A FIELD FLOWER’S COMPLAINT. I f I had been a snowdrop, the first one o f the year, Would you have thought me beautiful, belug the first, my deart I f I had been a royal rose grown higher than your heart. Would you have bent your face to mine, and drawn my leaves apart. Until they dropped about your feet, and all my heart lay bare? A broken heart, a golden heart, for you to leave or wear— Would you have gathered In your hand each fallen rosy leaf, And said a gentle word for life so beautiful and brief? But I, that fain would be a rose and wear her royal red, A field flower among field flowers, I lift my loveless head; Among the tall dead nettles, white campion who will heed? White campion shrinking faintly mid dock and silverweed? — Black and White. Cupid and Gray Hairs. HE pretty gray-balred lady sighed. " I never really had a fair chance at partridge be­ fore," »he said. Indicating her well- fllled plate with a pathetic smile. “ I have a fellow-feeling," she con­ tinued, "fo r that old gentleman who said that the wing of the chicken was doubtless the very nicest portion of all, but that he had never tasted It. When he was young the old people were supposed to monopolise It, and now that he uad grown old, he said, It had to be reserved for the young. ‘My dear,' he lamented, ‘I have never tast­ ed the wing of the chicken 1* .Tragic, wasn’t It?" “ It was dastardly!” The fine-looking whlte-mustached gentleman on her right hand stifled a snort of Indigna­ tion. “ Nothing gets away from the young­ sters o f to-day,” he growled. " I ’m only a bare 59, you know— " “ Yes— I remember you were always just five years ahead," the sweet-faced little lady smiled sympathetically. "Fifty-nine years, Mrs. Merrydew! and to Judge from the attitude of the young fledgelings In this hotel, one would say I was a relic o f the stone age— belonged somewhere, unclassified, with the pyramids and Rameses II."— Ms genial face took on a sudden mul­ berry hue; "dastardly, I repeat! You can't plead the most trivial sensation o f Indigestion nowadays, even just a plain ordinary l.eadache, but It’s put down to Incipient senility— I meet It on all sides. I can tell you!" " I know— I know!” responded his fair listener, appreciatively. “ And that rosy-cheeked girl from the acad­ emy prefaces every other remark to me with 'In your day— !* It does come hard, certainly, when one Is still In a fair state of preservation, and can yet maintain ordinary conversation.” "Conversation, humph! merely the last expiring efforts of a once powerful Intellect, my dear madam,” quoted the elderly gentleman, savagely. T L j pretty little widow giggled out­ right at this— she could look very charnlng when a smile dispelled her naturally pensive expression. “ Really, It's a comfort to meet you rfgain, after so many years," -he confided, “ let's go over to that window seat, where we can sympathize. I feel quite as young as I did twenty-five years back—and younger; but there Is always such an unreasoning prejudice regarding gray hair— It's public opinion concerning It that harrows up your ioul.” "Gray hair la most becoming over a youthful face,” put In the gentleman, with a gallant bow, while they both withdrew to a friendly alcove. “ Oh, thank you for not saying 'still' youth- full That 'still' Is such a paralyzing word!" the little lady shuddered. "They might as well say: 'Mrs. M. still re­ tains her Intelligent expression.' It Is all very unnerving.” He chuckled, and moved hla chair a trifle closer. “ I say, this Judging o f age by years Is the most outrageous procedure ever. Isn't It now? I maintain that It Is primitive and unworthy of our ao-call- ed civilization. One might as well fttlg e by rheumatism, of which babes In arms are our most prominent expo­ nents In these days. Why, that young cub out yonti>r at tennis Is barely a self-confessed twenty-four, and yet his mamma (the stout, be-dlamond per­ son, with three chins) Is sore put to It to extricate him from his considerable and flourishing crop of wild oats (regu­ lar horse-chestnuts they are, too, I be­ lieve!). My dear young friend, you and I might be styled mere babes In the wood by comparison with this world- weary youth! And yet” — the white mustache went upward with a twist of fierce exasperation— "he wanted to know what colleges they had in my day, and were telephones and horse cars Invented.” The lady laughed so heartily that the Irate speaker Joined In perforce after a while. " I ’m'so glad you came," she remark­ ed prettily; “ I am getting demoralized here alone by myself. O f course my daughter comes at times, but then I am more than ever guiltily conscious of my shortcomings. I f 1 as much as mention wearing my brooch or tortoise shell comb down to dinner I feel that It Is almost a personal Insult to her, and sometimes I Just long to take up the baby and soothe and pet him when he Is hungry or fretful, but I am promptly Informed that the best grand­ mothers do not do I t O f course It Is all for my best good, for she says It all In love, and It hurts her more than It does me (or she thinks It does). As for an eardrop, an eardrop Is an an­ achronism! I don't mind any of these things so much, but In my little parlor at home there are my pretty colored wreaths, and that quaint shell work father made, and the tidies I worked long ago when mother was alive—all unhygienic, I suppose— ” “ Unhygienic! ’ ejaculated her listen­ er hotly, “ and I ’ve an old red silk dressing gown, reeking with germs, no doubt, that's been the chief prop and stay of my declining years; It’s got to go. o f course, as soon as my folks strike the place!" “ And the mottoes my little Em mu worked when she was 111, before the last!” —the sweet voice trembled a lit­ tle— “ I can't let them go, even If for their own sakes: The Lord Will Pro­ vide,’ ‘Welcome,’ ’No Cross, No Crown' — I cling to them all. even If they are old-fashioned.” Her voice ended in a little sob. The elderly man cleared his throat with a mighty noise and patted the plump little band In wordless sympa­ thy. “ Anyhow," when It comes to the old drama we're all right!" he ventured at last “Think o f those good old names, and the old standard shows they gave! Plays that hurt nobody, and gave our Imaginations some small chance for exercise.” (A tacit but vig­ orous opinion of the modern stage was conveyed In the repressed growl with which he concluded.) T t - pretty color deepened a little In the lady's face; she looked up, smiling brightly. “ I have a curtain tassel from the old museum.” she said softly; " I had" to have something." "And I have a gilt cherub from one of the upper boxes.” he chuckled. "Jove!" he went on, his voice sinking to a confidential whisper. "It's good ta FURIO US FOREST FIRES. meet some one who has things to re­ member! Mrs. Merrydew— Anna!” he said softly, "do you ever recall a piece M an an d B eaat A r e H elp lea a A g a in s t T h e ir O n c o m in g . that answered to the name of the 'Car­ The furyof a forest Are Is Indescrib­ nival of Venice’ or the 'Blue Danube able, especially In soft-wood or conifer­ Waltzes?' ” “ And the 'Last Hope,' and T h e ous forests. Here the flames sweep Malden’s Prayer’ and the'Battle of Se­ through, making a roaring wall of bastopol?’ Can I ever forget them, you blaze that reaches from the ground, mean? And yet, I f I want them now­ carpeted with Inflammable material, adays I have to steal away and lock to the topmost branches where resin­ the doors like a criminal. And—-what’s ous sap snaps and crackles fiercely, the matter?” — she broke off suddenly | throwing blazing particles to Ignite as some memory of past wrongs dark­ other trees at a considerable distance. I In addition a high wind blows, In ened his face for a moment. “ Matter?” he echoed; “ perhaps you many cases generated by the Are Itself, noticed that at my parlor chat last the heated air rising causing an in­ evening nobody listened or appeared to rush of colder air from adjacent areas care a straw for my modest reminis­ that acts like a draft of a furnace. Be­ cences of Holmes, Longfellow, Lowell fore this combination of ground and und Emerson? I was a doddering old crown Are nothing can prevail. Ani­ : Imbecile to have undertaken It, of mals flee before It or are roasted to course. Everybody simply yawned un­ death. During the tires In Wasblng- til the lady mopologlst came on— the on and Oregon In 1902 lakes were found packed solid with putrefying humorist.” “ Humorist!” ejaculated the- little and partly roasted bodies of bear, deer, widow, warmly. "There was nothing panther, and other animals, fearless of humorous about her except her bonnet each other In the frenzy that brougM —and our $20 doubtless went for that them together to perish through In ‘creation!’ I f that be creation, give me drowning, heat, or suffocation. these same Ores a picnic party o f nln« chaos!” " I was a little lower than the Jani­ persons, with team and wagon, was tor,” he continued gloomily. "And the cut off by flames near Mt. St. Helen, worst Is yet to come. A sweet young and all that was found later to prove freshman from Yale, addressing me as the tragedy were the Irons of the wag­ 'in your day’ (why Is that Innocuous on, the carcasses of two horses, vea- observation so unfailingly exasperat­ tlges of the remains of human beings, ing?) said he supposed I was acquaint­ the buttons of the clothing the only ed with all the leading lights of the evidence left to show how they fell. early nineteenth century? I effaced The horses had been cut loose In a myself before he- could ask about vain mercy that sought to give them Washington and Lafayette, and did I a chance to shift for themselves. Near sign the Declaration of Independence. the tires of the wagon were the re­ It was blood-curdling!” The speaker mains of the women of the party and mopped his brown In fevered retro­ the position of the men at various spect “ But the limit was reached this points from the central group of the morning, when some youngster of­ tragedy showed that they had tried to fered to read me the war headlines In make some sort of a figh t ibe task the morning papers. I made up my was as hopeless as making a living mlna then that I was considered In the space In the midst of a blast furnace. advanced stages of paresis.” —The Chautauquan. “ It’s fearfully aging, I think, to meet such things,” sighed the little lady pa­ L o s t H e r W h o le F o r tu n e . thetically. “ And then— some o f the A fter having tolled for many years old ways I simply cannot get over— I without being able to lay aside more don't want to try! The old hymns I than a few dollars for a rainy day, lived by, and shall die by— that have Mrs. Mary Slavln, a middle-aged wo­ brought me through so much sorrow man, of 57 South Sixth street W il­ and loss; there have been crises I nev­ liamsburg, by the recent death o f a er could have survived without the help relative Inherited a piece of property. of those old tunes"— she was weeping She sold It for $8,750, and deposited softly Into a delicate Ulm of a handker­ the money In the Nassau Trust Com­ chief. pany, near her home. As the banking “ Never mind, dear little woman— Institution pays but 2 per cent on de­ these things are ours for keeps, and posits she decided to withdraw the nobody can take them away.” His money and deposit it In Institutions voice was full of sturdy optimism and paying 4 per cent sympathy, but It was very gentle, and She took out all the money, and aftei a bit unsteady, too. placing it in the bosom o f her dress “I have some almost priceless old she set out for the Dime Savings Bank, laces and some china such as those at Broadway and Wythe avenue, two rosy maidens have never even dreamed of In their philosophy," she affirmed, blocks distant There were eight $1,000 Mila, a $500- “and a highboy and sideboard that are worth their- weight in gold, and some bill, two $100 bills, and one $50-bill. andirons— you remember those and­ When she reached the Dime Savings irons of mother's, don't you, Stephen?" Bank she withdrew $100 she had on She blushed slightly as she spoke— It deposit there, and then set out for he» had been a quarter o f a century since home. Intending to arrange the money In lots, and deposit each lot In a sep­ she had called him Stephen. "And possibly you forget the waffles arate savings bank. On reaching her home she discovered I made you one day— ” "W affles! say no more! I may be a that all her money was gone. Shs past, a pluperfect, but there are gome became hysterical, and while In that memories that tell me I have not lived condition she went over the ground she had traversed from the two banka, In vain!” •That soup to-night," he Interrupted, but failed to find the money. A crowd breathlessly, “ Mrs. Merrydew— Anna! gathered around her and Joined In didn’t It seem to you that It lacked a the search. Policemen lent their aid, faint touch of something— something but the money was not fonn