The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

i, "Talk to me about yourself" said the sage. purged. I am still listening." Myrrhus offered his open hand to his confessor and judge. He flinched a little under the weight of the stone which the latter next gave him. But! it changed to a dead leaf and he hand- ed it back. The sage crushed it -~, THE CRIMES OF KING MYRRHUS 2) By Helene Picard King Myrrhus was weighted down "Your heart is not yeti - with years and crimes. He was weary of his burdens. He wished to make confession and die, and thereafter to enter into the peace of the gods. One morning he quitted his palace, a staff in his hand. He directed his steps toward a forest in whose depths under his foot amd bent over Myrrhus. "Speak!" he said, in a low voice. The conversation lasted a long time. The night had come and a sudden; storm tossed the branches of the pines; and the firs outside. | "Speak!" the sage continued. And lived a wise man, sanctified by silence, each time Myrrhus found a dead leaf Vi. 'Barrie. srof "Peter Pan" and "The Little Minister"---a clearer title: to The &uéh 2 fame than a knighthood--in accepting the rectorship of St. Andrew's has had a few human and appealing things to say about courage. Withdrawing the veil of reticence which has made him in personal respects a good deal of a man of mystery, he tells of his earlier experience as a writer, and reminds one of the struggig-so hum- orously and so pathetically "intimated in "Margaret Ogilvy." He says the best fun is hard work and that to be borr. 'poor is the next The average Canadian who, when he meets a woman friend in the street, raiges his hat, shakes hands, and says, politely, "How do you do?' would be astonished if he could see some of the strange forms such greetings take in other lands. Thus, when a South Sea Islander meets anyone whom he wishes to honor, he pours a jar of water over his head; and the native of Central Africa on such an occasion strips the other | man of his robe and ties % round his | own waist. a Foreign Creetings That Amaze and Amuse say to each other, not "Kiss me," but "Smell me." And when a Mongolian father is in an affectionate mood, he does not kiss' his children; he smells their hair. Among Arabs the common practice is to kiss the feet or knees; but if the person saluted is of higher rank, the hiem of his barment must be kissed. Where the Briton says, "How do you do?' the Frenchmam, "How do you carry yourself?' and the German, "How does it go?" or "How do you abstinence, poverty and meditation. | : At the end of the afternoon a vaga-| man of many virtues gave him. But bond, who smelt of the bark of the|he still felt as burdened as he did when trees and of the damp grasses, pointed he entered the hermit's hut. The out to him the way to a clearing. | storm frightened him. He trembled There King Myrrhus found the her-| like a tree shaken to the roots. mit's cabin. He knocked at the door.! "You haven't told everything," the The cnce potent but now humble sage whispered. monarch saw before him a man taller,; "No." > older and more furrowed than himself. | - "I am listening." This man also had a white beard | "1 corrupted a man who sang, who and a brow creased with wrinkles. loved life and who worked in his shop. But he was weighted down not with' I was jealous of his Si of he sins but with virtues. This was mani-| freedom from care, of tl e winge fest in his quiet movements, his Tow. phrases which came out of his mouth. and even voice, his clear eyes and his I taught him to drink, to blaspheme, | in his hand, instead of the stone the] gentle assurance of manner. Scme forest animals lay at his feet. A candle in a saucer sent forth a few fechle rays of light. "Welcome, stranger!" the sage said to Myrrhus. "Here are bread, water and fruit. If you wish to sleep there is a bundle of dry moss for you. You will dream of your youth and of the breolside where you were born"'-- "] poisoned my father in order to succeed him." And when he had made this terrible confession Myrrhus fell at the sage's| feet and bowed his head in the dust. "If you repent," said his host, "and your crime is forgiven, this heavy stone will turn in your hand to a frail, dry leaf. Take this stone, Myrrhus, and in your soul execrate your par- ricide." Myrrhus, almest in a faint, took the stone, and suddenly he felt in his hand a dead leaf, which blew out through the cabin door. The king smiled sadly. Still knee- ling' at the wise man's feet he said: "I stole a box of jewels which my sister entrusted to me. It represented the ransom of her husband and the fortune of her son. But I repent." The hermit dropped another sto into Myrrhus' hand. It also changed into a leaf. A hare ate it. wiped the sweat from his brow. "T have tortured my dogs, my horses | that you will be pardoned--you who' and my shavesy But Tgepanilie He stretched out his hand towamnd the mysterious sage and the sharp stone, smooth and glittering as a knife blade; which the latter put into it, was also transformed into a dead: leaf. The sigh which Myrrhus gave rose in the! air and was lost in the thin smoke of the twigs which burned in the fire- place. 3 "What are you dooking in that pot?" asked Myrrhus. "Some roots which I am going to eat for supper." / "How good they smell! What do you season them with?" A lamb bleated at the sage's naked feet aud the mays from the candle shone in his tranquil face. "Ah! hermit," said the king, "how 1 envy youl! The presence of the golds makes itself felt about you and it seems as if they were going to take Myrrhus | | gentle voice. | to gamble, to insult women, to scorn mercy, to renounce hope and to hate the sun. I made him rich and sad. He died cursing me." Deadly pale, torn with anguish and despair, King Myrrhus again extended hig hand. The stone which the sage dropped into it escaped and fell to the floor with a crash that shook the cabin. It turned to @ rock at Myrrhus' feet. The tempest tossed the trees and the recluse lifted his head. "I repent, old man, I am ready to dio anything you' command me to do to expiate my misdeeds. But tell me, is there no pardon? Can't I be wash- ed clean of this crime?" "I don't know," the sage answered. "T am not yet close enough to the gods, in spite of my eighty years of contem- ! plation and sclitude, either to condemn you or to reassure you in their name, my son. "After all, what do the gods care. for the bodies out of which you have driven the spark of life, for the beasts | and the slaves whom you have tortured | under the lash, for the wealth which | you have seized, even for the poison | which you gave your father? What, ne do these crimes matter so long as you. energetic young peopl didn't touch the souls of your victims? "But how," the old man concluded, | breaking into 'tears, "could I tell you! have murdered joy?" i At this moment a violent wind up-| rooted a tree, which fell against the. "hut. The animals howled and fled! 'and the candle which the hermit kept: burning day and might went out. The hour of pardon wasn't near and the gods, by bringing terror into his house, had made the hermit under- stand. "Go!" he said to Myrrhus, in a "TI repent," groaned the aged king, who felt that the relief he sought in death was still far off. "Go!" the hermit repeated. And with a gesture he waved Myrr- hus out into the forest, stilt filled with the fury of the storm. Musical 'Novelty. Singing a song without any instiu- mental accompaniment is a musical best thing. Poverty with this master of letters is not a figment of the imagination. He knows the stress and ithe grind from his" own days ere he came to frame and affluence. He was alone and friendless in London. The editors rejected what he wrote. The stories for which they now pay fancy prices were a drug on the Grub Street market. The only food there was was food for thought. But it was good to be alive, good to have to struggle. "Ch, to be a free lance of journalism again!" Nothing in his present fortune is so rich and precious as the memory of the days when he was poor and his way was still to make. Then, as an instance of high courage in a different field, he cites a letter Captain Scott, of the Antarctic, wrote him, when Scott knew death soon must come. Starving, their feet frozen, powerless. to .move, the herves would not give in. "It would do your heart good," wrote Scott, "to de in our tent to hear our songs and sur cheery conversation." To the students of an ancient uni- i | versity the famous writer who has® plucked the human heag rings the world over stood for great achidve- ment and an impressive material success. But he knows--as the heart knows its bitterness and a man is aware of the cross he carries--how he came by what he has to-day. He toiled. He suffered. He kept on. He showed the same valiant spirit as that of the explorer. His address was worth a thousand ordinary speeches of Hae college moralizing platitude m men. 2 aii Q Taking in a Particularly bright a time are the prospect: only pleasure in farm the safest and surest come in the years ahead For this reason wise more and more anxiou) cost dhe-beys and ef Juvenile agricultural ¢ much to stimulate th interest of the members in special Ines of farming, and too much imporance cannot be given to these orgamzations in meas- uring the influences responsible for the renewal of comnnity interest in the business of farmig. Another means foi creating in the boys and girls a realdesire to remain find younself?' the Arab, after shak- The native of the Gold Coast favors | ing his friend's hand about a dozen a form of salutation little less strange; | times, greets him with the words, "The for, after bowing profoundly, he slips peace be upon you," to which he re- his outer garment from his shoulders | ceives for answer, "Upon you be the and holds it under his arm; while in | peace." Morocco, when a man on horseback | When he inquires after hig friend's sees a friend approaching, he charges | health, the stereotyped reply Is, full tilt at him, reins up his horse sud- | "Praise be to God!" denly within a few feet of him, and thee?" hie continues. "God bless and fires a revolver over his head. | preserve thee!" answers his friend; To uncover the head is the Cama- {and thus the dialogue continues for dian way of showing politeness and | some minutes before the two men "get respect; but the Chinaman, when he to business." wishes to be polite, puts his hat on his | If you were to make a formal call head if it is not there already; while | on a Jupi of Brazil, your host would "Is it well with the gentleman of Japan shows his re- ts are Europe have been invited. on the farm is to .ake them part- ners in the farming business. Too often the younger geeration is given a lot of hard work t'do on the farm and little opportunityto shave ir the benefits. The partneship idea will help them to "undersand that their labor is of value andsssential to the income of the busines. The boy or girl will also come tcunderstand his or her real interest n the property ownéd by the family With such an spect by taking off his shoes. If, whilst walkisg in Mandalay, you should chance to meet the King of Burma, you would be expected to stop and remove your shoes; but you would be allowed to approach the Shah of Persia only if your feet were bare. If the natives of Chittagong should chance to see two Canadian women kiss each other on meeting, they { would open their eyes in wonder; for ; their method of greeting is to place mouth and nose cn each other's cheek and take a long and vigorous sniff. Translated into English, they would {offer you a seat and would sit abso- | lutely silent for about a minute. Then he would startle you by exclaiming in a loud voice, "Are you there?' as if he were still doubtful of your pre- sence. When a Basuto greets his chief he addresses him as "Wild Beast", which, however uncomplimentary it may sound, is music to the chief's ears, for it is a tribute to his courage and ferocity. And if a good Moslem meets a Jew he greets him with the words, "Death to you!" to wihiich the Jew, not to be outdone in politeness, responds, "The same to you!" Coronation of Roumania's Sovereigns Next Fall. The coronation of King Ferdinand, and Queen. Marie of Rumania, which. will take place in the heart of the! beautiful Transylvanian Alps, will be on a scale of lavishness and regal grandeur hitherto unknown in the Bal- | kans. A magnificent cathedral of: Byzantine design, costing millions of francs, has been especially erected in! Sibiu for the crowning of Europe's' most beautiful Queen and King Ferdi-' nand. The Rumanian Parliament has appropriated an immense sum for the event. Most of the reigning sover- eigns and heads of state throughout King Ferdinand and Queen Marie . A nscended phe thr just before the be-' (r A Temporary Fool Dr. W. John Murray says the worst that a man can do is to make a temporary fool of himself, because he is predestined to be the image of Him who created him. That is, that the ulti- mate end of every human being is to come into the likeness of his Maker; that is his goal. No matter how long he may wander, in sin and crime, his destination is the image of his Maker, and while he is in sin, it does not yet appear what 'he shall be, but he shalt" ginning of the World War, and the continuance of the struggle made it necessary to postpone the coronation from year to 'year. August 16, which has been finally chosen for the event, is the anniversary of Rumania's entry into the war. Massive crowns of gold, surmounted by rare stones, have been made for the Rumanian rulers and the Queen has replaced all her precious jewels which were confiscated by the Bolshe- viki early in the war by gems and jew- elry of even greater beauty and worth, Her pearls alone are said to represent millions of francs. The wedding of their second daugh- ter, Maria, to King Alexander of Jugo-Slavia, will take place early in June. iy WR The document is consistent from ultimately" come into His likeness. 7) Sr Strange? The doctor had called at Dan Jones' biome. The occurrence was so unusual that Sid Smith, from the next farm, decided to investigate. "Yes," answered Jomes, upon being questioned, "my wife is ill. Don't know just what's ailin' her. She got up this mornin' and had breakfast for me and the hands at five, and then she did some washin' and some bakin' and the churnin' and a little cleanin', be gides a-diggin' some taters and a- weedin' a patch of garden. She got dinner, and was sewin' and mendin' this afternoon when she sort o' heeled over. I can't think what can be the their places at your table or play the' novelty which is becoming popular; forest flute, seated on your cabin|the songs must be specially written to stools." ! be really successful. understanding it willbe difficult in- deed to tempt themte--the uncer- the Moscow standpoint. It stands, matter, for she's been doin' nothing obstinately on the right to confiscate' but keepin' hiouse here, easy-like, for property in a revolution. the last fifteen years." tainities of city life. a. T-------- "Sa sets a crm -- ys:-- 'Here's the Misic-- Write Your Own Words." = | Gene Byrnes