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He feared not once himself to be in cared to hoard for those whom need,

Her heart 'gan melt in great compas-Ne sion,

he did breed:

And drizzling tears did shed for pure The grace of God he laid up still in

affection.

[From The Faerie Queene.]

A HOSPITAL.

EFTSOONES unto an holy hospital, That was foreby the way, she did him bring;

In which seven Bead-men, that had vowed all

Their life to service of high heaven's king,

Did spend their days in doing godly things:

Their gates to all were open ever

more,

That by the weary way were travelling;

And one sat waiting ever them before,

To call in comers by, that needy were and poor.

The first of them, that eldest was and best,

Of all the house had charge and government,

store,

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HARRIET PRESCOTT SPOFFORD.

HEREAFTER.

LOVE, when all these years are silent, vanished quite and laid to rest,
When you and I are sleeping, folded breathless breast to breast,
When no morrow is before us, and the long grass tosses o'er us,
And our grave remains forgotten, or by alien footsteps pressed,

Still that love of ours will linger, that great love enrich the earth,
Sunshine in the heavenly azure, breezes blowing joyous mirth;
Fragrance fanning off from flowers, melody of summer showers,
Sparkle of the spicy wood-fires round the happy autumn hearth.
That's our love. But you and I, dear, shall we linger with it yet,
Mingled in one dewdrop, tangled in one sunbeam's golden net,

On the violet's purple bosom, I the sheen but you the blossom, Stream on sunset winds, and be the haze with which some hill is wet?

Oh, beloved, — if ascending, — when we have endowed the world
With the best bloom of our being, whither will our way be whirled;
Through what vast and starry spaces, toward what awful holy places,
With a white light on our faces, spirit over spirit furled?

Only this our yearning answers, — - whereso'er that way defile,
Not a film shall part us through the æons of that mighty while,
In the fair eternal weather, even as phantoms still together,
Floating, floating, one forever, in the light of God's great smile!

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