* * * * * From a Church appeal:-- "A recent collection revealed that, of 179 coins put in the plate, 176 were coppers, whilst not more than 15 people could have contributed anything above one shilling." The person who took the twelve silver coins by mistake will, we hope, return them next Sunday. * * * * * =THE SHERWOOD FORESTERS.= Deep in the greenwood year by year Bold ROBIN HOOD, a knightly ghost, Has eased the purse that bulged the most And stalked the wraiths of Rufford deer; And, as the centuries speed away, Has seen his oak and birk-land shrink, Where teeming cities on its brink Crowd in on Sherwood of to-day. But still each year the outlaw-king, By Normanton and Perlethorpe spire, Has watched the beeches' emerald fire Flare upward in the leaping spring; Each heather-time has found his own Eyrie of rest where Higger Tor Shimmers in purple as before KING COEUR-DE-LION held his throne. And Foresters away "out there," Sons of his sons, have surely seen A figure clad in Lincoln green Glide by them swiftly, thin as air; And, yarning in the creepy dark, Have told of arrows, cloth-yard long, Whistling before them clean and strong, Of Huns that got them, pierced and stark; How when their line is making good, In charge or trench, as Sherwoods can, Soft-footed, ever in the van, Stalks the bold ghost of ROBIN HOOD. * * * * * [Illustration: _Mrs. Jones_ (_suspiciously, to Jones, who is kept on strict rations_). "SOMEBODY HAS EATEN FIDO'S DINNER."] * * * * * =THE SECRETS OF HEROISM.= "Don't talk about heroism," said Sergeant William Bingley, "until you know what it is--and isn't. "There were two men in my platoon over there that I'd match against any other two in the British, Allied, or Enemy armies for the biggest funks on earth; two boys from the same town, as unlike as cross-bred puppies, but cowards to the ankles. "They were the only two that didn't volunteer for a listening picket one night, and I felt so ashamed of them that I decided to mention it. "'You nickel-plated, glass-lined table-ornament,' I said to Ruggles when I found him alone, 'aren't you ashamed to form a rear rank alone with Jenks every time you're asked to do anything?' "I knew they hated each other, and I thought I'd draw him, but he hadn't a word for himself. "'Tell me what you joined for,' I said more persuasively, for he had been in the Army over a year. 'You're the only man in the company, bar your friend Jenks, that turns white at the pop of a cork out of a Worcester sauce bottle.' "He stroked the bit of hair behind his right ear and let slip a grin like the London and Country mail slots at the G.P.O.