t their contents by a broad channel into a reservoir hard by, from
which part the watercourses that irrigate the garden. The supply thus
obtained is necessarily discontinuous, and much inferior to what a
little more skill in mechanism affords in Egypt and Syria; while the
awkward shaping and not unfrequently the ragged condition of the buckets
themselves causes half the liquid to fall back into the well before it
reaches the brim. The creaking, singing noise of the wheels, the rush of
water as the buckets attain their turning-point, the unceasing splash of
their overflow dripping back into the source, all are a message of life
and moisture very welcome in this dry and stilly region, and may be
heard far off amid the sandhills, a first intimation to the sun-scorched
traveller of his approach to a cooler resting-place.

W.G. PALGRAVE.

* * * * *

COURTESY.

What virtue is so fitting for a knight,
Or for a lady whom a knight should love,
As courtesy; to bear themselves aright
To all of each degree as doth behove?
For whether they be placed high above
Or low beneath, yet ought they well to know
Their good: that none them rightly may reprove
Of rudeness for not yielding what they owe:
Great skill it is such duties timely to bestow.
Thereto great help Dame Nature's self doth lend:
For some so goodly gracious are by kind,
That every action doth them much commend;
And in the eyes of men great liking find,
Which others that have greater skill in mind,
Though they enforce themselves, cannot attain;
For everything to which one is inclined
Doth best become and greatest grace doth gain;
Yet praise likewise deserve good thewes enforced with pain.

SPENSER.

[Notes: _Edmund Spenser_ (born 1552, died 1599), the poet who, in
Elizabeth's reign, revived the poetry of England, which since Chaucer's
day, two centuries before, had been flagging.

_Gracious are by kind, i.e.,_ by nature. _Kind_ properly means _nature_.

_Good thewes_ = good manners or virtues. As _thew_ passes into the
meaning "muscle," so _virtue_ (from _vis_, strength) originally means
_manlike valour_.]

* * * * *

THE QUEST OF THE HOLY GRAIL.

Then the King and all estates went home unto Camelot