ed about in the same spirit that characterized the altercation just mentioned. In the war with Spain the parallel holds good throughout, for the Spainards "hollered" quickly and loudly; in the war against the Boers, the parallel is broken by the fact that the Boers don't "holler" and they don't appear to be badly scared. In other respects the analogy is com plete.

It would be unjust to Pat's character not to mention the tender, sentimental side of it. A few weeks ago when our horse died, Pat was the chief mourner. He took his place at the horse's head immediately after death and when the animal was dragged off beyond the limits of the incorporation, Pat followed the body to its last resting place. For days afterwards Pat was absent nearly all the time. The servants said that he came home only about once in twenty-four hours and then only to get something to eat, for which he seemed to be very much in need. The inference is that he lay by the carcass of the horse until decomposition had rendered him unrecognizable.

Pat's highest ambition is to carry a bundle or a package for a gentleman or lady. Such employment constitutes his highest ideal of life. We are pretty sure that he dreams of bundles and packages, for we often see him when asleep open his mouth, while he whines with pleasure, and we can think of nothing else that he could be dreaming about than

the things which give him most pleasure when awake.

This ambition of his, like all other ambition, sometimes gets him into trouble. He will meet a lady at the gate and make a snap at her fan or parasol, and she naturally thinking that he is snapping at her will usually scream with fright, and Pat has to suffer reprimand and punishment for his temerity.

We frequently give him a letter or paper which we have received to carry home. He will seize it with his teeth and run with all his might into the house, where some one has to have a great scuffle with him, the result of which is that the paper or letter is usually torn to pieces in getting it from him.

After all, if Pat is of any real benefit to the family or the country we candidly admit that we cannot discover it. But we have no censure for him on that account, for we have known some men to stand on lineage and family pride and to go through the world claiming and receiving the respect and homage due to greatness, and for the life. of us we never could discover what they had ever done or said to entitle them to high consideration among men.

AUTUMN DAYS.

Now the glorious days of autumn have come

again, just cool enough to brace one up and give snap to thought and action and yet not enough to produce discomfort. The fierce glare of the August sun is abated, and he now bathes the earth in a flood of golden light, mellowed, subdued, softened, a fit symbol of the human heart, when brooding over fierce struggles passed, hopes that have fled and bright visions that have faded.

Soon the solmn forests will flaunt their banners of green and scarlet and gold in the glare of the gorgeous sunset, while the western sky will answer with roseate blushes through which the rich hues of opal come and go, flash and fade, in all the entrancing witchery of celestial magic. But the gorgeous coors fade, the flashes that come are fainter than those that go until the last traces of the great sinking orb have vanished and the grand pageant is gone to flash out in other skies, to glow before other wondering eyes, and to inspire and draw and soften and humble other reverent hearts.

Then darkness broods over hill and valley; the hush of night comes down upon the rushing, roaring world; the streaming banners of the field and forest have blended with the darkness, and we may imagine them drooping or folded, like the banners of an army after a hard day's march or a fierce day's battle.

But above all are the stars that never fail. They come forth in myriads "to stud night's sable dia

dem," and they look down as if with myriads of bright, gentle, loving eyes, cheering us in the darkness and seeming to woo us upward where all is calm, steadfast, and sure. They invite us to look up from this changing earth to a realm where change is unknown, from the thick shadows that encompass us, to a scene in Beulah land where the sun shines day and night and where clouds never gather and shadows never fall.

WHAT SHALL THE HARVEST BE? Prosperity is the watchword of this age. Never before in the history of the world has there been a nation so absorbed and saturated with the spirit of greed as these United States are at the beginning of this twentieth century. The spirit has originated, of course, with the people who make up the nation. Such opportunities for the accumulation of vast wealth have never before in any nation been offered to enterprising individuals, as have opened up to the men of this country during the past twenty-five years, and the spirit engendered by such opportunities has rapidly grown into the spirit of the nation.

Great opportunities for wealth arouse a passion in men which sooner or later overleaps all moral restraints, which subdues the feelings of common humanity, which perverts or ignores the precepts of Christianity, and which reigns over mind and

The

heart as the dominant, all-controlling power. realization of fabulous wealth by a few dazzles the many like the drawing of high prizes in a lottery. These open men's eyes to the wonderful possibilities that lie before them and close them to the inexorable logic of the situation-that the chances for such prizes to any particular man are as one to many millions.

The passion grows, the flame spreads from man to man, from hamlet to town, from state to state, until the whole nation is aglow with the fires of selfish greed. Human life is strained to its utmost tension; the standard of truth, honor, and duty is pulled down and a new one raised with prosperity emblazoned on its folds; the land-marks of virtue and patriotism are rubbed out and new ones are traced in lines of gold; religion languishes; the natural affections are stifled; the cravings of the heart for social pleasures, for close companionship, for sympathy, for the God-given delights of friendship and of love, are all perverted into the one narrow channel that leads to sordid gain; and thus the whole country is striving, panting, gasping for the bread which never yet allayed the hunger of a human heart nor satisfied the aspirations of a human soul.

The newspapers continually urge their readers to greater speed lest they be outstripped in the race, the politicians build their fortunes on schemes for