Soon we shall meet above the stars,
On Canaan's peaceful plain,
Where tears are wiped from every eye,
And never part again."

I spoke of Him whose watchful eye
Discerns the sparrow's fall,
Whose mercy and benevolence
Extend alike to all,-

The Father of the fatherless;

Then cross'd the common wide: But this poor bended widow'd one Was ever at my side.

AN OLD WOMAN IN TEARS.

I SAW an old woman in tears,—

Her hopes were all built on the Rock,

When the minister spake in the temple of God,

And the Spirit fell down on the flock.

Her limbs were all shaking with pain,
Her body was bended with years,

And palsy was evermore twitching her nerves,―
This wrinkled old woman in tears.

Her home is a cellar in town,

All damp with the spray of the sea;

And there with her Bible she dwelleth alone,

As happy as happy can be.

The

peace

of the Sabbath prevails;

On the hill-tops a halo appears;

And my heart is made better to worship with her, This wasted old woman in tears.

THE FATHER'S GIFT.

COME, John, we'll cease a-ploughing now:

You turn the horse a-field,

And bring the cows into the yard,

Their luscious milk to yield. Build up the old gap by the carne,

While it is evening light;

Then hasten home; for I have there
A gift for you to-night."

John trotted down the narrow lane,

To let the horses drink;

And while they quaff'd the cooling draught,

The boy began to think:

"I wonder what my father has

At home to give to me:
A little orphan lamb perhaps ;
I know not what, 't will be."

A-feeding in the grassy mead
He left the weary team;

And, plodding on his homeward way,
Indulged in many a dream.

And soon he pass'd the clinking mill,
The stile, the barn of thatch,
And stood within his father's porch,
With hand upon the latch,

The supper ended, grace was o'er,
The playful girls and boys
Enjoy'd themselves in leafy nooks

With picture-books and toys;
When, sitting on a grassy seat
Beside his rustic shed,

The old man call'd the boy to him,
And thus he sweetly said:

"I offer thee no bags of gold,
Or gems from fabled mine;
No jewels bright, or costly robes,
Or title-deeds are thine.

But thou, with health and honesty
And industry and care,

Canst win those treasures for thyself,

If thou wilt do and dare.

"But what I now present to thee
Will prove of higher worth,
If rightly read and understood,
Than all the gems of earth.
O, take this Bible from thy sire;
And may its light Divine
Illuminate thy path of life,

As it has brighten'd mine!"

Then kneeling down among the flowers
In twilight's deepening shade,
Placing his hands upon his boy,
The good old father pray'd.
O, sweetest music fill'd the void,
Low murmuring o'er the shed,
Floating upon the evening clouds
From angels over head.

Time pass'd along with rapid flow,
And upward grew the boy

To manhood's form: his father's gift,
The Bible, was his joy.

He prized it more than glittering gold:
And now he takes his stand
Among the gifted of the earth,
The honour'd of the land.

THE LONELY MUSER.

THE day had ended, the pale stars
Were shining through the sky,
A's all alone a pensive man

Mused where the rough rocks lie,
Gazing away in empty space

With tear-drops in his eye.

The dark-cloak'd Reaper had just pass'd

Where bursting blossoms smiled; Not heeding youth and innocence, Or beauty undefiled,

He drew his sickle mid the flowers,

When fell his darling child.

Like some angelic thing:

Their two brief beings mix'd in one
"Neath Love's elysian wing.
She fell a cherish'd part of him,
When broke life's feeble string.

And now among the heath he sits
That the fresh common fills,

Gazing away among the stars

That gem the heavenly hills; And deems he sees his angel one Beside the Eden rills.

1

THE DAISY.

BLESS thee, fair angel of the earth!
Opening thy silvery eye

On barren hills, whose rocky crests
Gaze up into the sky;