EPARTMENT

Mrs. Rhoda S. Eaton, EDITOR.

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T WAS such a dreary day, with its chilly wind and driving rain, that, I am ashamed to say, felt rather cross and discouraged. Every thing seemed to be going wrong and nobody seemed to care. As I walked slowly down the long, dull street, I was sure that all the days to come would be like this, cold and dreary, making one feel cross and out of sorts with himself and every one else.

But just as I was grumbling to myself about the weather, feeling that everything was all wrong, and always would be, I saw something that made me almost sure the sun had suddenly danced out from behind the clouds and I was certain I caught the odor of roses, although it was early in April.

in a hole in a tree-trunk, for birds are often glad to find a place for a little home all ready. But listen, while I tell you what it was that made me so happy as I stopped to look.

The little nest was built not far from the edge of the opening, and some one had nailed a piece of tin above it, so as to make a nice, slanting roof that would keep out the rain and the driving winds that would chill the baby birds, when mamma bird was away looking for food to fill those big, wide-open bills.

And as I looked, I could not help wondering who had done this kind deed

whether some big man, with a great tender heart, or some little boy who had been taught to be kind to all of God's helpless little ones, our brothers of the air.

storms.

Now, it is not strange to see a nest

IF MEN WOULD JUST BE KIND
My home is in the locust tree

Here in my master's yard,
And he holds me, and I hold him

In strictest kind regard;

He will not let the cats come near
My lovely nesting limb,
And I-why, morning, noon and night
I gladly sing to him.

He loves to whistle notes to me
And have me whistle back,
You ought to see his smiling face,
He always calls me "Jack;"
And says, "Now, Jack, let's try again,
So Polly girl can hear,"

And, to the woman at his side,

He'll say, "Now listen, dear!"

And then we whistle, he and I,

Some simple sweet refrain, First soft and low, then loud and free Again and yet again;

I try my best to imitate

Each quaver and each note; Sometimes to follow where he leads It fairly splits my throat.

But he is such a lovely man
I always do my best,

And I would whistle all day long
If it were his request;
We mocking-birds love kindly men
And I am ready quite,
Because that man is kind to me,

To whistle day and night.

All men are not so kind, alas,

Some of them like to kill, Not that they. are in need of food, But just to show their skill; They think it is the proper thing To take a cruel gun, And slip around and kill a bird And call such murder fun.

If all the men were nice and kind
The birds would all be tame,
And each would whistle all day long,
And answer to his name;

We all love people who are good,

And all the world would find That birds would love all men alike, If men would just be kind. -Jake T. Harrison, Dallas, Texas.

THE KNOWING SQUIRRELS Miss Mary Owens, of St. Joseph, Missouri, has fed and petted the squirrels that live in the trees of her yard, until they are quite tame. One of them will they are quite tame. eat from her hand and come when she calls. She feeds the squirrels nuts cracked and placed in a small box, and the box in a tree.

She noticed that the blue jays were eating the nuts before the squirrels could. get to them. She had no objection to feeding these birds, but she placed food for them in another place and did not want the squirrels to be defrauded of theirs. So she tried this novel plan with

success:

She brought the box of nuts as usual and, taking the tame squirrel on her lap, showed him the nuts inside of the box, then closed the lid. She did this twice, the squirrel watching, keen and alert. Then she opened the box, fed him one nut, and closed it again. She did this three times. The next day she took the tame squirrel again and showed him the closed box with the nuts inside. He waited, looked at her half questioningly, half appealingly, then with nose and slender paws he opened the box and seized a nut. Miss Owens closed the lid, and this time the squirrel opened it without hesitation.

The next day the closed box was placed in the tree, the lid arranged so

that it could easily be opened but would fall shut again. The tamest squirrel came first and opened it, the others. looked on; then, one after another, they followed his example. So now they are fed and their food protected from those for whom it is not intended-H. H. Jacobs.

TODAY MAY BE THE ONLY DAY William Johnston, writing some very sound advice in the June American Magazine, says:

"Good days and bad days exist only in your own head. The weather has nothing to do with it. Each day is what you make it for yourself. Bad weather is only an unfortunate opinion.

"Suppose is it raining pitchforks. You get word that your salary has been doubled or that a forgotten uncle has left you a million dollars. What do you care about the weather then? Or suppose the person you love is dying. Unexpectedly a turn for the better comes.

says your dear one will live.

The doctor

What if it

step forward in our work. Let's do all the good we can. Let's get all the happiness we can-today.

"Right now is the only time you can control. Yesterday is a record. Tomorrow is a secret. Today is yours, is mine."

SUNFLOWER SEEDS FOR BIRDS This is the time of the year to plant sunflower seeds for the birds. A row of sunflowers started in the late spring or early summer will provide feed for the little feathered friends when the storms come next winter and the weed-seed pods are covered with snow.

The Russian sunflower is considered the best for this purpose, as the heads are larger and heavier, which causes them to bend over in the autumn, and they are thus protected from the storms. The seeds from this variety do not shatter as badly as the smaller heads and so they can be secured by the birds whenever the supply of feed is cut off. Half a dozen birds have been seen feasting

a great day, a happy day.

"It's what you think and feel about it that makes each day what it is. You, within yourself, can make each day, every day, a good day. Put down in the note book of your soul the poet Runeberg's thought: "Each Day is a life.' "When you get up in the morning throw back your shoulders, take a deep breath. Meet the new day like a man. Say to yourself: 'Another day-another life!'

"For all we know it may be the only day we'll ever have. Let's make it the best day we can. Let's strive to see that it is a day worth while. Let's move a

A row of sunflowers planted along the alleys of city homes, and along the barnyards of the country homes will not only add to the attractiveness of the places during the summer season, but will be an act of mercy which will bless a thousand hungry birds when food is scarce.-Edna A. Andrews.

No man is so poor as to have nothing worth giving; as well might the mountain streamlets say they have nothing to give to the sea, because they are not rivers Give what you have; to someone it may be better than you dare think.Longfellow.

THE DREAM OF THE INFINITE

This dream of the Infinite, how uplifting to the imagination! This key of higher evolution unlocking the enigma of life! That out of the image made of earth the image of God should slowly appear; that up the "world's great altar stairs" man climbs into conscious sonship with God. His animal lust transformed into love, his proneness to sin into a "passion for righteousness," hist selfishness and greed into an enthusiasm of humanity. Man is the meaning of the whole universe. And the end is not yet. God is in no haste. He takes months to grow and ripen an apple, ten thousand years to make a ton of coal, uncounted eons to create a man with a brain like Plato's and a heart like the Lord Christ's. "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man the things God hath prepared for them that love him."-George Alexander Smith.

THE WHY OF AFFIRMATION

Some people are born with faith in themselves. The many, however, have it not. The many need to succeed as well as the few. The many have children to support and educate. The many want necessities and comforts as well as the few. But they lack faith in themselves. or in their power to succeed. To fill this lack of faith affirmation was born.

Every true affirmation helps to produce the state of mind called faith. Say this over and over until the mighty import of it is fixed in the mind, never to be forgotten.

Every true affirmation links us to all the powerful forces in the universe and in ourselves.

Every true affirmation helps to produce the state of mind called Faith. Because every true affirmation is the death-blow to the state of mind called condemnation.-Alma Gillen in Expression.

WHEN HEAVEN BEGINS

The joys of heaven will begin as soon as we attain the character of heaven and do its duties. That may begin today. It is everlasting life to know God, to have His spirit dwelling in you, yourself at one with Him. Try that, and prove its worth. Justice, usefulness, wisdom, religion, love, are the best things we hope for in heaven. Try them on: they will fit you here not less becomingly. They are the best thing of earth. Think no outlay of goodness and piety too great. You will find your reward begins here. As much goodness and piety, so much heaven. Men will not pay you, God will, -pay you now, pay you hereafter and forever.-Theodore Parker.

STUDY HEALTH, THINK HEALTH

We must rise above materiality and come into the real image and likeness of God. Then we take a step further and acknowledge that we live in Him; that we have all, and that all is ours; and when we come into the realization of this thought, all sorrow is banished, all want is destroyed, all sickness is forgotten, and no sin can come to make our life a life of misery. Think right, and we will be right, for as a man thinketh in his heart so is he. Health is as teachable, as easily taught, as anything else.

Think of the good and the true, and we will be all right on those lines. Study health, think health, and health will prevail.

Concentrated thought is virtually irresistible. All the vast edifice of modern science and industry is obviously the product of thought, much of it of our own time and observation. The birth of an idea in the human mind is clearly the one and only dawn of empires and revolutions, of engines, philosophies, trade routes, civilizations. To class worry under the head of thinking, therefore, seems a glaring sacrilege. worry is thought, for all that-diseased, impure, adulterated thought. It means an admixture of emotion, of the worst of all the emotions-fear-into one's thinking. Instead of concentrated, clear, serene thinking on the problem in hand, worry is thinking muddled black with fear. It is about as helpful as clapping the brakes upon wheels toiling uphill.

WOMAN'S PROGRESS

Yet

The advance in the education of woman was one of the crowning glories of that last quarter of the nineteenth century.

The doubts that surrounded the movement have been dispelled by the splendid demonstration of woman's ability to successfully compete with her brothers in any and every field of intellectual study and research. It is now urged that, when returning home, she is so much better educated than the village swain, she either rejects him and fails in her mission, or, as his wife, despises him.

Ignorance is no excuse for keeping others ignorant. The alumnae of our women's colleges will see to it that their boys are educated, and they are becoming the most active and effective workers

Yet all the world is laboring under that Egyptian heaviness of the wheels, and almost every spirit is a spirit in the dark prison of fear. But once we grasp this truth clearly, once we convince ourselves that we can rid our thought of emotionalism, of fear, the day of our deliverance is at hand. And the substitution of encouraging healthy thought, of new channels among the worn ruts, is a powerful aid. There may be failures and backslidings, as is customary in all moral effort and human endeavor. But fear is weakened like a choking thing, and more and more clear and unimpeded becomes our thinking. For we realize at last, once for all, that where thinking cannot help us, fear certainly will not. And then we have worry by the throat.-Collier's Weekly.

for greater facilities and freer opportunities for study. Their co-education with the young men has cultivated the best traits and most chivalric characteristics of American manhood. Their ambition and success have stimulated to more earnest effort and higher ideals every department of the universities to which they have been admitted on an equal footing with men.

The emancipation of woman from the crushing slavery of a few overcrowded and wretchedly remunerated industries has increased incalculably both the sum of human happiness and the wellbeing of our communities. Education has fitted her for the field which needed her labor, and the world is enriched by her skill and fidelity, and is the better for her independence.