its real value as for its quaint style and sometimes beautiful
expressions.

* * * * *




EDITOR'S TABLE.


Of all the nearly two-score states together forming the American Union,
no one surpasses the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the extent and
variety of her historical resources. Two hundred and sixty-five years
ago the Mayflower and her companion craft sighted the rock-bound coast
of New England as they sailed into Massachusetts Bay. That event marks
the beginning of a history which, to us of the present generation,
stands unequalled in the richness of its coloring. While the history of
the Colonial period is cold and unpoetic in many of its aspects, it also
contains an element of romance not to be overlooked. Truly, it is not
the romance of ancient Rome, nor of the castle-bordered Rhine, nor of
Merrie Old England; it is a romance growing out of a life in a new
world; a life attended--almost made up, even, of conflicts with a
strange race of savage people, and conflicts with hunger, cold, and
sometimes famine. The events of this early Colonial life, tragic as they
often are, carry with them an interest which is almost enchanting.

When, as children, we read those tales from the old school reading book,
or heard them recited as we sat at grandfather's knee, what pictures
impressed themselves on our eager minds! The log meeting-house, and