king
that it was at least some serious surgical case, we at once ordered
"Down sail and heave her to," annoying though it was to have the
trouble and delay. When at last she was alongside, a solitary,
white-haired old man climbed with much difficulty over our rail.
"Good-day. What's the trouble? We are in a hurry." The old man most
courteously doffed his cap, and stood holding it in his hand. "I
wanted to ask you, Doctor," he said slowly, "if you had any books
which you could lend me. We can't get anything to read here." An angry
reply almost escaped my lips for delaying a steamer for such a
purpose. But a strange feeling of humiliation replaced it almost
immediately. Which is really charity--skilfully to remove his injured
leg, if he had one, or to afford him the pleasure and profit of a good
book? Both services were just as far from his reach without our help.

"Haven't you got any books?"

"Yes, Doctor, I've got two, but I've read them through and through
long ago."

"What kind are they?"

"One is the 'Works of Josephus,'" he answered, "and the other is
'Plutarch's Lives.'"

I thought that I had discovered the first man who could honestly and
truthfully say that he would prefer for his own library the "best
hundred books," selected by Mr. Ruskin and Dr. Eliot, without even so
much as a sigh for the "ten best sellers."

He was soon bounding away over the seas in his little craft, the happy
possessor of one of our moving libraries, containing some fifty books,
ranging from Henty's stories to discarded tomes from theological
libraries.

Each year the hospital ship moves these library boxes one more stage
along the coast. As there are some seventy-five of them, they thus
last the natural life of books, since we have only rarely enjoyed the
help of a trained librarian enabling us to make the most use of these
always welcome assets for our work. Later, some librarian friends from
Brooklyn, chief among whom was Miss Marion Cutter, came down to help
us; but our inability to have continuity when the ladies cannot afford
to give their valuable services, has seriously handicapped the
efficiency of this branch of the work. This, however, only spells
opportunity, and when this war releases the new appreciation of
service, we feel confident that somehow we shall be able to fill the
gap, and some one will be found to come and help us again to meet this
great need.

The cooperation of teachers and librarians more than do