[Illustration] THE FLOWER FACTORY BY FLORENCE WILKINSON _Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one-- Little children who have never learned to play: Teresina softly crying that her fingers ache to-day, Tiny Fiametta nodding when the twilight slips in, gray. High above the clattering street, ambulance and fire-gong beat, They sit, curling crimson petals, one by one, one by one. Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, They have never seen a rose-bush nor a dew-drop in the sun. They will dream of the vendetta, Teresina, Fiametta, Of a Black Hand and a Face behind a grating; They will dream of cotton petals, endless, crimson, suffocating, Never of a wild-rose thicket nor the singing of a cricket, But the ambulance will bellow through the wanness of their dreams, And their tired lids will flutter with the street's hysteric screams. Lisabetta, Marianina, Fiametta, Teresina, They are winding stems of roses, one by one, one by one. Let them have a long, long play-time, Lord of Toil, when toil is done! Fill their baby hands with roses, joyous roses of the sun._ THE SILLY ASS BY JAMES BARNES ILLUSTRATION BY ARTHUR COVEY "Marcia," called the admiral, tapping lightly on the state-room door with the back of his fingernails, "Marcia, my dear, I hope you're better. Come out with me; it's--oh, ah--where's Miss Marcia?" The door had been opened by the courier maid, whose wilted and forlorn appearance was eloquent of her failure to live up to at least one item in her letter of recommendation. "Miss Dorn has gone up to--ze deck, Monsieur." "Humph! I didn't see her. When did she go?" "Since early zis morning, Monsieur," rejoined the well-recommended one rather despondently. Perhaps she might have gone on to say something more, but the admiral stamped down the passageway. The maid looked on her features in the glass much as one might inspect a barometer, drew a weak, despairing breath, and laid herself down on the sofa again, her relaxed person responding inertly to the steamer's vibrations.