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Dinner was scarcely over when our train rolled into the great railroad station at Hamburg, the second city in the empire. A suburban train entered and discharged its passengers. Although it was late in the evening, at a time when one would naturally expect to see far many more men than women traveling, at least eighty per cent of the crowd, I should judge, were women. The German government, while it does not actually forbid mourning, discourages its use as tending towards unnecessary depression. Not a single woman wore the traditional mourning dress, yet there was scarcely one but was dressed in sombre attire in honor of husband, or father, or son. In all that crowd of women there was not a single gay gown or bright ribbon.

On a siding near us was a bare, unfurnished military train, ready to depart for the front. The windows were thronged with silver-helmeted soldiers, many of them off for the front for the first time. They were laughing and talking among themselves, apparently in high spirits at the thought of the excitement they would soon see.

There came a rumble of a train passing us on the other side. Turning, we saw a Red-Cross special, straight from the trenches, bearing the wounded to shelter and attention. Through the open windows we caught a fleeting glimpse of white-robed nurses bending over their suffering patients. The war seemed very near and very, very real. The laughter of the soldiers in the troop train was stilled. It seemed to us that the whole story of war lay about us On one side, the soldiers went forth into battle, laughing and unafraid; on the other side, they returned from the trenches maimed and defeated. On one hand was all the loyalty and the heroism and the patriotism which war engenders; on the other, was all the waste and despair and agony which war entails.

After the Red-Cross special sped away in the night, the stillness lingered in the station. We thought of the words which the German lieutenant in charge of our expedition had spoken only a few minutes before. We had asked him

if the German soldiers had heard of the Ford expedition, and what they thought of it. He had paused for a moment, and then had spoken slowly, weighing each word, "There is not a soldier in the trenches but is thinking of your expedition as it passes through Germany. There is not a soldier but is hoping that somehow, something good may come from it.”

As we sat thoughtfully in the stillness as the Red-Cross train departed—as we thought of the tense faces of the men in the troop train and the agonized faces of the men in the hospital train, the most dissentious and cynical critics of the expedition repeated in their hearts the prayer of the German soldiers, that somehow, something good might come from the expedition.

SHAKESPEARE

LEONARD BACON

From you the noblest of the sons of light
Seek their illumination. As they turn
Your pages, they permissively discern
Radiant humanity, courage and the right
Stature intellectual, and heroic height,
Equal to all decisions of the soul,

To the quest of whatsoever hardest goal,
And the great utterance of yet great greater sight.

We give our tittle of imperfect praise
Humbly, like men who see far off the shore
Of a new land in oceans they explore,
And hush their murmur and their mutiny,
Because their chief, dauntless for many days
Has kept his course through the mysterious sea.

THE MONKEY AND THE CROCODILE
INTRODUCTION TO PANCHATANTRA, BOOK FOUR

ARTHUR W. RYDER

Here, then, begins the fourth book, called the Loss of Property, The first verse runs :

Blind folly always has to pay

For giving property away

Because of blandishments and guile

The monkey tricked the crocodile.

"How was that?" asked the princess. And Vishnusharman told this story.

On the shore of the sea was a great rose-apple tree that was never without fruit. In it lived a monkey named Redface.

Now one day a crocodile named Uglymug crawled out of the ocean under the tree and burrowed in the soft sand. Then Redface said: "You are my guest, sir. Pray eat these rose-apples which I throw you. You will find them like nectar. You know the proverb:

A fool or scholar let him be,
Pleasant or hideous to see,
A guest, when offerings are given,
Is useful as a bridge to heaven.

Ask not his home or education,
His family or reputation,
But offer thanks and sacrifice:
For so prescribes the law-book wise.

And again:

By honoring the guests who come
Wayworn from some far-distant home
To share the sacrifice, you go
The noblest way that mortals know.

And once again:

If guests unhonored leave your door,
And sadly sighing come no more,
Your fathers and the gods above
Turn from you and forget their love."

So he spoke and offered rose-apples. And the crocodile ate them and enjoyed a long and pleasant conversation with the monkey before returning to his home. So the monkey and the crocodile rested every day in the shade of the roseapple tree. They spent the time in cheerful conversation on various matters, and were happy.

Now the crocodile went home and gave his wife the rose-apples which he had not eaten. And one day she asked him: "My dear husband, where do you get such fruits! They are like nectar."

And he said: "My dear, I have an awfully good friend, a monkey named Redface. He gives me these fruits in the most courteous manner."

Then she said: "If anyone eats such nectar fruit every day, his heart must be turned to nectar. So, if you value your wife, give me his heart, and I will eat it. Then I shall never grow old or sick, but will be a delightful companion for you."

But he said: "In the first place, he is our adopted brother. Secondly, he gives us fruit. I cannot kill him. Please do not insist. Besides, there is a proverb:

To give us birth, we need a mother;
For second birth we need another:
And friendship's brothers seem by far
More dear than natural brothers are."

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