older person to use liberal amounts of milk and cheese. As we grow older, too many of us, she reminded us, are likely to develop the attitude that milk is no longer of any great importance, forgetting about the dangers con- nected with the weak, easrly broken, brittle bones that have been caused by lack of cal- cium, To go back to the question about the effect of cocoa and chocolate on the body‘s use of the calcium in milk: Cocoa and chocolate, Dr. Robertson explained, both contain a small amount of oxalic acid. Oxalic acid, unfor- tunately, if present in large amounts changes the calcium in milk into a form that won‘t dissolve. so that the calcium is excreted from the body rather than used by it. The amount of oxalic acid in chocolate or cocoa, however, is so small as to be quite harmless. So that, Dr. Robertson concluded, cocoa made with all milk [skim milk, if you're watching the calor« ies) may be considered not onIy a delicious drink. but also one that helps the young person keep up the supply of that very essential minâ€" eralâ€"calcium. Another Book By Harry Boyle N HOME AND COUNTRY‘S Winter is- I sue two years ago we reviewed Harry J. Boyle‘s book “Mostly in Clover.“ a v0» lume of reminiscent sketches telling the story of the author‘s childhood on an Ontario farm some forty years ago. To quote from that re- View: “Following the cycle of the year. we read of winter battles to keep the farm house warm, how the family got started reading books, Christmas in the country with skating ponds and school concerts, neighbors rallying to hunt for a lost child or to fight a barn fire. the behaviour of farm animals let out to spring pasture, a little boy's world in the back yard, hired men and country characters, visits to relatives. the blessing of grandparents, moving the parlor stove out to the woodshed in the spring and back again in the fall. Occasional- ly there is a story of heartbreak or tragedy of the sort known to every country community.†Now we have another book by Harry Boyle, “Homebrew and Patches,†taking up the story from the last pages of "Mostly In Clover" and carrying it on through the years of "the great depression" and the author’s adolescence. There was no lack of food on the Boyles‘ farm in the hungry thirties, but the ingenious thrift practised in everything else is described wrth rare humor. Nor does anyone in this warm, witty Irish family suffer from depres- sion â€" “Homebrew and Patches†is one of the 24 most delightful family life stories \\.,~ ever read. ' have It is a community story, too, with 1:. color- ful accounts of the first oyster sumac: m M district when no one but the proprie“ of me Chinese restaurant knew how to com .t-ilh a barrclful of oysters in the shell, of [i. nm in the school house. party feuds at Elect it time auction sales and, during the deprett . {IUD tions by foreclowre when a man's " who“ came and stood around without biddt. \'I could buy back his belongings at rii low prices." ' And it is a story of people. A\ . no“ the teenage boy through his first yep mm school we read about the characters mire color to his neighborhood. the men U tired to influence him in his urge to he a. in. first shy interest in girls, the teacher .i m. spired him. the neighbors who had ; in his social life. The last chapter is one of the fir.» the book. It is Christmas eve and the 1. mm. ily, their house set in order for the * rm. go to midnight Mass. During the st; ll ix. discovered with amazement that the trim minister is worshipping with them. our prayers the priest expresses his appri. ii at this evidence of respect and good u "the first rule of charitable living." In 1' ~ng paragraph we have the theme l'UIll'lill 'zigli the book from cover to cover: ""I the memory of the depression evokes inl‘ thoughts of homebrew and patches. 1" mt a fundamental charity and concern 3. ihcrx which made the trials of ‘making «an bearable for us all." (Clarke Irwin min publishers; price $3.95.)â€"Ethel Ch -i * ir * WONIAN IN SPRING By Isabelle Bryans Longfellnn I am so very glad to be A woman when the redbud tree 7 Flicker-s with flame before the ledi In blossoms, delicate and brief; Or when the tulips brightly stand Like sturdy children in a land So lately desolate of youth. A man is wary of the truth That flowers in ecstatic things: \Vhen beauty like a rush of wings Stirs the rare ether of his heart He dare not let the frail tear start. Or bare it rapture unconfessed Within his stoutly tweeded breast. But I, a woman, I may wear Sprigs of lilac in my hair, Let worship kindle in my face Openly without disgrace. I may throw my free arms wide To all the mist of bloom outsrde And capture violets in my dreSS. While he, in fear of spring excess. Chooses another brown cravar. [yield my stipend to possess A purple flowerpot for a hat! '* ‘k 1'! HOME AND 0‘“- ii“