eS a ce | j Straight to the kegs of. water streamed the raté! guided by the grim ~ ~ Thirst | A thing with half a tail, chips of in patches, mange in the a shark-like receding jaw, and saat wedge-shaped teeth, could not by any standard be called beauti- ful.. In the moonlight he was abso- lutely diabolical: When you have lived for one week -under the artillery fire of the world's biggest armies, even a beautiful thing may be excused for not looking lovely. This thing, however, had never been pretty, not even as a baby, when most beasts are good to look upon. It was an old, a devilish, buck rat, and an enormous buck rat at that. Slowly he crossed the road, and ex- plored the hedge on the far side. He was looking for water, that rat, for be it known to you that water is the rat's ever-pressing problem. ey must drink often. Within twenty-four hours they die else. Nerves! ears, fur intervals, An owl came snoring and sighing |' through the night, and the rat "froze" stiller than. the over-turned gun-car- riage caught up in the hedge over his head. For a moment he was con- scious of huge, round, shining eyes glaring in upon him; but he kept his head, and the owl, not seeing the mo- tionless form, slid away down the ge. Suddenly, at the cross-hedge, the rat started and bolted for a hole, but stopped half-way, stared, and stepped out. It was only the ghostly shimmer of the grave stones that had frighten- ed him. There was a lean dog. among the mounds at business with something, but it ran away whimpering at his rustle; such is the: effect of continu- ous heavy cannonading on the highly- strung canine temperament. There was also something that gleamed in the church porch and the moonlight, but it was only a bayonet or a Mauser rifle, and close by a mouse dashed out of an abandon helmet with a nerve-trying rush at his approach. A piece of black bread lay beside the helmet, but it was already possessed by beetles, and the big rat passed on into the beautiful little old church. He did not stop to consider why the door was open to the placid, anpitying moon, and the cold mist of the autumn. night. The Open Church. Water! Water! Water! He must find water, or die, and, indeed, even as he crossed the silent light in the porch, he reeled in his stride like a drunken beast. Ten minutes later we discover him high up in the church tower, following always the scent of man's footsteps, motionless and awed, for the moment, by the echoing - the big and the voices that lived in' the orks. Then he got in on his fine work with nose and whiskers--they were almost as good as a divining-rod--and in wi quick succession discovered two closed | g kegs of water, and one open. He also discovered a man--dressed like a shepherd, he was--who snored, and, therefore, as the rat knew well enough, was of no account. Five minutes later, shaking the sil- vered drops from his whiskers, we find our rat once more revived, and leaving the church by the way he had come. He tarried not. Neither look- ed he to the right nor to the left, but rustled off into the fields. In the hour before dawn, when the moon had sat down on the top of a hill like a gigantic, silver, upturned saucer, and everything, even the dis- tant German guns, was as still as death, the old rat came back. A Living Stream. And he was not alone, that rat.4 There were others with him. Not one, or two, or half a dozen merely, but-- well, suddenly, in that instant, the | whole churchyard seemed literally to | get up and crawl. It was--one can-| not describe it--the strange whisper of thousands of small feet. Only, in this case, the horror was increased by the eyes--hundreds upon hundreds of tiny, glinting, cruel eyes, in pairs, seen and gone and seen again. Then the old rat uttered a noise. One cannot well grace it by any other name--a wicked, low, jarring gibber. Only for a moment did he _ speak. Then, with ungainly hops, vanished | into the church, and--oh, horors!--it | was as if a grey-brown stream surged across the path and on into the church at his heels. That stream, however, was no wa- ter. It was alive. It was rats, to be exact; it was what is called a "flit- ting" of rats, which is a migration en masse of the long-tailed ones--hun- dreds upon hundreds of rats of every size and age and degree of abomi> nableness. The sounds of them as they passed through the cave-like, dark, and echo- ing silence of the church were enough to make your hair creep all over your head, and the death-squeak of mouse, caught, cornered, slain, and _gonsymed, all in a breath, made it worse. ee. fe-Thé eyes of the whiskered ones shone here, too, in even mor ostly fashion, and the sound of 'ing upwards into the church tower, as like the wind blowing upon dry, ead leaves. Awakened by Rats. place, not a singie drop of water re- mained, __ A lark had just started to sing out- side when, without warning, the gleep- ing shepherd: started up. = | -There was blood -on the man's throat, and blood on his hands, and on his face, too, were crimson and even as he yelled, the whole floor of the place about him seemed to get up and scamper away. And, in a breath, they were gone, those rats--stream- ing over the churchyard among the erereataies and the mystery of be- yond. .. That morning the British troops surrounded the church, and began to dig trenches. The road without rang with the ordered tread of disciplined British feet, and the air near by vi- brated with the thudding stutter of British artillery. And so it went on all that day and en & ext. On the last day the officers of the German artillery'on the far hills, bringing their big guns into action, stared long and hard through. their field-glasses at the clock on e church tower, waiting for the hands to move round and point to the posi- tions of the hidden British guns, wait- ed, too, as their guns fired their first rounds, to see the hands of the clock move round to show them if. their shells were falling wide or correctly. Confound that shepherd! Had he foolishly got himself caught, or was he asleep, or had he played them false, or what? They knew he had had enough food. and water when he had 'hid himself up there. But the hands of the clock never moved, and indeed the clock had stopped. No sign came from the church tower, and one by one the hid- den British guns began to put the big, blind German pieces out of action. The shepherd, caught like a rat in a trap in his own hiding-place, sur- rounded and helpless, was lying dead in the church tower, killed by want of water and blood-poisoning.-- London Answers. we CHEERY WORDS AND WISE. Let discord die--Mr. Winston Churchill. We are certain to get to Constan- tinople.--Sir Edwin Pears. It is a great deal easier to criticize at home than to fight in the trenches. --Sir John Simon. Those whom war has joined to- gether peace must not be allowed to spare nothing, shirk ; from nothing--Lord Kitchener. Every man who fights in our cause is a hero and every man who _ dies in it is a martyr.--The Bishop of Lon- on. If wisdom does not come soon to Europe, it will go- straight to bank- ruptcy in a comparatively short time. --Lord Loreburn. There is a wrong kind of optimism, the kind in which a man thinks that the thing will come right without his doing it--Mr. McKinnon Wood. France stands erect with an organ- ized, ardent, and redoubtable army, sure of conquering with her indom- itable allies.--M. Viviani, the French Premier. There are men who would find fault with the Archangel Gabriel if he came down here and sought to ad- minister the affairs of our country.-- Mr. Long. Five great powers are allied to- gether against German lves, 7 rance, Russia, Italy, and that grand y, Time.--Mr. Winston Churchill. The great curse of humanity for the past 40 years has been the yearly addition of a million young savages to the German population.--Sir Jas. Barr. Ie . THE PRICE BELGIANS PAID. Taxes Total $40,000,000 and Damage Is Tremendous. In the first three months of the war the damage done amounted to £212;000,000. This was up to the end of October, and by December at least another million pounds worth of pro- perty had been destroyed. The Ger- mans timed their invasion of Bel- gium for the harvest period, and were thus able to rob the Belgians of £3,- 000,000 worth of food. In addition, they have levied taxes amounting al- together to £8,000,000, while the cost in human life is estimated at £15,000,- 000. Altogether the cost of the war to Belgium for the first five months was £338,000,000. What is more ter- rible is that Germany has seized the whole of the Belgian food supply, and it is reckoned that in Belgium there will be over 2,000,000 destitute per- - sons, and the remaining 5,500,000 will be coming to the end of their re- sources. As showing the determination of Germans to do everything they possibly can to bring the direst mis- ery to the people of the country they so shamefully invaded, it might be mentioned that, according to Sir Ed- ward Grey, the German military au- thorities actually stole the food and money sent by philanthropists in America, the colonies, and British old buck-rat, who was also their leader and chfeftair. No notice of / Isles for the relief of starving Bel- gians. shrink -- RS RECEIVING FOOD RATIONS . es % ~ 7 BITTER TROUBLE FROM REAL LIFE. of the Present Great War. forward with glee to the jolly tea- parties she gave them in her little ivy-clad cottage. And they dreamt at nights of that big, round glass jar, held so many sweeties, says London Answers. "Auntie"--she, too, had her dreams = night time; and in her dreams she Then for her their gleeful laughter sounded over again; she felt their little arms twine round neck. Often, when "Auntie" awoke, would' wonder. at: her tear-damp 'pil- low... lagers called her; not that they thought that she was really poor, you know--it was generally understood among them that she had "a nice little income"--but rather because of her sadness, her loneliness. No one ever journeyed to the village to see her; never did old Gaff, the postman, have need to hammer on her door. The vil- lage folk guessed that she had known bitter trouble and unhappiness. "A terr'ble disappointment, she've had," said one. "The black ox have trod on her tail, for sure," voiced 'an- other, and so they talked and conjec- tured among themselves. j | Unspoken Sorrow. But the little, kindly gentlewoman, with the large, sad, blue eyes, with the slow and sweet smile and quiet voice, did not complain to anybody. She made no mention of any sorrow; told not a soul of her troubles. Yet pain and tragedy were often in those sad, blue eyes. . | gossips that her age was "somewhere | about forty-five, if a day." sa | matter of fact, she was almost ten years younger, even though her hair was beginning to silver far sooner than it should have done. Not long after the outbreak of war, it was noticed by one or two obser- vant folk that "Poor Miss - Smith" seemed a little happier, brighter; that 'she smiled oftener. Also, the fact | that she spent quite a long time on | several occasions in the shop of Mr. Simpson--"Hosier, Outfitter, and , Gents' Tailor"--was commented upon. | Mr. Simpson was asked to explain, 'and was understood to say that he , could not see what business it was of anybody's if a lady customer chose to | buy two pairs of socks, three pairs of 'gloves, and two mufflers--yes, and | woolly things, and_a gents' knitted jvest (meaning waistcoat), "for a |gent. as was presoomdbly at the Front," and he wanted to know "what the village was a-coming to with its | inquisitiveness." And in the little, cosy front-parlor lof the ivy-clad cottage "Poor Miss Smith" sat writing a letter, with a pen that trembled just ever so slight- |ly. Round her lips was that sad, ' sweet smile; in her eyes bright tear- drops glistened. Her Dream-Happiness. Before her, on the table, were the socks and gloves and-mufflers and woolly things and the knitted vest. It was a very long letter that she was writing. Sheets and sheets of white paper scented with violets did she cover with small, neat writing before she sealed them all up in the covering envelope. : Next, she turned to the socks and ter fitted just nicely into the*biggest AND UNHAPPINESS PATHETIC PEN-PICTURE DRAWN: One of the Many Touching Incidents. The neighbors spoke of her as}eyes "Poor Miss Smith"; but all their little: ones called her "Auntie," and looked}: standing on her mantel-shelf, that}. ad heard anew their childish patter.' she}. It was generally accepted by the | While a feeling of confidence Side-pocket of the knitted vest. A et of cigarettes she took from 'the mantelshelf, and then a big packet of tobacco. These she tucked inside. - "Poor Miss Smith" had never be- fore tied and sealed-such a large par- 'eel, and she did it so very carefully, too. But at last it was done. Then, her hands folded before her, she stood 'and looked at it. Her thoughts were far away; a prayer was in her heart. | That night, in her dreams, "Poor Miss Smith" was walking proudly by the side of a big, strong man, whose arm she held. He had curly hair that was crisp and brown, and clear, brave He spoke to her very gently, alling her his sweetheart, and he kissed her. Then she heard again the joyous voices of her little dream-children, and felt their soft embraces. They called her "Mother" in her dream. It was old Gaff, the postman, who first told about the letter he had de- livered that very same morning at ivy-clad cottage. "The first letter she've had to my sartin knowledge," quoth he. "Right 'from the Front, it were, by the marks son't," "He Died Gallantly." E diey ; e discussed and wondered. id Gaff took eight more letters to the ivy-clad cottage. Then,.one day came another letter. But this was a different letter. Its envelope was written by another hand. Old Gaff--well, his reputation as an interesting personage went up with a leap when he was able to as- 'sert, solémnly, and on his oath, if need be, "Poor Miss Smith" she went that white-like when she see it, that she d "Poor Miss Smith." Not a soul blinds were drawn down over the tiny | windows of the ivy-clad cottage. The next morning young Tom, the boy from the Meadow Farm, found that the can of milk that he had left the day before had not been taken in. There it was, still on the cobbled walk by the side of the doorway. Young Tom thought it strange, and mentioned it to several folk. By din- ner-time the news had, per old Gaff, got to the police-station. The letter--the one in the strange handwriting, the last one--was in her hand when they found her. The doc- tor read it reverently. "Dear Madam,--I regret very much to have to inform you that Private ---- is gone. He died gallantly in an assault on the German trenches. met his end like a hero. I am writing to you because yours are the only letters we found among his things." "Poor Miss Smith'--she is with the big, strong man with the clear, brave eyes. Maybe he is calling her "sweet- heart" in that kindly voice of his, and perhaps he is kissing hér. . --_------ oe oe GERMAN NERVOUSNESS. The Fortune of War Has Gone | Against Their Arms. is i steadily growing amongst the Allies | signs of depression and nervousness 'are becoming increasingiy noticeable jamong their opponents. The™ most | striking of these indications is afford- 'in a speech the Kaiser is reported saw her about all that day. The/jf¢, to have delivered when he addressed | a large number of Landsturmers at Frankfurt as they were leaving for _the front. The Emperor, who was de- i scribed as looking aged, nervous and grey, is reported to have said: "We .| have staked all. If the enemy is vie- torious Germany will no longerexist. : Perhaps the war was a mistake on our i part, but the present is not the mo- | ment to-speak of it. We must save | our country." Prisoners, recently , taken both in France and in Russia, frankly admit that the~fortune of | war-has gone against their arms, and {state that it may be necessary to leave Austria to the fate of a hope- lessly defeated Power, and to concen- trate all the energies of the German | people on the maintenance of the ter- | ritorial integrity of the Empire. FULL VALUE FRUIT. Co-operation Asked From the Grower to the Consumer. The war is developing in many peo- ple a higher ideal of citizenship--a clearer conception of the fair-play that should prevail in all the business of the country. Even our government is preaching honesty, thrift and econ- omy--work that was usually left to the pulpits. In addition to this busi- ness organizations are adopting a more public-spirited attitude and giv- ing more attention to the service they should render for the money they re- ceive, says Peter McArthur. A notable example of this new spirit is being shown in the fruit in- dustry of the country, which has not reached so large a proportion. The organizations having charge of the marketing of tender fruits (berries, currants, plums, peaches, ete.), are particularly anxious to place the work of marketing and distribution on a plane of patriotic public service. It is their aim to distribute their pro- ducts so widely that there will be no waste and at the same time to place em on the market. in such a way that the consumer shall have full value for their money. During the marketing plums and peaches. I ave! interviewed growers, dealers and re- tailers and have no hesitation in say- ing that except in a few centres where there are local ordnanees that inter- fere with the business of marketing outside products it should be possible for consumers to get better service thah they have ever had in the past. They should get good sound peaches and plums at a fair price and in or- der that they may be able to do so I am going to make them an unusual of- er. If you feel that you are being over- charged for peaches, plums or tender fruits kindly send the facts to me, stating price paid and date of making the purchase and the district from which fruit was secured. This will enable me to learn exactly what the price of fruit should have been where you bought at that particular time. If you have been overcharged I shall write and let you know so that we may expose everyone who is trying to make undue profits in this year when every man should be doing his part for the good of his stricken country. The campaign to sell the fruits is the first big selling campaign to be organized within the empire since the outbreak of the war and it is desired to handle the business in such a way as to get an example to the rest of the empire. To this end everyone is asked to co-operate, from the grower to the consumer. e@ consumer in particular is requested to report all instances of overcharging so that the persons guilty of it may be exposed to public censure. Complaints will be in- vestigated by Peter McArthur, Appin, Let us all get together and'see that the fruit crop is marketed this season in a manner worthy of patriotic citi- zens of the empire who wish to avoid waste and to see that everyone gets full value for his money. J. Taking No Risks. Sandy had just placed the diamond ring on the finger of sweetheart num- ber two. His first love had jilted him and, worse still, had refused to send 'back his ring. So he did not mean to be out of pocket in this his second venture if the worst should happen again. "Noo," he said, "wid ye min' giein' me a receipt promisin' to re- turn ma ring gin ye should cheenge yer mind aboot mairrying me?" bad Profile likenesses are due to the vanity of a Roman Emperor who had but one eye. A "simpleton" was once the honored term for a straightforward man, can- did, and "simple." Some men would rather hang around some one who is somebody than hustle around themselves and try to be somebody. w. _-- THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK VISITS THE SAILORS. ' -- -|He Was Much Impressed By the All-\ Pervading Sense of Readiness t Shown. Sailor, what of the debt we owe you?, Day and night is the peril more? Who so dull that he fails to know yeu ' Sleepless guard of our island shore?, .| Safe the corn to the farmyard taken, Grain ships safe upon all the seas-- Homes in peace and a faith unshaken, Sailor, what do we owe for these?, + With this quotation the Archbishop of York, Dr. Cosmo Gordon Lang, be- gins an eloquent description of his re-, cent visit of ten days to the Grand Fleet in the London Times. The arrangements for the visit were made by the Commander-in- Chief and the admiral's commanding the other bases, whose guest I was. They were models of careful organi- zation. It proved to be possible to arrange great voluntary services on two Sunday afternoons and on a week-day morning. Moving Experience. At the first there were the Com- mander-in-Chief , and his staff, the other admirals, and nearly 6,000 offi- cers and men. The ships of the fleet were lying around, looming out of the dull grey mist--it was a most mov- ing experience to commit that distant fleet to the care and blessing of God. The scene of the second, bathed inl sunshine, where about 38,000 officers and men were grouped, was very dif- ferent. The third service, if less romantic in its setting than the first, was as a spectacle, the most impressive of the three--indeed, I have never seen anything like it. Nearly 9,000 off icers and men were gathered in a vast dry dock. I shall never forget that sea of upturned faces, frank and bronzed. 40 Addresses in Ten Days. There were four Confirmations ser- vices--two of them in the flagships of the admirals in command, attended by hundreds of men. About 180 were confirmed--warrant and petty offi- cers, artificers, men and boys, and one of two midshipmen. One afternoon, wet and squally, I consecrated a field @s a new naval cemetery. e con- gregation was about 1,800 men from the destroyer flotillgs, who sang and listened with a true naval indifference Every day~ were visits to se- lected ships, to which drafts of men from neighboring ships were sent; and there I spoke and gave God's blessing to crowds. of men standing on deck or sitting among the turrets in every variety of picturesque grouping. Altogether, during ten days, I gave over forty addresses. All-Pervading Readiness. Of the efficiency of the Fleet it is not for a mere outsider to speak, but even he cannot fail to be impressed by the all-pervading sense of readi« ness. It seemed as if there was one word written on every ship, on every part of her, on every man within her --the word Ready. ; At dinner or luncheon every day I met all the admirals, most of the cap- tains, and many of the other officers of the fleet. In manner, in word, in spirit, they justified the boast of one of the vice-admirals--"We are all a great band of brothers." I left the Grand Fleet sharing to the full the admiration, affection and confidence which every officer an man within it feels for its Command- er-in-Chief, Sir John Jell' e em- bodies and strengthens t.:.ut comrade- ship of single-minded service wi..ch is the crowning honor of the Navy. we A RECITAL IN THE TRENCHES. How a Welshman's Fine Voice Cap- tured the Germans. When battle lines extend continu- ously for three or four hundred miles, almost anything may happen some- where along the way. The following pretty incident is one thing that hap- pened, according to a letter from 4 soldier in Belgium: It was a miserable night. A heavy rain had filled the trenches. Sudden« ly out of the darkness came a voice It was singing a Welsh ballad called "Hob y deri dando," and it was a fing tenor voice. It was the cheeriest sound I had ever heard. At the end, a round of applause came down thé trenches; but imagine our surprise to hear clapping and calls for more, in good English, from the German trenches. Thereupon the Welsh- man gave "Mentra Gwen." Meantime we realized that not a shot had been fired by either side dur- ing the singing. We had forgotten all about war. So a bargain was struck with the Germans, that if the Welshman would give us mee song neither side would fire any nfre until) daylight. : The third song was "Hen Wiad fy, Nhadau." It was probably the first time that the stirring Welsh anthem was ever heard on this dismal Ylem- ish morass. . There are nine books andl one Psalm mentioned in ¥e Bible which ' are now lost te the world. : . 4