LIFE IS A MYSTERY.—Life is indeed a mystery, but it was God who gave it, in a world wrapped round with sweet air, and bathed in sunshine, and abounding with interest, and a ray of eternal light falls upon it even here, and that light shall wholly transfigure it beyond the grave. THE WAYS OF PROVIDENCE. “Providence for us, high, infinite, Makes our necessities its watchful task, Hearkens to all our prayers, helps all our wants, And e’en, if it denies what seems our right, Either denies because ’twould have us ask, Or seems but to deny, and in denying grants.”—_Leigh Hunt._ QUALIFIED PRAISE.—The meanest kind of praise is that which first speaks well of a girl and then qualifies it with a “but.” MOTTOES FOR CLOCKS. Time trieth truth. Time and tide wait for no man. Time conquers all and we must time obey. Sleeping or waking time passes with all. We take no note of time but from its loss. A WISE GIRL.—To communicate her knowledge is a duty with a wise girl; to learn from others is her highest gratification. SOBRIETY.—Modesty and humility are the sobriety of the mind: temperance and chastity are the sobriety of the body. HERB-PATIENCE. BY NORA HOPPER. “Herb-patience grows not in all men’s gardens.”—_Danish Proverb._ Alas, that sweet herb-patience grows No more in every garden-close! We set the rose and gather rue, And for each weed we sow grows two. But though we seek with eager pain, We find not under sun or rain Herb-patience! We do not know what tint or weed Herb-patience weareth, nor indeed If green her leaves, or gold, or grey, Can any cunning gardener say. She grew in Eden garden: Eve That sowed her, stole, we half believe, Herb-patience. Herb-patience, does your blossom grow From grass that Adam lies below? Or do you open flower and leaf In the walled garden of grey grief? Or seeking, will you not be found In any earthly garden-ground, And only in the fields of heaven To seeking hands there shall be given Herb-patience? OUR MUTUAL FRIEND THE “BIKE.” BY “MEDICUS” (DR. GORDON STABLES, R.N.). If the hints on cycling which follow are worth anything, it is because they are written by a man who has been a devotee to the wheel for more years than he cares to think about, and who has studied anatomy, physiology, and medicine. That is all I lay claim to, for of course a mere man is nobody nowadays. The ladies are cropping up and coming to the front every day, and doing something fresh and startling, so that we poor little chaps of men-people have to take a back seat, or about three inches each of the outside of a front one—by permission only.