And puts at last beneath his feet The bravest man that drew a sword It calls for something more than brawn An enemy, who marched not With waving plume and drum A foe forever lurking nigh, With silent, stealthy tread All honor, then, to that brave heart, Or fill a hero's grave; But truth will place his name among The bravest of the brave. MORNING GLORIES. THEY said, "Don't plant them, mother; they're so common and so poor;" But of seeds I had no other, so I dropped them by the door; And they soon were brightly growing in the rich and teeming soil, Stretching upward, upward, upward, to reward me for my toil. They grew all o'er the casement, and they wreathed around the door, All about the chamber windows, upward, upward, ever more; And each dawn in glowing beauty, glistening in the early dew, Is the house all wreathed in splendor, every morning bright and new. What if they close at midday, 'tis because their work is done, And they shut their crimson petals from the kisses f the sun, Teaching every day their lesson to my weary, pan.ng soul, To be faithful in well-doing, stretching upward for the goal. Sending out the climbing tendrils, trusting God for strength and power, To support, and aid and comfort, in the trying day and hour; Never spurn the thing that's common, nor call these home flowers poor, For each hath a holy mission, like my glory o'er the door. EXAMPLE E scatter seeds with careless hand, WE And dream we ne'er shall see them more: But for a thousand years Their fruit appears, In weeds that mar the land Or healthful store. The deeds we do, the words we say, Into still air they seem to fleet; We count them ever past; In the dread judgment they I charge thee by the years gone by, Keep, then, the one true way Lest in the world their cry Of woe thou hear. KEBLE. NOT LOST. HE look of sympathy, the gentle word THE Spoken so low that only angels heard; The secret act of pure self-sacrifice, Unseen by men but marked by angels' eyesThese are not lost. The sacred music of a tender strain Wrung from a poet's heart by grief and pain, The silent tears that fall at dead of night The happy dreams that gladdened all our youth, The kindly plans devised for others' good, Not lost, O Lord, for in Thy city bright, SARAH DOUDNEY. LA THE OLD YEAR. AST night, when all the village Was lying white and still, With starlight in the valley, With moonlight on the hill, I wakened from my dreaming, And hushed my heart to hear The old clock on the steeple Toll out the dying year. They say that when the angels No sound came through the silence, Of all the gifts and blessings So, in that solemn morning When first thy feet shall stand, |