Return to me no more.

"Books are keys to wisdom's treasures;
Books are gates to lands of pleasure;
Books are paths that upward lead;
Books are friends, come, let us read."

When I consider what some books have done for the world, and what they
are doing, how they keep up our hope, awaken new courage and faith,
soothe pain, give an ideal life to those whose hours are cold and
hard, bind together distant ages and foreign lands, create new worlds
of beauty, bring down Truth from heaven; I give eternal blessings for
this gift and thank God for books.

Mr. Dooley says "Books is f'r thim that can't inj'ye thimsilves in
anny other way. If ye're in good health, an ar-re atin' three squares
a day, an' not ayether sad or very much in love with ye'er lot, but
just lookin' on an' not carin' a rush, ye don't need books," he says.

"But if ye're a down-spirited thing an' want to get away an' can't, ye
need books."

1921--"Did you see that movie called 'Oliver Twist'?" FROSH--"Yes, and
say, wouldn't that make a peach of a book?"

Young Isaac stood in line at the library to draw out a book. When his
turn came he asked, respectfully, "Please give me Miss Alcott's Jew
book."

The young lady looked puzzled. "A book by Miss Louisa M. Alcott?" she
queried.

"Yes," reiterated Isaac, "her Jew book."

"Can you remember the title?"

"No; but it's her Jew book," he insisted.

"Well, I'll read over some of the titles of her books to you, and
perhaps you can tell me the one you want when you hear it read."
Patiently she began, "_Little Women, Little Men, Under the Lilacs,
Rose in Bloom_--"

"That's it, that's it!" cried Isaac--"_Rosenbloom_."

A MAID (handing up two books to a library assistant)--"Will you
change these two books, please, for Mrs. Crawley-Smith?"

ASSISTANT--"Are there any others you wish for?"

MAID--"No. Mrs. Crawley-Smith doesn't mind what they are so long as
they have big print and a happy ending."

_Hard to Find_

LIBRARIAN--"What kind of book do you want--fictional, historical,
philosophical--?"

PATRON--"Oh, any kind that H.G. Wells hasn't written."

LIBRARIAN--"We have none!"

BOOKSELLERS AND BOOKSELLING

William Dean Howells, at a dinner in Boston, said of modern American
letters:

"The average popular novel shows on the novelist's part an ignorance
of his trade which reminds me of a New England clerk.

"In a New England village I entered the main stre