The land beyond the morn!
And, for the love of those dear eyes,

For love of her whom God led forth
(The mother's being ceased on earth,
When Babie came from Paradise),
For love of Him who smote our lives,
And woke the chords of joy and pain,
We said, Sweet Christ! our hearts bent down,

Like violets after rain.

4. And now the orchards, which in June

Were white and rosy in their bloom Filling the crystal veins of air

With gentle pulses of perfume Were rich in Autumn's mellow prime: The plums were globes of honeyed wine, The hivèd sweets of summer time!

The ivory chestnut burst its shell:

The soft-cheeked peaches blushed and fell!
The
grapes were purpling in the grange,
And time brought just as rich a change

In little Babie Bell.

Her tiny form more perfect grew,

And, in her features, we could trace,
In softened curves, her mother's face!
Her angel-nature ripened too.
We thought her lovely, when she came,
But she was holy, saintly now;
Around her pale, angelic brow
We saw a slender ring of flame!

5. God's hand had taken away the seal
Which held the portals of her speech;
And oft she said a few strange words
Whose meaning lay beyond our reach;
She never was a child to us,

We never held her being's key;
We could not teach her holy things;
She was Christ's self in purity!

6. It came upon us by degrees:

We saw its shadow ere it fell,
The knowledge that our God had sent
His messenger for Babie Bell.
We shuddered with unlanguaged pain,
And all our hopes were changed to fears,
And all our thoughts ran into tears,

Like sunshine into rain.

We cried aloud, in our belief,

"Oh, smite us gently, gently, God!
Teach us to bend, and kiss the rod,

And perfect grow through grief."

Ah, how we loved her, God can tell;
Her little heart was cased in ours;
Our hearts are broken, Babie Bell!

WE

XCIV. THE DUMB-WAITER.

E have put a dumb-waiter in our house. A dumbwaiter is a good thing to have in the country, on account of its convenience. If you have company, everything can be sent up from the kitchen without any trouble; and if the baby gets to be unbearable, on account of his teeth, you can dismiss the complainant by stuffing him in one of the shelves, and letting him down upon the help. To provide for contingencies, we had all our floors deafened. In consequence, you cannot hear anything that is going on in the story below; and, when you are in an upper room of the house, there might be a democratic ratification meeting in the cellar, and you would not know it.

2. Therefore, if any one should break into the basement it would not disturb us; but to please Mrs. Sparrowgrass, I put stout iron bars in all the lower windows. Besides, Mrs. Sparrowgrass had bought a rattle, when she was in Philadelphia; such a rattle as watchmen carry there. This is to alarm our neighbor, who, upon the signal, is to come to the rescue with his revolver. He is a rash man, prone to pull trigger first, and make inquiries afterward.

Our pump is in kitchen, is more

3. One evening Mrs. S. had retired, and I was busy writing, when it occured to me that a glass of ice-water would be palatable. So I took the candle and the pitcher, and went down to the pump. the kitchen. A country pump, in the convenient; but a well with buckets is certainly more picturesque. Unfortunately, our well-water has not been sweet since the well was cleaned out. First, I had to open a bolted door that lets you into the basement-hall, and then I went to the kitchen door, which proved to be locked.

4. Then I remembered that our girl always carried the key to bed with her, and slept with it under her pillow. Then I retraced my steps, bolted the basement door, and went up to the dining-room. As is always the case, I found, when I could not get any water, I was thirstier than I supposed I was. Then I thought I would waken our girl. Then I concluded not to do it.

5. Then I thought of the well, but I gave that up on

account of its flavor. Then I opened the closet doors, there was no water there; and, then, I thought of the dumb-waiter! The novelty of the idea made me smile; I took out two of the movable shelves, placed the pitcher on the bottom of the dumb-waiter, got in myself with the lamp; let myself down, until I supposed I was within a foot of the floor below, and, then, let go! 6. We came down so suddenly that I was shot out of the apparatus as if it had been a catapult; it broke the pitcher, extinguished the lamp, and landed

me in the middle of the kitchen at midnight, with no fire, and the air not much above the zero point. The truth is, I had miscalculated the distance of the descent, instead of falling one foot, I had fallen five feet.

7. My first impulse was to ascend by the way I came down, but I found that impracticable. Then I tried the kitchen door; it was locked. I tried to force it open; it was made of two-inch stuff and held its own. I hoisted a window, and there were the rigid iron bars. If I ever felt angry at anybody it was at myself, for putting up those bars to please Mrs. Sparrowgrass. I put them up, not to keep people in, but to keep people out.

8. I laid my cheek against the ice-cold barriers and looked out at the sky; not a star was visible; it was as black as ink overhead. I thought of Baron Trenck and the prisoner of Chillon. Then, I made a noise! I shouted, until I was hoarse, and ruined our preserving kettle with the poker. That brought our dogs out in full bark, and between us we made night hideous.

9. I thought I heard a voice, and listened, it was Mrs. Sparrowgrass calling to me from the top of the staircase. I tried to make her hear me, but the infernal dogs united with howl, and growl, and bark, so as to drown my voice, which is naturally plaintive and tender. Besides, there were two bolted doors and double, deafened floors between us; how could she recognize my voice, even if she did hear it?

10. Mrs. Sparrowgrass called once or twice, and then got frightened; the next thing I heard was a sound as if the roof had fallen in, by which I understood that Mrs. Sparrowgrass was springing the rattle! That called out our neighbor, already wide-awake; he came to the rescue with a bull-terrier, a Newfoundland pup, a lantern, and a revolver. The moment he saw me at the window, he shot at me; but, fortunately, just missed me. I threw myself under the kitchen table, and ventured to expostulate with him, but he would not listen to

reason.

11. In the excitement, I had forgotten his name, and that made matters worse. It was not until he had