* * * * *

A COMFORTING THOUGHT FOR USE ON WAR-TIME RAILWAYS.

    “To travel hopefully is a better thing than to arrive.”—­R.L. 
    STEVENSON.

* * * * *

From a parish magazine:—­

“I know ‘the war’ still continues but these do not explain everything.  The large water tank at the schools is for sale—­price L5 10s.  The sermons and as far as possible the music and hymns on 21st (Trafalgar Day) will bear on the work of our incomparable Navy.”

It is believed in the village that the parson is suffering from a rush of Jumble Sales to the head.

* * * * *

HERBS OF GRACE.

SWEET WOODRUFF.

VII.

      Not for the world that we know,
    But the lovelier world that we dream of
      Dost thou, Sweet Woodruff, grow;
    Not of this world is the theme of
        The scent diffused
        From thy bright leaves bruised;
  Not in this world hast thou part or lot,
  Save to tell of the dream one, forgot, forgot.

      Sweet Woodruff, thine is the scent
    Of a world that was wise and lowly,
      Singing with sane content,
    Simple and clean and holy,
        Merry and kind
        As an April wind,
  Happier far for the dawn’s good gold
  Than the chinking chaffer-stuff hard and cold.

      Thine is the odour of praise
    In the loved little country churches;
      Thine are the ancient ways
    Which the new Gold Age besmirches;
        Cordials, wine
        And posies are thine,
  The adze-cut beams with thy bunches fraught,
  And the kist-laid linen by maidens wrought.

      Clean bodies, kind hearts, sweet souls,
    Delight and delighted endeavour,
      A spirit that chants and trolls,
    A world that doth ne’er dissever
        The body’s hire
        And the heart’s desire;
  Ah, bright leaves bruised and brown leaves dry,
  Odours that bid this world go by.

  W.B.

* * * * *

    “Once or twice Mr. Dickens has taken the place of circuit judge
    when the King’s Bench roll has been repleted.”—­Evening Paper.

This, of course, was before the War.  Our judges never over-eat themselves nowadays.

* * * * *

From a list of current prices:—­

    “Brazil nuts 1s. 2d., Barcelona nuts 10d. per lb.; demons
    11/2d.”—­Derbyshire Advertiser.

No mention being made of the place of origin of the last-named, it looks very much as if there had been some trading with the enemy.

* * * * *

What America says to-day—­

    “Feminist circles are greatly interested in the announcement made
    by Dr. Sargeant, of Harvard University, that women make as good
    soldiers as men.”—­Sunday Pictorial.