Then out spoke a negro sailor,
No slavish soul had he:
'Somebody's got to die, boys,
And it might as well be me!"

Firmly he rose, and fearlessly
Stepped out into the tide;
He pushed the vessel safely off,
Then fell across her side:

Fell, pierced by a dozen bullets,

As the boat swung clear and free;
But there was n't a man of them that day
Who was fitter to die than he!

St. Augustine, Fla.

ST. AUGUSTINE.

Phoebe Carey.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla., was founded by the Spaniards in the year 1565. During the past three centuries it has been the scene of many sieges, and has been many times ravaged by the French, Indians, and Spanish. But little of the old city now remains; time and war have done their work. But its picturesque appearance and historic associations, added to its being the oldest town in North America, still invest it with great interest.

IN

the realm of flowers, a perfumed land,
Girt by the sea, by soft winds fanned,
Ravaged by war in years grown old,
Its former glory a tale long told,

Stands the quaint old Spanish city.

The scene of many a hard-fought fight,
Of many a siege, when Spanish might

Was o'er the land in its decay

It hath a beauty to live alway,

That quaint old Spanish city.

There's a charm in the ancient narrow street,

Where lovely dames erst walked to meet
Cavaliers in the days gone by,

When strife of valor and love ran high

In the quaint old Spanish city.

*

There's a charm in the convent's crumbling wall;

In old cathedral with turret tall,

With moss-grown roof and merry chime,

Man outliving, defying time,

In the quaint old Spanish city.

*

Anonymous.

DOLORES.

ER old boat loaded with oranges,

HER

Her baby tied on her breast,

Minorcan Dolores bends to her oars,

Noting each reed on the slow-moving shores;
But the way is long, and the inlet wide, -
Can two small hands overcome the tide
Sweeping up into the west?

Four little walls of coquina-stone,

Rude thatch of palmetto leaves;

There have they nestled, like birds in a tree,
From winter and labor and hunger free;

Taking from earth their small need, but no more,

No thought of the morrow, no laying in store,
No gathering patient sheaves.

Alone in their Southern island-home,

Through the year of summer days,
The two love on; and the bountiful beach
Clusters its sea-food within his reach;
The two love on, and the tropical land
Drops its wild fruit in her indolent hand,
And life is a sunshiny haze.

Luiz, Dolores, and baby brown,

With dreamy, passionate eyes,

Far in the past, lured by Saxon wiles,

A simple folk came from the Spanish sea-isles, Now, tinged with the blood of the Creole quadroon, Their children live idly along the lagoon,

Under the Florida skies.

Luiz, Dolores, and baby brown,

Ah, their blossoming life of love!
But fever falls with its withering blight:
Dolores keeps watch through the sultry night,
In vain her poor herbs, in vain her poor prayers,
Her Luiz is mounting the spirit-winged stairs
That lead to her heaven above.

So, her old boat loaded with oranges,
Her baby tied on her breast,

Dolores rows off to the ancient town,

Where the blue-eyed soldiers come marching down From the far cold North; they are men who know

Thus Dolores thinks how to cure all woe;
Nay, their very touch is blest.

But the northern soldiers move steadily on,
They hear not nor understand;

The last blue rank has passed down the street,

She sees but the dust of their marching feet;
They have crossed a whole country by night and by day,
And marked, with their blood, every step of the way,
To conquer this Southern land.

They are gone--O despair! she turns to the church,
Half fainting, her fruit wet with tears;

"Perhaps the old saint, who is always there,
May wake up and take them to pay for a prayer;
They are very sweet, as the saint will see,

If he would but wake up, and listen to me:
But he sleeps so, he never hears."

She enters; the church is filled with men,
The pallid men of the North!

Each dingy old pew is a sick man's bed,
Each battered old bench holds a weary head,
The altar-candles are swept away

For vials and knives in shining array,

And a new saint is stepping forth!

He must be a saint, for he comes from the shrine,

A saint of a Northern creed,

Clad in a uniform, army blue,

But surely the saints may wear any hue

Dolores thinks, as he takes her hands
And hears all her story, and understands
The cry of her desperate need.

An orange he gives to each weary man,
To freshen the fevered mouth,

Then forth they go down the old sea-wall,
And they hear in the dusk the picket's call;
The row-boat is moored on the shadowy shore,
The Northern saint can manage an oar,

And the boat glides fast to the south.

A healing touch and a holy drink,

A bright little heavenly knife,

And this strange Northern saint, who prays no prayers,
Brings back the soul from the spirit-winged stairs,
And once more Minorcan Luiz's dark eyes,
In whose depths the warmth of the tropics lies,
Rest calm on the awe-stricken wife.

Constance Fenimore Woolson.

St. Catherine's, the Island, Ga.

ST. CATHERINE'S.

E that would wish to rove awhile

HE

In forests green and gay,

From Charleston Bar to Catharine's Isle
Might sigh to find the way!