How long will you frolic, little cloud, across the reaches of the sky,

going wherever you please in its wide horizon,

heedless of your companions far away from you?

Did you lose the way and wander,

or did the storm grow angry with you and drive you off?

Are you happy, little cloud, or sad?

I fancy you, with the sky's blue mingled into your whiteness,

like a shoot of ambition in my heart, watered by hope and tended by the days!

***

Here are the little vines

the peasant planted at equal distances,

stretching their roots through the earth, longing to join one another.

Will the sons of my country unite in love

and in honest work stripped of every personal aim,

as the roots of the vine unite, O little cloud?

And here are its buds and its young leaves —

into which the gods of spring have not yet breathed their vitality and strength —

laughing at a little swallow

that has spread its weak wings upon the air,

making toward you, thinking that with you

it will draw from the lights of the sun

truth and goodness and love to fill its small heart!

But how vain for the wings of birds,

or the desires of man,

to reach the lofty goals, or to reach you,

unless firm foundations of true principles sustain them.

O little cloud, far away in your heights

and near to me in my thoughts and my musings!!

***

The lands are broad and spacious,

and the flocks here and there graze and gambol,

picking out from among the many stones

green grass to eat.

Does the working man understand —

he on whom God has bestowed a sound mind

and full bodily powers —

that bread is eaten only by the sweat of the brow,

and that life inscribes in its volumes none but the names of those who work?

***

O little cloud, high in your tower,

you are like the shoot of ambition in my heart;

only color divides you:

you are white and it is green!!

An Elegant Party at the House of the Notable Ali Salam

The Beirut notable Mr. Ali Salam and his gracious wife gave a most elegant party on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of their marriage, to which a large number of their friends were invited, and which was attended by a company of men of politics and of the diplomatic corps; graciousness and generosity shone throughout it. The Woman's Voice offers its prayer that joy may ever endure in the house of Ali Bey, his wife, and her family.

A New British Invention — For the Benefit of Those Lost at Sea

One of Our Correspondents

British scientists have lately invented a new apparatus capable of overcoming one of the greatest dangers to which travelers at sea are exposed — namely, the exhaustion of their drinking water. This apparatus can turn salt water into water fit for drinking in a short space of time. It was originally devised by the chemists of the Permutit company in London, with the help of the Ministry of Aircraft Production, for the use of the men of the Royal Air Force.

More than twenty thousand of these devices have been sent to the South-East Asia Command for the use of the forces under it. The apparatus is simple in itself, yet it bespeaks a singular genius. It measures no more than a few cubic inches and takes the form of a box made of transparent plastic, which can also be used as a drinking vessel. Its user has only to fill a collapsible bag inside the box with seawater and then place in it a few cube-shaped pieces. After a few minutes he can draw pure water from the bag through a valve at the bottom of the apparatus. When the bag is empty, it can be washed out with seawater and filled again to produce another quantity of fresh water, amounting in volume to four times the volume of the apparatus itself. Britain has given the particulars of the apparatus to the United States, and the Americans have been able to manufacture devices on its model.