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CHARLES MACKAY, LL.D.

A TRAVELLER through a dusty road

Strewed acorns on the lea;

And one took root, and sprouted up,
And grew into a tree.

Love sought its shade at evening time,
To breathe its early vows;

And Age was pleased, in heats of noon,
To bask beneath its boughs;

The dormouse loved its dangling twigs;
The birds sweet music bore;

It stood a glory in its place,
A blessing evermore!

A little spring had lost its way
Among the grass and fern;
A passing stranger scoop'd a well,
Where weary men might turn.
He walled it in, and hung with care
A ladle at the brink;

He thought not of the deed he did,
But judged that toil might drink.

2

There's much in this life, after all.

He passed again, and lo! the well,

By summers never dried,

Had cooled ten thousand parching tongues,
And saved a life beside!

A dreamer dropped a random thought,
'Twas old, and yet 'twas new-
A simple fancy of the brain,
But strong in being true:
It shone upon a genial mind,
And lo! its light became
A lamp of life, a beacon ray,
A monitory flame.

The thought was small-its issue great;
A watch-fire on the hill;
It shed its radiance far adown,

And cheers the valley still!

A nameless man, amid a crowd
That thronged the daily mart,
Let fall a word of Hope and Love,
Unstudied from the heart;
A whisper on the tumult thrown-
A transitory breath-

It raised a brother from the dust,

It saved a soul from death.

O germ! O fount! O word of love!
O thought at random cast!

Ye were but little at the first,
But mighty at the last!

THERE'S MUCH IN THIS LIFE, AFTER ALL.

J. BURBIDGE.

HERE'S much in this life, after all,

That's pleasant, if people would take it;

On some of us trouble must fall,

But sure I am, most of us make it.

Let us look for the ups and the downs,
And try to take things as we find them,

And if we are met by the frowns,

Believe that a smile is behind them.

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