Till she pulled at John's sleeve in the twilight,
To be certain, before he had gone;
And he smiled as he heard the old question,
"Are you sure they are meetin'-folks, John?'

When Minnie came home from the city,
And left heart and happiness there,
I saw her close kneeling by Grannie,
With her dear wrinkled hands on her hair;
And amid the low sobs of the maiden,
Came softly the tremulous tone,
"He wasn't like meetin'-folks, Minnie;
Dear child, you are better alone."

And now from the corner we miss her,
And hear that reminder no more;
But still, unforgotten, the echo

Comes back from that far-away shore;
Till Sophistry slinks in the corner,
Though Charity sweet has her due,
Yet we feel, if we want to meet Grannie,
"Twere best to be meetin' -folks too.

The Telegram.

Dead! did you say? he! dead in his prime !
Son of
my mother! my brother 1 my friend!
While the horologue points to the noon of his time,
Has his sun set in darkness? is all at an end?
("By a sudden accident.")

Dead! it is not, it cannot, it must not be true!
Let me read the dire words for myself, if I can;
Relentless, hard, cold, they rise on my view
They blind me! how did you say that they ran ?

("He was mortally injured.")

Dead! around me I hear the singing of birds

And the breath of June roses comes in at the pane, Nothing nothing is changed by those terrible words,

They cannot be true! let me see them again;

("And died yesterday.")

Dead! a letter but yesterday told of his love!
Another to-morrow the tale will repeat;
Outstripped by this thunderbolt flung from above,
Scathing my heart as it falls at my feet!
("Funeral to-morrow.")

Oh, terrible Telegraph I subtle and still!
Darting thy lightnings with pitiless haste!

No kind warning thunder

no storm-boding thrill

But one fierce deadly flash, and the heart lieth waste! ("Inform his friends.")

The Swan's Nest.

Little Ellie sits alone

Sarah E. Henshaw.

If he comes to take my love.'

"Then the young foot-page will run —
Then my lover will ride faster,
Till he kneeleth at my knee:
'I am a duke's eldest son!
Thousand serfs do call me master,
But, O Love, I love but thee!'

"He will kiss me on the mouth
Then; and lead me as a lover,

Through the crowds that praise his deeds: And, when soul-tied by one troth,

Unto him I will discover

That swan's nest among the reeds."

Little Ellie, with her smile

Not yet ended, rose up gayly,

Tied the bonnet, donned the shoe
And went homeward, round a mile,

Just to see, as she did daily,

What more eggs were with the two.

Pushing through the elm-tree copse
Winding by the stream, light-hearted,
Where the ozier pathway leads -
Past the boughs she stoops- and stops!

Lo! the wild swan had deserted, -

-

And a rat had gnawed the reeds.

Ellie went home sad and slow:

If she found the lover ever,

With his red-roan steed of steeds,
Sooth I know not! but I know

She could never show him

- never,

That swan's nest among the reeds!

Mrs. Browning.

The Main Truck, or a Leap for Life.
Old Ironsides at anchor lay,

In the harbor of Mahon;
A dead calm rested on the bay,

The waves to sleep had gone;
When little Hal, the captain's son,
A lad both brave and good,
In sport, up shroud and rigging ran,
And on the main-truck stood!

A shudder shot through every vein,
All eyes were turned on high!
There stood the boy, with dizzy brain,
Between the sea and sky;

No hold had he above, below,

Alone he stood in air;

To that far height none dared to go;
No aid could reach him there.