the wire fencing, and looked through. It was an odd contrast; the
two worlds divided by that wire fencing--so slight, almost invisible.
The girl swept the sweat from her face with her hand; the woman
pushed back her grey locks underneath the handkerchief knotted about
her head; the old man straightened himself with some difficulty. So
they stood, for perhaps a minute, gazing with quiet, passionless
faces through that slight fencing, that a push from their work-
hardened hands might have levelled.

Was there any thought, I wonder, passing through their brains? The
young girl--she was a handsome creature in spite of her disfiguring
garments. The woman--it was a wonderfully fine face: clear, calm
eyes, deep-set under a square broad brow. The withered old
scarecrow--ever sowing the seed in the spring of the fruit that
others shall eat.

The old man bent again over the guiding ropes: gave the word. The
team moved forward up the hill. It is Anatole France, I think, who
says: Society is based upon the patience of the poor.



ARE EARLY MARRIAGES A MISTAKE?



I am chary nowadays of offering counsel in connection with subjects
concerning which I am not and cannot be an authority. Long ago I
once took upon myself to write a paper about babies. It did not aim
to be a textbook on the subject. It did not even claim to exhaust