Away then went those pretty babes
Rejoycing at that tide,
Rejoycing with a merry minde,

They should on cock-horse ride.
They prate and prattle pleasantly,
As they rode on the waye,

To those that should their butchers be, And work their lives' decaye:

So that the pretty speeche they had,
Made Murder's heart relent:
And they that undertooke the deed,
Full sore did now repent.

Yet one of them more hard of heart,
Did vowe to do his charge,
Because the wretch that hired him
Had paid him very large.

The other won't agree thereto,

So here they fall to strife; With one another they did fight, About the children's life: And he that was of mildest mood Did slaye the other there, Within an unfrequented wood;

The babes did quake for feare!

He took the children by the hand,
Teares standing in their eye,
And bad them straitwaye follow him,
And look they did not crye:

And two long miles he ledd them on,
While they for food complaine:

"Staye here," quoth he, "I'll bring you bread, When I come back againe.”

These pretty babes, with hand in hand,

Went wandering up and downe;

But never more could see the man
Approaching from the towne:

Their prettye lippes with blackberries
Were all besmeared and dyed,

And when they sawe the darksome night,
They sat them downe and cryed.

Thus wandered these poor innocents
Till deathe did end their grief,
In one another's armes they died,
As wanting due relief:
No burial this pretty pair

Of any man receives,
Till Robin-redbreast piously

Did cover them with leaves.

And now the heavy wrathe of God

Upon their uncle fell;

Yea, fearful fiends did haunt his house,
His conscience felt an hell;

His barnes were fired, his goodes consumed,
His landes were barren made,
His cattle dyed within the field,

And nothing with him stayd.

And in the voyage of Portugal
Two of his sonnes did dye;

And to conclude, himselfe was brought
To want and miserye :

He pawned and mortgaged all his land
Ere seven years came about,
And now at length this wicked act
Did by this means come out:

The fellowe that did take in hand
These children for to kill,
Was for a robbery judged to dye,
Such was God's blessed will:
Who did confess the very truth,

As here hath been displayed: Their uncle having dyed in gaol, Where he for debt was layd.

You that executors be made,
And overseers eke

Of children that be fatherless,
And infants mild and meek;
Take you example by this thing,
And yield to each his right,
Lest God with such like miserye
Your wicked minds requite.

ORN of the prairie and the wave-1 -the blue sea and the green,

A city of the Occident, CHICAGO lay between; Dim trails upon the meadow, faint wakes upon

the main,

On either sea a schooner and a canvas-covered

wain.

I saw a dot upon the map, and a house-fly's filmy wing

They said 't was Dearborn's picket-flag when Wilder

ness was king;

I heard the reed-bird's morning song-the Indian's

awkward flail —

The rice tattoo in his rude canoe like a dash of April

YWO armies covered hill and plain,

T

Where Rappahannock's waters
Ran deeply crimsoned with the stain
Of battle's recent slaughters.

The summer clouds lay pitched like tents
In meads of heavenly azure;
And each dread gun of the elements
Slept in its high embrasure.

The breeze so softly blew, it made

No forest leaf to quiver;

And the smoke of the random cannonade
Rolled slowly from the river.

And now where circling hills looked down
With cannon grimly planted,
O'er listless camp and silent town
The golden sunset slanted.

When on the fervid air there came
A strain, now rich, now tender;
The music seemed itself aflame
With day's departing splendor.

A Federal band, which eve and morn
Played measures brave and nimble,
Had just struck up with flute and horn
And lively clash of cymbal.

Down flocked the soldiers to the banks;
Till, margined by its pebbles,
One wooded shore was blue with "Yanks,"
And one was grey with "Rebels."

Then all was still; and then the band,
With movement light and tricksy,
Made stream and forest, hill and strand,
Reverberate with "Dixie."

The conscious stream, with burnished glow,
Went proudly o'er its pebbles,
But thrilled throughout its deepest flow
With yelling of the Rebels.

Again a pause; and then again
The trumpet pealed sonorous,

66

And Yankee Doodle" was the strain
To which the shore gave chorus.

The laughing ripple shoreward flew
To kiss the shining pebbles;
Loud shrieked the swarming Boys in Blue
Defiance to the Rebels.

And yet once more the bugle sang
Above the stormy riot;

No shout upon the evening rang-
There reigned a holy quiet.

The sad, slow stream, its noiseless flood
Poured o'er the glistening pebbles;
All silent now the Yankees stood,
All silent stood the Rebels.

No unresponsive soul had heard
That plaintive note's appealing,
So deeply "Home, Sweet Home" had stirred
The hidden founts of feeling.

Or Blue, or Grey, the soldier sees,
As by the wand of fairy,
The cottage 'neath the live oak trees,
The cabin by the prairie.

The cold or warm, his native skies
Bend in their beauty o'er him;
Seen through the tear-mist in his eyes,
His loved ones stand before him.

As fades the iris after rain,

In April's tearful weather,
The vision vanished as the strain
And daylight died together.

But Memory, waked by Music's art,
Expressed in simple numbers,
Subdued the sternest Yankee's heart,
Made light the Rebel's slumbers.

And fair the form of Music shinesThat bright celestial creature— Who still 'mid War's embattled lines Gives this one touch of Nature.

JOHN R. THOMPSON.

ILD was the night, yet a wilder night

Hung round the soldier's pillow; In his bosom there waged a fiercer fight Than the fight on the wrathful billow.

A few fond mourners were kneeling by,
The few that his stern heart cherished;
They knew, by his glazed and unearthly eye,
That life had nearly perished.

They knew by his awful and kingly look,
By the order hastily spoken,

That he dreamed of days when the nations shook,
And the nations' hosts were broken.

He dreamed that the Frenchman's sword still slew,
And triumphed the Frenchman's eagle,
And the struggling Austrian fled anew,
Like the hare before the beagle.