SON

HE

E hurried away, young heart of joy, under our Devon sky! And I watched him go, my beautiful boy, and a weary woman was I.

For my hair is gray, and his was gold; he'd the best of his life to

live;

And I'd loved him so, and I'm old, I'm old; and he's all I had to give.

Ah, yes, he was proud and swift and gay, but oh, how my eyes were dim!

With the sun in his heart he went away, but he took the sun with him.

For look! How the leaves are falling now, and the winter won't

be long.

Oh, boy, my boy with the sunny brow, and the lips of love and of song!

How we used to sit at the day's sweet end, we two by the firelight's gleam,

And we'd drift to the Valley of Let's Pretend, on the beautiful River of Dream.

Oh, dear little heart! All wealth untold would I gladly, gladly pay Could I just for a moment closely hold that golden head to my

gray.

COPYRIGHT BY BARSE AND HOPKINS.

For I gaze in the fire, and I'm seeing there a child, and he waves

to me;

And I run and I hold him up in the air, and he laughs and shouts

with glee;

A little bundle of love and mirth, crying: "Come, Mumsie dear!" Ah, me! If he called from the ends of the earth I know that my heart would hear.

Yet the thought comes thrilling through all my pain: how worthier could he die?

Yea, a loss like that is a glorious gain, and pitiful proud am I.

For Peace must be bought with blood and tears, and the boys of our hearts must pay;

And so in our joy of the after-years, let us bless them every day.

And though I know there's a hasty grave with a poor little cross at its head,

And the gold of his youth he so gladly gave, yet to me he'll never be dead.

And the sun in my Devon lane will be gay, and my boy will be with me still,

So I'm finding the heart to smile and say: "Oh God, if it be Thy

Will!"

ROBERT W. SERVICE.

THE CASE OF SERBIA

UT Belgium is not the only little nation that

BUT

has been attacked in this war, and I make no excuse for referring to the case of the other little nation the case of Serbia. The history of Serbia is not unblotted. What history in the list of nations is unblotted? The first nation that is without sin, let her cast a stone at Serbia a nation trained in a horrible school. But she won her freedom with her tenacious valor, and she has maintained it by the same courage. If any Serbians were mixed up in the assassination of the Grand Duke, they ought to be punished. Serbia admits that. The Serbian Government had nothing to do with it. claimed that. The Serbian Prime Minister is one of the most capable and honored men in Europe. Serbia was willing to punish any one of her subjects who had been proved to have any complicity in that assassination. What more could you expect?

Not even Austria

What were the Austrian demands? Serbia sympathized with her fellow-countrymen in Bosnia. That was one of her crimes. She must do so no more. Her newspapers were saying nasty things about Austria. They must do so no longer. That is the Austrian spirit. How dare you criticize a Prussian official?

And if you laugh, it is a capital offense. Serbian newspapers must not criticize Austria. I wonder what would have happened had we taken up the same line about German newspapers. Serbia said: "Very well, we will give orders to the newspapers that they must not criticize Austria in future, neither Austria, nor Hungary, nor anything that is theirs." She promised not to sympathize with Bosnia; promised to write no critical articles about Austria. She would hold no public meetings at which anything unkind was said about Austria. That was not enough. She must dismiss from her army officers whom Austria should subsequently name. But these officers had just emerged from a war where they were adding luster to the Serbian arms - gallant, brave, efficient. I wonder whether it was their guilt or their efficiency that prompted Austria's action. Serbia was to undertake in advance to dismiss them from the army the names to be sent in subsequently. Can you name` a country in the world that would have stood that? Supposing Austria or Germany had issued an ultimatum of that kind to this country. "You must dismiss from your army and from your navy all those officers whom we shall subsequently name." Well, I think I could name them now. Lord Kitchener would go. Sir John French would be sent about his business. General Smith-Dorrien would be no more, and I am sure that Sir John Jellicoe would go. And

.

there is another gallant old warrior who would go Lord Roberts.

It was a difficult situation for a small country. Here was a demand made upon her by a great military power who could put five or six men in the field for every one she could; and that power supported by the greatest military power in the world. How did Serbia behave? It is not what happens to you in life that matters; it is the way in which you face it. And Serbia faced the situation with dignity. She、 said to Austria: "If any officers of mine have been guilty and are proved to be guilty, I will dismiss them." Austria said, "That is not good enough for me." It was not guilt she was after, but capacity. Then came Russia's turn. Russia has a special regard for Serbia. She has a special interest in Serbia. Russians have shed their blood for Serbian independence many a time. Serbia is a member of her family, and she cannot see Serbia maltreated. Austria knew that. Germany knew that, and Germany turned around to Russia and said: "I insist that you shall stand by with your arms folded whilst Austria is strangling your little brother to death." What answer did the Russian Slav give? He gave the only answer that becomes a man. He turned to Austria and said: "You lay hands on that little fellow and I will tear your ramshackle empire limb from limb."

DAVID LLOYD GEORGE, 1914.