"Bal-loon! balloon! Oh, Charley! where are you, Charley? There's a balloon a-comin'." Charley's big brother Harry came running excitedly down the road, and vaulted the farm-yard fence in a state of great excitement. "Oh, Charley, come out quick and see the balloon." Charley was nowhere to be found. He had wandered off hours before to his favorite rock by the brook to have... more...

SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. In our volume, just completed, we noticed the origin of this Establishment; and the annexed engravings report favourably of its progress, They represent Two of the Entrance Lodges. Another rustic building, the appropriation of which is not yet decided. And a glazed circular building intended as a Refreshment room, but at present occupied by tropical birds, &c. All three... more...

LETTERS TO ABSTRACTIONS. NO. VIII.—TO LAZINESS. BEST (AND BEST-ABUSED) OF ABSTRACTIONS, My heart positively warms to you as I write. At this precise moment I can think of a hundred different things that I ought to be doing. For instance, I have not written to TOM, who is in the wilds of Canada, for months. His last letter ended with a pathetic appeal for an answer. "Never mind, old chap," he... more...

NOTES. A NOTE ON "SMALL WORDS." "And ten small words creep on in one dull line." Most ingenious! most felicitous! but let no man despise little words, despite of the little man of Twickenham. He himself knew better, but there was no resisting the temptation of such a line as that. Small words he says, in plain prosaic criticism, are generally "stiff and languishing, but they may be... more...

OUR LIST OF MISSION FIELD WORKERS. We commend to our readers the catalogue of our missionary workers and their stations, in our magazine of this month. Mere names and places have very little interest to the general reader, but a study of this list to one who is interested in mission work, and who has the welfare of his country at heart, will prove to be very suggestive. Some of the larger institutions,... more...

PREFACE Seldom does a book of poems appear that is definitely a response to demand and a reflection of readers' preferences. Of this collection that can properly be claimed. For a decade Normal instructor-primary plans has carried monthly a page entitled "Poems Our Readers Have Asked For." The interest in this page has been, and is, phenomenal. Occasionally space considerations or... more...

APRIL 8, 1914. "Mr. Asquith Cleans the Slate." Daily Chronicle. The pity is that so many of his followers seem to prefer to slate the clean. Even The Nation is not quite satisfied with the Government, and has been alluding to "the extreme slackness of Cabinet methods," and complains that "situations are not thought out beforehand." The Government, apparently, is now taking the... more...

THE FURNACE-ROOM. Had Frank lain awake he would have seen a curious sight; for there are few more picturesque scenes than the "forecastle interior" of an ocean steamer at night, lit by the fitful gleam of its swinging lamp. This grim-looking man, fumbling in his breast as if for the ever-ready knife or pistol, must be dreaming of some desperate struggle by his set teeth and hard breathing. That... more...

LADY GAY'S SELECTIONS. Yacht "Ibex," Weymouth. DEAR MR. PUNCH, Once again "my foot is on my native heath."—(I don't know where this quotation comes from, but presume the author of it had lost a leg, or he would have placed his feet there—or else he must have had one leg shorter than the other, and so couldn't put both down at once!)—and heartily glad I am to be... more...

Richmond Palace Richmond has comparatively but few antiquarian or poetical visiters, notwithstanding all its associations with the ancient splendour of the English court, and the hallowed names of Pope and Thomson. Maurice sings, To thy sequester'd bow'rs and wooded height, That ever yield my soul renew'd delight, Richmond, I fly! with all thy beauties fir'd, By raptur'd poets... more...