And now, when the cows came back at night,

The feeble father drove them home.

For news had come to the lonely farm
That three were lying where two had lain;
And the old man's tremulous, palsied arm
Could never lean on a son's again.

The summer day grew cold and late,

He went for the cows when the work was done; But down the lane, as he opened the gate, He saw them coming, one by one.

Brindle, Ebony, Speckle, and Bess,

Shaking their horns in the evening wind Cropping the buttercups out of the grassBut who was it following close behind?

Loosely swung in the idle air

The empty sleeve of army-blue,

And worn and pale, from the crisping hair,
Looked out a face that the father knew.

For Southern prisons will sometimes yawn,
And yield their dead to life again:
And the day that comes with a cloudy dawn
In golden glory at last may wane.

The great tears sprang to their meeting eyes—

For the heart must speak when the lips are dumb

And under the silent evening skies

Together they followed the cattle home.

Time and its Changes.

HERE is no charm in time, as time, nor good;

The long days are no happier than the short ones.

'Tis some time now since I was here.

We leave

Our home in youth, no matter to what end;
Study, or strife, or pleasure, or what not;
And coming back in few short years, we find
All as we left it, outside; the old elms,

The house, grass, gates, and latchet's selfsame click;
But lift that latchet-all is changed as doom:
The servants have forgotten our step, and more
Than half of those who knew us, know us not.
Adversity, prosperity, the grave,

Play a round game with friends.

On some the world

Hath shut its evil eye, and they are passed
From honor and remembrance, and a stare
Is all the mention of their names receives;
And people know no more of them than of
The shapes of clouds at midnight, a year back.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES.

OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES was born at Cambridge, Mass., August 29, 1809, and at this time (1882), he occupies the chair of Anatomy and Physiology in Harvard University. At the age of twenty, Holmes graduated at Harvard, and commenced the study of law. Law was soon abandoned for medicine. He studied in Europe, and in 1836 graduated at Cambridge as doctor of medicine. In 1838 he became professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Dartmouth College, and in 1847 accepted the same position at Harvard.

The following are among his literary works: Poetry, a Metrical Essay; Terpsichore; Urania; Astræa. The above poems were delivered before college and literary societies. He is also author of three excellent works, entitled Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, The Professor at the Breakfast Table, and The Poet at the Breakfast Table. Three other well known works of his are Elsie Venner, published in 1861; The Guardian Angel, in 1868; Mechanism in Thought and Morals, in 1872.

Besides his excellent literary works already noted, he is author of valuable medical works.

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