Ah! murmur not that she hath given nought To stay thy soul's great hunger, though thou art Faint for the fond name and the honeyed thought Stored in the secret places of her heart. Thou'st seen a rose, pale, drooping toward the ground, By showers of heaven too suddenly oppressed; Thus droopeth she, the sweets of speech all drowned In the large love which overflows her breast. A SLEIGH-RIDE. A SNOW-SCENE is singularly beautiful. Every object-house-tops, trees, shrubs, fences-in short, whatever goes to make up the landscape, is enrobed in most exquisite white, and of such purity and brightness that it glares the eye to look at it steadily. Then when the sun shines, the universal gleam reminds one of a fairy grotto of enchanted isles actually turned out of doors to delight and dazzle mortals. Now comes a frost, and the snow is compact and brittle; then a slight rain settles it, and again a frost, and it is hard, solid, crisp, and unyielding, just in glorious order for sleighing. Now, boys, get out your "teams;" and girls, wrap yourselves up in furs, boas, and tippets; we are going to have a ride. The moon shines clear to-night, the stars are twinkling, and the air is steady and bracing. Our first care is to have the horses rough-shod, that they may speed like the wind, without fear of falling. Then overhaul the sleighs, of which there are various patterns: here is one in the shape of a swan, capable of holding ten couple; another fashioned like an antelope, with gilded runners; another something like the car of Juggernaut, only not quite so enigmatical; still another in the shape of the American eagle, with the gray pinions all complete, and spread to the breezes as if preparatory to a flight, to perch again perchance on the temple of freedom. We will take none of these-they do not hold sufficient; but here is one, it will contain thirty persons, and now we can have a jolly merry-making to a certainty. It is striped blue, with a red ground, and is no particular device, beyond that of a very comfortable band-box on an exaggerated scale. Now we will have four fiery grays attached, each one having a collar of silver bells around his neck, which, when they are agitated, give out such a sound as make the heart leap and the pulses dance the Cellarius. The driver a huge fellow, well practised in his artmounts the box, wrapped in a bear-skin coat, which only leaves his eyes and the smallest possible tip of a very red nose visible. He gives the whip a single flourish-off we go-nags snorting, bells ringing, snow flying, moon beaming, boys screaming, driver shouting -all life, fun, and vivacity. THE CHILDREN. BEAUTIFUL the children's faces, Eloquent the children's faces- Give us light amid our darkness; We are willing, we are ready; We would learn, if you would teach: We have hearts that yearn towards duty; We have minds alive to beauty; Souls that any heights can reach! Raise us by your Christian knowledge- Let us stamp the age as ours! We shall be what you will make us→ Look into our childish faces! Only love us-only lead us; We are thousands-many thousands ! Train us! try us! days slide onward, Make us worthy to be MEN! Send us to our weeping mothers, Such the children's mute appealing, TO A REFORMER. "ENTHUSIAST," "Dreamer"-such the names Thine age bestows on thee, For that great nature, going forth In world-wide sympathy; For the vision clear, the spirit brave, The honest heart and warm, And the voice which swells the battle-cry Yet, for thy fearless manliness, When weak time-servers throng Thy chivalrous defence of right, Thy bold rebuke of wrong, |