66 Stranger, underneath that tower On the western side, A happy, happy company In holy peace abide; My father, and my mother, And my sisters four Their beds are made in swelling turf, Fronting the western door." "Child, if thou speak to them They will not answer thee; They are deep down in earth Thy face they cannot see. Then, wherefore art thou going Why seek thy low-laid family, Where they lie cold and still? ** "Stranger, when the summer heats Would dry their turfy bed, Duly from this loving hand With water it is fed; They must be cleared this morning HENRY ALFord. BABY BELL. Hung in the glistening depths of even,— She touched a bridge of flowers,-those feet, She came, and brought delicious May. And o'er the porch the trembling vine Came to this world of ours! Ah, never in our hearts before And now the orchards, which were white The grapes hung purpling in the grange; In little Baby Bell. Her lissome form more perfect grew, And in her features we could trace, In softened curves, her mother's face. Her angel-nature ripened too: We thought her lovely when she came, But she was holy, saintly now :-Around her pale, angelic brow We saw a slender ring of flame! God's hand had taken away the seal That held the portals of her speech; And oft she said a few strange words Whose meaning lay beyond our reach. She never was a child to us, We never held her being's key; We could not teach her holy things. She was Christ's self in purity. It came upon us by degrees, We saw its shadow ere it fell,- We shuddered with unlanguaged pain, We cried aloud in our belief, Her heart was folded deep in ours, The messenger from unseen lands: THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH. few rags, and with disease. claimed them; THE OUTCAST. UT who are those who make the streets their couch, and find a short even for pity. Their wretchedness excites rather horror than pity. Some are without the covering even of a others emaciated The world has dis society turns its back upon their distress, and has given them up to nakedness and hunger. subordinate species of tyranny; and every law which gives others security becomes an ememy to them. OLIVER GOLDSMITH. HE years back of us are full of voices-voices eloquent and pathetic. You who have lived long, have stood over the grave of many an early dream. Success, when it came, was not what you thought it would be, and even success has often been denied you. You have watched by the couch of many a hope, and seen it fai! and die. You have buried many a bright expectation, and laid the memorial wreath over many a joy. Withered garlands are there, and broken rings, and vases once fragrant with flowers, and the white faces of those that sleep. |