Cobwebs from a Library Corner

Disguiseth for a season all the sweet and mild
Maternal softness for an austere part.

And ’neath her frown the errant earth in winter seems
Prostrate to lie, and petulant of mood;
Restrained in icy fetters all the babbling streams,
Like naughty babes who’re learning to be good.

Then, in this second month, most motherlike again,
The frown assumed gives now and then a place
To soft indulgent glances, lessening the pain,
And hints of spring and pardon light her face.

A CHANGE OF AMBITION

Horatius at the bridge, and he
Who fought at old Thermopylæ;

Great Samson and his potent bone
By which the Philistines were slone;

Small David with his wondrous aim
That did for him of giant frame;

J. Cæsar in his Gallic scraps
That made him lord of other chaps;

Sweet William, called the Conqueror,
Who made the Briton sick of war;

King Hal the Fifth, who nobly fought
And thrashed the foe at Agincourt;

Old Bonaparte, and Washington,
And Frederick, and Wellington,

Decatur, Nelson, Fighting Joe,
And Farragut, and Grant, and, oh,

A thousand other heroes I
Have wished I were in days gone by —

Can take their laurels from my door,
For I don’t want ’em any more.

The truth will out; it can’t be hid;
The doughty deed that Dewey did,

In that far distant Spanish sea,
Is really good enough for me.

The grammar’s bad, but, O my son,
I wish I’d did what Dewey done!

MESSAGE FROM MAHATMAS

Onset Bay, Massachusetts, May 24, 18 – .– Theosophists and others at Onset Bay Camp Grounds have been greatly excited of late by a message which has been received from the Mahatmas, Koot Hoomi, and his partner, who are summering in the desert of Gobi. The message is of considerable length, and contains much that is purely personal. — Daily Newspaper.

Sound the timbrel, beat the drum!
Word from the Mahatma’s come.
Straight from Hoomi Koot & Co.
Comes the note to us below,
Full of joy and gossiping.
Hoomi Koot is summering
In the desert waste of Gobi,
In a cottage of adobe.
All the little Koots are well.
Tommy Koot has learned to spell.
Mrs. Koot is busy on
Papers on “The Great Anon,”
Which by special cable soon,
From her workshop in the moon,
Will be sent to us below
By grand Hoomi Koot & Co.

We are told that Maggie Koot
Looks well in her golfing suit;
And her brand-new Astral Bike
Is the best they’ve seen this cike —
Cike is slang for cycle, so
I have learned from Koot & Co.
Soon she’s going to take a run
Out from Gobi to the sun,
After which she thinks to race
For the Championship of Space,
And a trophy given by
The Grand High Pasupati.

Baby Koot has learned to walk,
And likewise, ’tis said, to talk;
But, to Mrs. Koot’s dismay,
Seems to have a funny way:
Full of questions, “Why and How,”
All about the sacred cow.
Questions of a flippant ilk,
Like “Is Buddha made of milk?”
Questions void of answers spite
Of his parents’ second sight.
What to do with Baby Koot
Worries all the whole cahoot.