We kept this faith of our breed. We died in this creed of seamen. We sealed our creed with our lives. It shall endure alway. The law which bade us sail with death in smack and whaler, In tall ship and in open boat, is the seaman's law to-day. [signed] James W. Pryor. Our Defenders Across the fields of waving wheat And leagues of golden corn The fragrance of the wild-rose bloom And elder-flower is borne; But earth's appealing loveliness We do but half surmise, For oh, the blur of battle-fields Is ever in our eyes. The robin-red-breast and the wren, We cannot harken these For dreadful thunder of the guns That echoes overseas; And evermore our vision turns To those who follow far The bright white light of Liberty Through the red fires of war. Our thoughts are with the hero souls And hero hearts of gold Who keep Old Glory's hallowed stars Untarnished as of old; Who join their hands with hero hands In hero lands to save The fearless forehead of the free The shameful brand of slave. And through these days of strife and death, We know they shall not fail, That Freedom shall not pass from earth Nor tyranny prevail; Yea, those that now in anguish bow, We know that soon or late They shall be lifted from beneath The iron heel of hate. O brave defenders of the free, For you our tears of pride! Lo, every drop of blood you shed Our hearts have sanctified! And through these days of strife and death, These weary night-times through, Our spirits watch with yours, our love It hovers over you. [signed] Evaleen Stein The Bomb I "You are late. Billy's been howling the house down." "All babies cry, big or little, now and then. The nurse is with Billy. I--" Nellie Cameron paused to smooth a quiver out of her voice--"I am not late." "You are not?" Joseph Cameron, bewildered, laid his paper upon his knees and squinted up at his wife. "No, Joe, I am not." As if it absorbed her, and no one could have said that it did not, for she kept house beautifully, Nellie straightened an etching; the quietly she walked out of the room. She went into their bedroom and closed the door. After a while Cameron, watching warily, saw her come into the hall again in a peach-colored dress that he particularly liked her in; saw her go down the hall, away from him--and she had a very good back--to the nursery door, the warm, cheerful firelight falling full upon her face, her hands, her softly glowing dress. Billy, their only son, just learning to walk, toddled to meet her. Cameron saw the chubby hands rumple her skirts, saw Nellie stoop and swing him high with her firm arms, the drop him to his place upon her breast. The door close, the hall was shadowy again, the apartment as still as a place marked "To Let."