om holden eyes.

And now we feel that all around
Have angels walked the well-known ground;
Not winged and strange beyond our ken,
But in the form of common men.
God's messengers from Heaven's own sphere--
Unrecognized because so near.

--_Ella Fuller Maitland_.

_For Thee They Died_

For thee their pilgrim swords were tried,
Thy flaming word was in their scrips,
They battled, they endured, they died
To make a new Apocalypse.
Master and Maker, God of Right,
The soldier dead are at thy gate,
Who kept the spears of honor bright
And freedom's house inviolate.

--_John Drinkwater_.

_After-Days_.

When the last gun has long withheld
Its thunder, and its mouth is sealed,
Strong men shall drive the furrow straight
On some remembered battle-field.

Untroubled they shall hear the loud.
And gusty driving of the rains,
And birds with immemorial voice
Sing as of old in leafy lanes.

The stricken, tainted soil shall be
Again a flowery paradise--
Pure with the memory of the dead
And purer for their sacrifice.

--_Eric Chilman_.

EVIDENCE

An attorney was defending a man charged by his wife with desertion.
For a time it looked as tho it were a cinch for the prosecution, but
at the psychological moment the attorney called the defendant to the
stand. "Take off that bandage," he cried, and the man did it, exposing
a black eye. "Your honor," said the attorney, "our defense is that
this man is not a deserter. He's a refugee."

The London police-sergeant raised his eyes from the blotter as two
policemen propelled the resisting victim before him.

"A German spy, sir!" gasped the first bobby.

"I'm an American, and can prove it," denied the victim.

"That's what he says, but here's the evidence," interrupted the second
bobby, triumphantly producing a bulky hotel-register from beneath his
arm, and pointing to an entry.

"V. Gates," written in a flowing hand, was the record that met the
astonished sergeant's gaze.

It happened in the court-room during the trial of a husky young man
who was charged with assault and battery. Throughout an especially
severe cross-examination the defendant stoutly maintained that he had
merely pushed the plaintiff "a little bit."

"Well, about how hard?" queried the prosecutor.

"Oh, just a little bit," responded the defendant.

"Now," said the attorney, "for