ld, and I a miser--
Not because I think you jolly,
Melancholy!
Not for that I mean to hoard you,
Keep you close and lodge and board you
As I would my sisters, brothers,
Cousins, aunts, and old grandmothers,
But that you shan't bother others
With your sniffling, snuffling folly,
Howling,
Yowling,
Melancholy.

_John Kendrick Bangs._

From "Songs of Cheer."

THE LION PATH

Admiral Dupont was explaining to Farragut his reasons for not taking his
ironclads into Charleston harbor. "You haven't given me the main reason
yet," said Farragut. "What's that?" "You didn't think you could do it."
So the man who thinks he can't pass a lion, can't. But the man who
thinks he can, can. Indeed he oftentimes finds that the lion isn't
really there at all.

I dare not!--
Look! the road is very dark--
The trees stir softly and the bushes shake,
The long grass rustles, and the darkness moves
Here! there! beyond--!
There's something crept across the road just now!
And you would have me go--?
Go _there_, through that live darkness, hideous
With stir of crouching forms that wait to kill?
Ah, _look_! See there! and there! and there again!
Great yellow, glassy eyes, close to the ground!
Look! Now the clouds are lighter I can see
The long slow lashing of the sinewy tails,
And the set quiver of strong jaws that wait--!
Go there? Not I! Who dares to go who sees
So perfectly the lions in the path?

Comes one who dares.
Afraid at first, yet bound
On such high errand as no fear could stay.
Forth goes he, with lions in his path.
And then--?
He dared a death of agony--
Outnumbered battle with the king of beasts--
Long struggles in the horror of the night--
Dared, and went forth to meet--O ye who fear!
Finding an empty road, and nothing there--
And fences, and the dusty roadside trees--
Some spitting kittens, maybe, in the grass.

_Charlotte Perkins Gilman._

From "In This Our World."

THE ANSWER

Bob Fitzsimmons lacked the physical bulk of the men he fought, was
ungainly in build and movement, and not infrequently got himself floored
in the early rounds of his contests. But many people consider him the
best fighter for his weight who ever stepped into the prize ring. Not a
favorite at first, he won the popular heart by making good. Of course he
had great natur