"Never mind, chubby, your day is over! We will make Peggy the message-boy now. Peggy will be a nice, meek little girl, who will like to run messages for her betters. She shall be my fag, and attend to me. I'll give her my stamps to sort." "I rather thought of having her for fag myself; we can't admit a girl to our study unless she makes herself useful," said Oswald languidly; whereupon Rob banged the note-book on the table with clanging decision. "Peggy belongs to me," he announced firmly. "It's no use you two fellows quarrelling. That matter is settled once for all. Peggy will be my fag; I've barleyed her for myself, and you have nothing to say in the matter." But Esther tossed her head with an air of superior wisdom. "Wait till she comes," she said sagely. "If Peggy is anything like her brother, you may spare yourself the trouble of planning as to what she must or must not do. It is waste of time. Peggy will be mistress over us all." (_To be continued._) * * * * * [Illustration: A PEACEFUL HOUR.] * * * * * HAWKWEED. BY LIZZIE DEAS. Somehow these flowers that late in autumn show, So very rich a glow, In summer seem to make but poor display, There are so many flowers more beautiful than they. I can but think that through the sunlit hours, These golden-petaled flowers, With no attempt to shine while earth is bright, Are yet at work for us absorbing warmth and light. Of this I'm sure, they do but hide their store Till we shall need it more; For see, as summer wanes, what beauty lies-- What consolation, too, within their sun-filled eyes. Some lovely souls there are that, like these flowers, Shine least in brightest hours; Only when shadows fall we learn to know The beauty they possess, the sunshine they bestow. [Illustration] IN THE TWILIGHT SIDE BY SIDE. THIRD SERIES. BY RUTH LAMB. PART I. THE PRECIOUSNESS OF TIME. "So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom" (Psalm xc. 12). Once more you, my dear girl friends, and I meet to hold pleasant converse with each other. I feel that something specially pleasant would be missing from my own life were our twilight talks to cease. It is with a sense alike of happiness and thankfulness that I look forward to your companionship for yet another year. God grant that, as in the past, so in the future, we may be very helpful to each other in crossing the rough places that have to be encountered on the path of life. I feel that a song of thanksgiving should go up from us all for mercies already bestowed, and an earnest united prayer to God for an ever-increasing blessing upon our meetings. One thought must come to us all this evening. Two years have passed since we first came together, hence we feel that so much of our lives has gone, and we have two years less in which to work for God.