How short the days we linger here:
A birth, a breath, and then--the bier!
Make merry, you and I, for when
We part we may not meet again!

What tonic is there in a frown?
You may go up and I go down,
Or I go up and you--who knows
The way that either of us goes?
Make merry! Here's a laugh, for when
We part we may not meet again!

Make merry! What of frets and fears?
There is no happiness in tears.
You tremble at the cloud and lo!
'Tis gone--and so 'tis with our woe,
Full half of it but fancied ills.
Make merry! 'Tis the gloom that kills.

Make merry! There is sunshine yet,
The gloom that promised, let's forget,
The quip and jest are on the wing,
Why sorrow when we ought to sing?
Refill the cup of joy, for then
We part and may not meet again.

A smile, a jest, a joke--alas!
We come, we wonder, and we pass.
The shadow falls; so long we rest
In graves, where is no quip or jest.
Good day! Good cheer! Good-bye! For then
We part and may not meet again!

_James W. Foley._

From "Friendly Rhymes."

MISTRESS FATE

"Faint heart never won fair lady," Mistress Fate herself should be
courted, not with feminine finesse, but with masculine courage and
aggression.

Flout her power, young man!
She is merely shrewish, scolding,--
She is plastic to your molding,
She is woman in her yielding to the fires desires fan.
Flout her power, young man!

Fight her fair, strong man!
Such a serpent love is this,--
Bitter wormwood in her kiss!
When she strikes, be nerved and ready;
Keep your gaze both bright and steady,
Chance no rapier-play, but hotly press the quarrel she began!
Fight her fair, strong man!

Gaze her down, old man!
Now no laughter may defy her,
Not a shaft of scorn come nigh her,
But she waits within the shadows, in dark shadows very near.
And her silence is your fear.
Meet her world-old eyes of warning! Gaze them down with courage! _Can
You gaze them down, old man?_

_William Rose Benet._

From "Merchants from Cathay."

SLEEP AND THE MONARCH

(FROM "2 HENRY IV.")

The great elemental blessings cannot be "cornered." Indeed they cannot
be bought at all, but are the natural property of the man whose ways of
life are such as to retain them. In this passage a disappointed and
harassed king comments