How the winters are drifting like flakes of snow, And the summers like birds between,

And the years in the sheaf, how they come and they go

On the river's breast with its ebb and flow,
As it glides in the shadow and sheen!

There's a Magical Isle up the river Time,
Where the softest of airs are playing.
There's a cloudless sky and tropical clime,
And a song as sweet as a vesper chime,

And the Junes with the roses are straying.

And the name of this Isle is "the Long Ago,"
And we bury our treasures there;

There are brows of beauty and bosoms of snow,
There are heaps of dust-oh! we love them so—
And there are trinkets and tresses of hair.

There are fragments of songs that nobody sings,
There are parts of an infant's prayer,
There's a lute unswept and a harp without strings
There are broken vows and pieces of rings,
And the garments our dead used to wear.

There are hands that are waved when the fairy sho e
By the mirage is lifted in air,

And we sometimes hear through the turbulent roar Sweet voices we heard in the days gone before,

When the wind down the river was fair.

Oh! remembered for age be that blessed Isle,

All the day of life until night;

And when evening glows with its beautiful smile, And our eyes are closing in slumbers awhile,

May the greenwood of soul be in sight.

B. F. TAYLOR.

16. THE MEETING OF THE WATERS.

There is not in the wide world a valley so sweet As that vale in whose bosom the bright waters meet;

Oh, the last ray of feeling and life must depart Ere the bloom of that valley shall fade from my heart.

Yet it was not that Nature had shed o'er the scene
Her purest of crystal and brightest of green;
'Twas not the soft magic of streamlet or hill:
Oh no! it was something more exquisite still.

'Twas that friends, the beloved of my bosom, were

near,

Who made every dear scene of enchantment more

dear,

And who felt how the best charms of Nature im

prove

When we see them reflected from looks that we

love.

Sweet vale of Avoca! how calm could I rest

In thy bosom of shade with the friends I love best, Where the storms that we feel in this cold world

should cease,

And our heart, like thy waters, be mingled in peace!

-THOMAS MOORE.

17. LOOK ALOFT.

I.

In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale Are around and above, if thy footing should fail, If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart,

"Look aloft," and be firm, and be fearless of heart.

II.

If the friend, who embraced in prosperity's glow, With a smile for each joy and a tear for each woe, Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are arrayed,

"Look aloft"-to the friendship which never shall fade.

III.

Should the visions which hope spreads in light to

thine eye,

Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly,

Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret "Look aloft"-to the Sun that is never to set!

IV.

-the son of thy

Should they who are dearest - the

heart,

The wife of thy bosom in sorrow depart, "Look aloft"- from the darkness and dust of the

tomb

To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom!"

V.

And oh when death comes in his terrors to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, "Look aloft," and depart!

-JONATHAN LAWRENCE.

18. THE STUDY OF WORDS.

There are many words which have very curious and interesting origins. When we know them the words seem something fresh and new to us. Some of them, too, are very common words.

Why do you call the pretty field flower with golden centre and white fringes a daisy? It is the day's eye. The centre is like the sun; the white fringes are like the sun's rays.

In your garden grow tulips, geraniums, heliotropes, nasturtiums, and fragrant pinks. Each of these flowers has a beautiful name. But what does the name mean?

Tulip is from the Turkish word for turban. The brilliant tulip was long ago likened to the showy head-dress of the Turks, and named after it.

Look at the long-pointed fruit into which the geranium flower ripens. Isn't it like a crane's bill? Watch the sensitive heliotrope turn toward the

sun.

Helio is from the Greek word for sun; trope is from the Greek word meaning to turn.

Inhale the sharp, spicy fragrance from your bed of nasturtiums. Nasturtium is the Latin for nosewring. The first part of the word is from the Latin noun nasus, meaning the nose; the remainder is from the Latin verb torqueo, twist or wring.

To pink is to prick or cut finely. You pink the edges of a table scarf. Did you know that the delicately cut edges of your fragrant pinks give them their name?

We think we have done away with the old heathen gods and goddesses. Yet when we call a person jovial we really allude to generous, goodnatured Father Jupiter, or Jove, the king of the gods among the Greeks and Romans.

We sometimes say a person has a mercurial temperament when he is quick and hasty. We call to mind the god Mercury, the swift messenger of