowland Sill._

From "Poems."

THE GRUMPY GUY

When students came, full of ambition, to the great scientist Agassiz, he
gave each a fish and told him to find out what he could about it. They
went to work and in a day or two were ready for their report. But
Agassiz didn't come round. To kill time they went to work again,
observed, dissected, conjectured, and when at the end of a fortnight
Agassiz finally appeared, they felt that their knowledge was really
exhaustive. The master's brief comment was that they had made a fair
beginning, and again he left. They then fell to in earnest and after
weeks and months of investigation declared that a fish was the most
fascinating of studies. If our interest in life fails, it is not from
material to work on. No two leaves are alike, not two human beings are
alike, and if we are discerning, the attraction of any one of them is
infinite.

The Grumpy Guy was feeling blue; the Grumpy Guy was glum;
The Grumpy Guy with baleful