Star of the Sea: we kneel and pray
When tempests raise their voice;
Star of the Sea! the haven reached,
We call thee and rejoice.

Help of Christians: in our need
Thy mighty aid we claim;
If we are faint and weary, then
We trust in that dear name.

Our Lady of the Rosary:

What name can be so sweet

As what we call thee when we place
Our chaplets at thy feet?

Health of the Sick: when anxious hearts

Watch by the sufferer's bed,

On this sweet name of thine they lean,
Consoled and comforted.

Queen of all Saints: the Church appeals

For her loved dead to thee;

She knows they wait in patient pain

A bright eternity.

Fair Queen of Virgins: thy pure band,
The lilies round thy throne,

Love the dear title which they bear
Most that it is thine own.

Mary: the dearest name of all,
The holiest and the best;

The first low word that Jesus lisped
Laid on His mother's breast.

Mary,

our comfort and our hope,

Oh may that word be given
To be the last we sigh on earth,

The first we breathe in heaven!

ADELAIDE A. PROCTER.

We impart to the smallest acts the highest virtue when we perform them with a sincere wish to please God. The merit of our actions does not depend on their importance.

-ST. FRANCIS DE SALES.

CATH. FIFTH READER 9

THE TWO ROADS

It was New Year's night; and Von Arden, having fallen into an unquiet slumber, dreamed that he was an aged man standing at a window. He raised his mournful eyes toward the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear, calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where few more helpless beings than himself now moved toward their certain goal the tomb.

Already, as it seemed to him, he had passed sixty of the stages which lead to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. His health was destroyed, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age devoid of comfort.

The days of his youth rose up in a vision before him, and he recalled the solemn moment when his father had placed him at the entrance of two roads one leading into a peaceful, sunny land, covered with a fertile harvest, and resounding with soft, sweet songs; the other leading the wanderer into a deep, dark cave, whence there was no issue.

He looked toward the sky, and cried out in his agony, "Oh, days of my youth, return! Oh, my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, that I may choose the better way!" But the days of his youth and his father had both passed away.