Poems and stories and pictures were there

Of the Christ child, the Yule log of folk-lore rare. "I am not in bright colors," he said, with a smile, "But the long winter evenings my gifts here beguile.”

- Helen Adelaide Ricker.

LOST THE SUMMER.

/HERE has the summer gone?

WHER

She was here just a minute ago,

With roses and daisies

To whisper her praises -
And every one loved her so!

Has any one seen her about?

She must have gone off in the night!
And she took the best flowers

And the happiest hours,

And asked no one's leave for her flight.

Have you noticed her steps in the grass?
The garden looks red where she went;
By the side of the hedge
There's a goldenrod edge,

And the rose-vines are withered and bent.

Don't you fear she is sorry she went?

It seems but a minute since May!
I'm scarcely half through

What I wanted to do;

If she only had waited a day!

Do you think she will ever come back?
I shall watch every day at the gate
For the robins and clover,
Saying over and over:

"I know she will come, if I wait!"

-R. M. Alden

The Pansy, Sept., 1894.

TH

AUTUMN.

HE world puts on its robes of glory now;
The very flowers are tinged with deeper dyes;
The waves are bluer, and the angels pitch
Their shining tents along the sunset skies.

The distant hills are crowned with purple mist;
The days are mellow, and the long calm nights,
To wondering eyes, like weird magicians show
The shifting splendors of the Northern Lights.

The generous earth spreads out her faithful stores,
And all the leaves are thick with ripened sheaves;
While in the woods, at Autumn's rustling step,
The maples blush through all their trembling leaves.
— Albert Laighton.

N°

AUTUMN SONG.

O clouds are in the morning sky
The vapors hug the stream

Who says that life and love can die

In all this northern gleam!

At every turn the maples burn,

The quail is whistling free,

The partridge whirrs, and the frosted burrs
Are dropping for you and me.
Ho! hilly ho! heigh O!
Hilly ho!

In the clear October morning.

Along our path the woods are bold
And glow with ripe desire;
The yellow chestnut showers its gold,
The sumachs spread their fire;
The breezes feel as crisp as steel,
The buckwheat tops are red:
Then down the lane, love, scurry again,
And over the stubble tread!

Ho! hilly ho! heigh O!

Hilly ho!

In the clear October morning.

– E. C. Stedman.

ABOUT THE FAIRIES.

PRAY,

RAY, where are the little bluebells gone,
That lately bloomed in the wood?

Why, the little fairies have each taken one,
And put it on for a hood.

And where are the pretty grass-stalks gone,
That waved in the summer breeze?
Oh, the fairies have taken them every one,
To plant in their gardens, like trees.

And where are the great big bluebottles gone,
That buzzed in their busy pride?

Oh, the fairies have caught them every one,
And have broken them in to ride.

And they've taken the glow-worms to light their halls,
And the cricket to sing them a song,

And the great red rose-leaves to paper their walls,
And they're feasting the whole night long.

But when spring comes, with its soft, mild ray,
And the ripple of gentle rain,

The fairies bring back what they've taken away,
And give it us all again.

- Selected.

A

TRIFLES.

RAINDROP is a little thing,
But on the thirsty ground,

It helps to make the flowers of spring,
And beauty spread around.

A

ray of light may seem to be

Lost in the blaze of day;

But its sweet mission God can see,

Who sends it on its way.

23

- Colesworthy.

I

SUNSHINE.

WISH the beautiful sun would shine,
Every, every day,

Beaming over the whole great world,
And making it bright and gay.

I wish that every gloomy cloud
Would hurry and hide away,
Wherever it came from—I don't know
Nor care if they'd go and stay.

I wish, I wish but what is the use
Of wishing, I'd like to know?

For grandmother says that clouds and shine
Will always come and go.

But wee little girls like me, she says,

Can smile, and smile, and smile, Till every one who sees will think It is sunshine all the while.

I'd like to try it, but, don't you see,
A bit of a smile like mine

Would reach such a very little way
And make such a little shine?

But ah-if every boy and girl

Would smile, and smile, and see

How far they could make the brightness go,
How shining the world would be!

-Selected.