“‘Easy,’ said St. Patrick, ‘bring me a drum.’ When the drum came he began beating it with such vim and vigor that he broke its head, and it looked for a time as though the trick would fail. But just then an angel came and mended the drum and the snakes were forever banished. Just to prove it they kept the drum for many centuries. “These and other marvels were performed by St. Patrick, who lived to be 121 years old, dying on his birthday, March 17th, 492. “Historians have relegated many stories about Saint Patrick to the realm of myth, but the shamrock remains the emblem of Ireland, proudly worn by Irishmen the world over on Saint Patrick’s Day, March seventeenth. The true shamrock (in Irish seamrog, meaning “three-leaved”) is the hop clover, which much resembles our common white clover, except that the flower is yellow instead of blue-green. Large shipments of shamrocks are brought to the United States for Saint Patrick’s Day.” “So the shamrock is the National emblem of Irish people,” said Billy. “Yes,” said Somebody. “And it is said that no snake can live where it grows. “Perhaps if one will take the trouble to think it out, one may find in that belief the idea of faith and loyalty and love of country for which the Irish people are noted, and that emblematically it means that no traitor to Ireland can live near the Shamrock.” “I see,” said the boy named Billy, “they feel as we do about our Eagle, don’t they?” Lent “Wish I had somebody to go skating with,” said Billy one winter afternoon. “Where’s Bob White?” asked Big Sister looking up from her book. “It’s Ash-Wednesday, and his folks are Catholics,” said the boy named Billy, “and they have after school services. What is Ash-Wednesday and what does it mean, any way?” “Ash-Wednesday,” said Somebody, “is the beginning of Lent, which lasts forty days and ends with the Saturday before Easter Sunday. It is supposed to commemorate the forty days fasting Christ did before His Crucifixion.” “My,” said the boy named Billy, “I never could fast forty hours let alone forty days! How is it supposed to help a person to go without food for so long?” “Fasting,” said Somebody, “is to teach the lesson of self restraint, and self control, and to help us endure discomforts without complaining, how to refrain from all unkind thoughts of others, to control our tempers and make us better people generally. “It’s a very good idea for each one of us to give up something during Lent; something that we like very much indeed, and to give the money that it would have cost to some one who really needs food and comforts.” “Do you do that?” asked the boy named Billy. “I try to,” said Somebody. “Oh, I see!” said the boy named Billy. Palm Sunday “Tomorrow is Palm Sunday,” said the boy named Billy. “Why do some churches give the people palm branches to carry?”