Firm in the tempest's awful wrath
It stood, to guide the traveller's path,
And point to where the valley lies,
Serene beneath the summer skies.

One dear companion of that night
Has passed away from mortal sight;
He reached his home to droop and fade,
And sleep within his native glade;
But as his fluttering hand I took,
Before he gave his farewell look,
He whispered from his bed of pain,
"The Alpine Cross I see again!"
Then, smiling, sank to endless rest
Upon his weeping mother's breast.

LAST WISHES OF A CHILD.

66 ALL the hedges are in bloom,

And the warm west wind is blowing;

Let me leave this stifled room

Let me go where flowers are growing.

"Look! my cheek is thin and pale, And my pulse is very low;

Ere my sight begins to fail,

"Was not that the robin's song

Piping through the casement wide;

I shall not be listening long

Take me to the meadow-side!

"Bear me to the willow-brook

Let me hear the merry millOn the orchard I must look,

Ere my beating heart is still,

"Faint and fainter grows my breath—
Bear me quickly down the lane;
Mother dear, this chill is death-
I shall never speak again!”

Still the hedges are in bloom,

And the warm west wind is blowing;

Still we sit in silent gloom—

O'er her grave the grass is growing.

DIRGE FOR A YOUNG GIRL.

UNDE

NDERNEATH the sod, low lying,
Dark and drear,

Sleepeth one who left, in dying,
Sorrow here.

Yes, they're ever bending o'er her,

Eyes that weep;.

Forms, that to the cold grave bore her, Vigils keep.

When the summer moon is shining

Soft and fair,

Friends she loved in tears are twining
Chaplets there.

Rest in peace, thou gentle spirit,
Throned above;

Souls like thine with GoD inherit
Life and love!

BALLAD OF THE TEMPEST.

WE

E were crowded in the cabin,
Not a soul would dare to sleep;

It was midnight on the waters,
And a storm was on the deep.

'Tis a fearful thing in winter

To be shattered in the blast,
And to hear the rattling trumpet
Thunder, "Cut away the mast!"

So we shuddered there in silence-
For the stoutest held his breath,
While the hungry sea was roaring,
And the breakers talked with Death.

As thus we sat in darkness,

Each one busy in his prayers—
"We are lost!" the captain shouted,
As he staggered down the stairs.

But his little daughter whispered,
As she took his icy hand,
"Isn't GOD upon the ocean,

Just the same as on the land?"

Then we kissed the little maiden,
And we spoke in better cheer,
And we anchored safe in harbour
When the morn was shining clear.

George H. Boker.

A BALLAD OF SIR JOHN FRANKLIN.

"The ice was here, the ice was there,

The ice was all around."-COLERIDGE.

66H, whither sail you, Sir JOHN FRANKLIN ?" Cried a whaler in Baffin's Bay.

"To know if between the land and the pole I find a broad sea-way."

may

"I charge you back, Sir JOHN Franklin,

As

you would live and thrive;

For between the land and the frozen pole
No man may sail alive.”

But lightly laughed the stout Sir JOHN,

And spoke unto his men :

"Half England is wrong if he is right;

Bear off to westward then."

"Oh, whither sail you, brave Englishman?"

Cried the little Esquimaux.

"Between your land and the polar star

My goodly vessels go."

"Come down, if you would journey there,"

The little Indian said,

"And change your cloth for fur clothing,
Your vessel for a sled."

But lightly laughed the stout Sir JOHN,
And the crew laughed with him too:
"A sailor to change from ship to sled,
I ween, were something new!"

All through the long, long polar day,
The vessels westward sped;

And wherever the sail of Sir JOHN was blown,

The ice gave way and fled

Gave way with many a hollow groan,
And with many a surly roar,

But it murmured and threatened on every side,

And closed where he sailed before.

"Ho! see ye not, my merry men,
The broad and open sea?
Bethink ye what the whaler said,
Think of the little Indian's sled !"
The crew laughed out in glee.

"Sir JOHN, Sir JOHN, 'tis bitter cold,
The scud drives on the breeze,

The ice comes looming from the north,

The very sunbeams freeze."

Bright summer goes, dark winter comes

We cannot rule the year;

But long ere summer's sun goes down,

On yonder sea we'll steer.”