what then? Such thoughts glow like evening clouds, and not far beneath them are the evening twilights, into whose dusk they will soon melt away. And all communions, and all admirations, and all associations, celestial or terrene,1 come alike into å pensive sadness, that is even sweeter than our joy. It is the minor key of the thoughts. H. W. BEECHER.

SECTION XXII.

I.

81. THE WOLVES.

E who listen to stories told

YE

When hearths are cheery, and nights are cōld,
Of the lone wood-side, and the hungry pack
That howls on the fainting traveler's track—
Flame-red eye-balls that waylay,

By the wintry moon, the belated sleigh-
The lost child sought in the dismal wood,
The little shoes and the stains of blood
On the trampled snow-O ye that hear,
With thrills of pity, or chills of fear,
Wishing some angel had been sent
To shield the hapless and innocènt-
Know ye the fiend that is erueler far
Than the gaunt,3 gray herds of the forèst are ?

2. Swiftly vanish the wild, fleet tracks

Before the rifle and woodman's ax;
But hark to the coming of unseen feet,
Pattering by night through the city street!

3. Each wolf that dies in the woodland brown
Lives å specter, and häunts the town.

By square and market they slink and prowl 5—
In lane and alley they leap and howl.

1 Ter rene', earthly.

? Mi'nor, less; in music, less or lower by hälf a tone.

& Gaunt (gänt), slender; lean.

4 Spěc❜ter, an apparition; å ghost. 'Prowl, to rove over, through, or åbout; to rove or wander, especially for prey.

THE WOLVES.

4. All night they snuff and snarl befōre
The poor patched window and brōken dōor.
They paw the clapboards,1 and claw the latch-
At every crevice they whine and scratch.

5. Their tongues are subtle, and long, and thin,
And they lap the living blood within.
Icy keen are the teeth that teâr,
Red as ruin the eyes that glâre.

6. Children erouched in corners cōld
Shiver in tattered garments ōld,
And start from sleep with bitter pangs

At the touch of the phantoms's viewlèss fangs.
7. Weary the mother, and worn with strife,
Still she watches and fights for life;

But her hand is feeble, her weapon small-
One little needle against them all!

8. O ye that listen to stories told,

When hearths are cheery and nights are cold,
Weep no more at the tales you

hear;
The danger is close, and the wolves are near!

4

9. Påss not by, with averted eye,

The door where the stricken children cry.
But when the beat of the unseen feet
Sounds by night through the stormy street,
Follow thou where the spectres glide;
Stand like Hope by the mother's side;
And be thyself the angel sent

To shield the haplèss and innocènt.

10. He gives but little who gives his tears, He gives his best who aids and cheers ;

He does well in the forest wild

Who slays the monster, and saves the child;
But he does better, and mĕrits mōre,

Who drives the wolf from the poor man's dōor.

1 Clapboards (klăb❜bōrdz).

* Subtle (sŭt'l), sly in design ; artful; cunning.

241

3 Phǎn'tom, ȧ specter; å ghost. å

4 Averted (å vērt' ed), tûrned or caused to turn off, åside, or ȧway.

II.

82. HUNGER AND COLD.

ISTERS two, all praise to you,

SIS

With your faces pinched and blue;
To the poor man you've been true,
From of ōld :

You can speak the keenèst word,
You are sure (shọr) of being heard,
From the point you're never stirred,
Hunger and Cōld!

2. Let sleek statesmen temporize;
Palsied are their shifts and lies
When they meet your bloodshot eyes,
Grim and bold;

Policy you set at naught,

In their traps you'll not be caught,
You're too honèst to be bought,
Hunger and Cōld!

3. Bolt and bar the palace-door;
While the måss of men are poor,
Naked truth grows more and more
Uncontrolled :

You had never yět, I guess,
Any praise for bashfulness;
You can visit sans1 court-dress,
Hunger and Cold!

4. While the music fell and rose,
And the dance reeled to its close,
Where her round of costly woes
Fashion strolled,

I beheld, with shuddering fear,
Wolves' eyes through the windows peer;
Little dream they you are near,

Hunger and Cold!

5. When the toiler's heart you clutch, Conscience is not valued much,

1 Sans, without.

HUNGER AND COLD.

He recks not å bloody smutch
On his gold:

Every thing to you defers-
You are potent1 reasoners-
At your whisper Treason2 stirs,
Hunger and Cold!

6. Rude comparisons you draw,
Words refuse to sate your maw,

Your gäunt limbs the cobweb law
Can not hold!

You're not clogged with foolish pride,
But can seize ȧ right denied;
Somehow God is on your side,
Hunger and Cold!

7. You respect no hōary 5 wrong
Mōre for having triumphed long;
Its påst victims, haggard thròng,
From the mōld

You unbury; swords and spears
Weaker are than poor men's tears,
Weaker than your silent years,
Hunger and Cold!

8. Let them guard both hall and bower;
Through the window you will glower,
Patient till your reckoning hour

Shall be tōlled :

Cheeks are pale, but hands are red,
Guiltless blood may chance be shed,
But ye must and will be fed,
Hunger and Cold!

9. God has plans man must not spoil:
Some were made to starve and toil,

1 Pō'tent, powerful; strong.
2 Treason (trēʼzn), the offense of
attempting to overthrow the govern:
ment of the state to which the of
fender is subject, or of betraying
the state into the hands of a foreign
power; treachery.

243

3 Sāte, satisfy the desire or appetite of.

4 Maw (ma), å stomach of one of the lower animals, or, in contempt, of a man; in birds, the craw.

5 Hōar'y, white or gray with age. $ Glower (glou'er), stâre angrily.

O

Some to share the wine and oil,
We are told:

Devil's theories are these,

Stifling hope, and love, and peace,
Framed your hideous lusts to please,
Hunger and Cold!

10. Scatter ashes on thy head,
Tears of burning sorrow shed,
Earth! and be by pity led
To love's fold;

Ere they block the věry door
With lean corpses of the poor,

And will hush for naught but gōre

Hunger and Cold!

III.

83. NOTHING TO WEAR.

LADIES, dear ladies, the next sunny day,

LOWELL.

Please trundle your hoops just out of Broadway,
From its whirl and its bustle, its fashion and pride,
And the temples of Trade which tower on each side,
To the alleys and lanes, where Misfortune and Guilt
Their children have gathered, their city have built—
Where Hunger and Vice, like twin beasts of prey,

Have hunted their victims to gloom and despair.
Raise the rich, dainty dress, and the fine broidered skirt ;
Pick your delicate way through the dampnèss and dirt;

Grope through the dark dens, climb the rickety2 stair To the garret, where wretches, the young and the old, Hälf-starved, and hälf-naked, lie erouched from the cold! 2. See those skeleton limbs, those frost-bitten feet,

All bleeding and bruised by the stones of the street;
Hear the sharp cry of childhood, the deep groans that swell

1 James Russell Lowell, an American poet, was born in Cambridge, Mass., Feb. 22, 1819. Several editions of his collected poems have appeared in this country and in England. He has written much for the

"North American Review," London "Daily News," and numerous other periodicals, and is now [Jan. 1881] U.S. Env. Ex. and Min. Plen. to G. B. 2 Rick'et y, feeble in the joints; imperfect; weak.