Swinging and swinging, back and forth, With the rose-light in her face, She seemed like a bird and flower in one, "Steady! I'll send you up, my child," 66 "You're letting him die!" I cried, aghast, "Why, don't you know?" said the little maid, The sparkling, beautiful elf, "That we call it letting the old cat die When the swing stops all by itself." Then swinging and swinging, and looking back, With the merriest look in her eye, She bade me good-bye, and I left her alone, "Letting the old cat die." THE KAISER'S FEAST. THE Kaiser feasted in his hall: And many a gleam and sparkle came As it caught the glance of the torch's flame, Why fell there silence on the chord The strings were hushed: the knights made way As up the hall, in dark array, Two fair-haired boys she led. She led them e'en to the Kaiser's place, Till, with strange wonder o'er his face, And the clinging children by thy side "Well may a mourning vest be mine And theirs, my son, my son! Though grief a while within their eyes "And where is he, thy brother ?—where? Ever to greet thee flew? How would his arms thy neck intwine, His fond lips press thy brow! My son! oh, call these orphans thine! "What! from their gentle eyes doth nought Of thy dead father's towers? Kind was thy boyish heart, and true, When reared together there: Through the old woods like fawns ye flew. Where is thy brother?-where? "Well didst thou love him then, and he Still at thy side was seen. How is it that such things can be As though they ne'er had been? Evil was this world's breath, which came Now must the tears of grief and shame "And let them, let them there be poured! Thine own wrung heart, to love restored, Oh! Death is mighty to make peace: So many an inward strife shall cease; His eye was dimmed; the strong man shook Up in his arms the boys he took, And strained them to his breast. And a shout from all in the royal hall And eyes were wet midst the brave that met PASSING AWAY-A DREAM. WAS it the chime of a tiny bell, That came so sweet to my dreaming ear Like the silvery tones of a fairy's shell, That he winds on the beach so mellow and clear, When the winds and the waves lie together asleep, And the Moon and the Fairy are watching the deep, She dispensing her silvery light, And he, his notes as silvery quite, While the boatman listens and ships his oar, To catch the music that comes from the shoreHark! the notes on my ear that play, Are set to words:-as they float, they say, But no; it was not a fairy's shell Blown on the beach so mellow and clear; And she held to her bosom a budding bouquet, "Passing away! passing away!" O how bright were the wheels that told Of the lapse of time, as they moved round slow! And the hands, as they swept o'er the dial of gold, Seemed to point to the girl below. And lo! she had changed:-in a few short hours Her bouquet had become a garland of flowers, |