It was three slim young wraiths that met in the heart of
a great play-ground,
And two of them watched the shining sports in the fields
that ringed them round,
But one of them bent an earthward ear to follow a far-off
sound.

"Listen," he cried, "they _know_, down there! Oh! don't
you hear the bells?"
"Not I," said one, with a wise young smile, "I used
to hear the shells.
Not now; oh, not for ages now! I came from the Dardanelles."

"I from the Marne," the third one sighed, "but these are
only names.
Eh bien, mon vieux, one must forget those little strifes
and fames!
Here is a host of Golden Lads, that play at golden games."

But the new boy ran to the turf's green rim and bent
with an anxious frown,--
"It's the curfew bell! I hear them cheer! It's my little
own home town!
I hear my dad! I can almost _see_--" and his eager gaze
plunged down.

"Soon, mon ami," soothed the dark-eyed wraith, "these
teasing dreams will cease!
One plays all day, one leaps the stars, one seeks the
Golden Fleece!"
Still the new boy turned his white young face from the
Land of the Great Release.--
"_But I was killed two hours ago, while they signed the
terms of peace._"

SEA GHOSTS

THE FLYING DUTCHMAN: CHARLES GODFREY LELAND

We met the _Flying Dutchman_,
By midnight he came,
His hull was all of hell fire,
His sails were all aflame;
Fire on the main-top,
Fire on the bow,
Fire on the gun-deck,
Fire down below.

Four-and-twenty dead men,
Those were the crew,
The devil on the bowsprit,
Fiddled as she flew,
We gave her the broadside,
Right in the dip,
Just like a candle,
Went out the ship.

THE PHANTOM SHIP: HENRY W. LONGFELLOW

In Mather's Magnalia Christi,
Of the old colonial time,
May be found in prose the legend
That is here set down in rhyme.

A ship sailed from New Haven,
And the keen and the frosty airs,
That filled her sails at parting,
Were heavy with good men's prayers.

"O Lord, if it be thy pleasure"--
Thus prayed the old divine--
"To bury our friends in the ocean,
Take them, for they are thine."

But Master Lamberton muttered,
And under his breath said he,
"This ship is so crank and walty,
I fear our grave she will be!"

And the ships that came from England,
When the winter months were gone,
Brought no tidings of this vessel
Nor of Master Lamberton.

This put the people to praying
T