"I have no sweetheart," said the lad;
"But—absent long from one another—
Great was the longing that I had
To see my mother.”

"And so thou shalt," Napoleon said,
"You've both my favour fairly won ·
A noble mother must have bred
So brave a son.”

He gave the tar a piece of gold,

And with a flag of truce commanded
He should be shipped to England Old,
And safely landed.

way.

GENTLE REPROOF.-Fletcher

DEAL gently with the erring 2 one;
You may not know the power
With which the first temptation came
In some unguarded hour.
You may not know how earnestly

He struggled, or how well,

Until the hour of weakness came,

And sadly thus he fell.

Speak gently to the erring one;
Oh, do not thou forget,
However deeply stained by sin,
He is thy brother yet.
Heir of the self-same heritage,3
Child of the self-same God,
He hath but stumbled in the path

Thou hast in weakness trod.

Erring, one who has done wrong, wandered from the right 2 Heritage, lot, degree.

Speak gently to the erring one,
For is it not enough

That peace and innocence are gone,
Without thy censure1 rough?
Oh, sure it is a weary lot,

The sin-crushed heart to bear;
And they who have a happier lot
May well their chidings spare.
Speak gently to the erring one,
And thou may'st lead him back,
With holy words and looks of love,
From misery's thorny track.
Forget not, too, that thou hast sinned,
And sinful yet may be:

Deal gently with the erring one,

As God has dealt with thee.

THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.-Wolfe.
NOT a drum was heard, not a funeral note,
As his corpse to the ramparts3 we hurried;
Not a soldier discharged his farewell shot
O'er the grave of the hero we buried.

We buried him darkly at dead of night,
The sods with our bayonets turning;

1 Censure, reproof, blame. 2 Sir John Moore, commander of the English forces in Spain, 1809. He was forced to retreat before a larger number of French; and at last, under the walls of Corunna, whilst the troops beat back the French on all sides, he fell, mortally wounded by a cannon ball. The poem is one of the most affecting of its kind ever written. It impresses one with the reality of the scene, and makes the reader not only a spectator, but a sharer in the mournful ceremony. Lord Byron considered this poem one of the finest in our language. He especially praised the last two lines of the third verse. 3 Ramparts, the walls around fortified places.

By the struggling moonbeam's misty light,
And the lantern dimly burning.

No useless coffin enclosed his breast,

Not in sheet nor in shroud we wound him; But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, With his martial cloak around him.

Few and short were the prayers we said,
And we spoke not a word of sorrow,
But we steadfastly gazed on the face of the dead,
And we bitterly thought of the morrow.1

We thought, as we hollowed his narrow bed,3
And smoothed down his lonely pillow,

That the foe and the stranger would tread o'er his head,
And we far away on the billow!

Lightly they'll talk of the spirit that's gone,
And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him;
But little he'll reck3 if they'll let him sleep on
In the grave where a Briton has laid him!

But half of our heavy task was done

When the clock struck the hour for retiring; And we heard the distant and random gun, That the foe was sullenly firing.

Slowly and sadly we laid him down,

From the field of his fame fresh and gory;

We carved not a line, and we raised not a stone-
But we left him alone with his glory!

'Morrow, the British troops were to embark on the following morning. 2 Narrow bed, notice how admirably this term harmo nizes with the third verse. 3 Reck, heed.

THE LOCUST.1

THE locust is fierce, and strong, and grim,
And an armèd man is afraid of him:
He comes like a winged shape of dread,
With his shielded back and his armèd head,
And his double wings for hasty flight,
And a keen, unwearying appetite.

He comes with famine and fear along,
An army a million million strong;

The Goth5 and the Vandal,6 and dwarfish Hun,7
With their swarming people, wild and dun,
Brought not the dread that the locust brings,
When is heard the rush of their myriad wings.

From the deserts of burning sand they speed,
Where the lions roam and the serpents breed,
Far over the sea, away, away!

And they darken the sun at noon of day,
Like Eden the land before they find,

But they leave it a desolate 9 waste behind.

The peasant grows pale when he sees them come,
And standeth before them weak 10 and dumb;
For they come like a raging fire in power,
And eat up a harvest in half an hour;

And the trees are bare, and the land is brown,
As if trampled and trod by an army down.

1 The locust. Eastern countries, especially those near the Levant (the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea), are much exposed to the ravages of these destructive insects. They appear in such countless multitudes, and move forward with such a steady, irresistible progress, destroying every trace of vegetation, that the descent of a hostile army is less dreaded. 2 Grim, ugly, terrible. 3 Shielded, covered with a shield, the wing case. 4 Unwearying, antiring, never satisfied. 5 Goth, an ancient savage nation who dwelt in Germany. 6 Vandal, the early inhabitants of Germany. 7 Hun, an ancient nation who dwelt in Central Europe. Myriad, ten thousand, any great number. Desolate, dreary. Weak, helpless.

8

There is terror in
every monarch's eye,
When he hears that this terrible foe is nigh;
For he knows that the might of an armèd host
Cannot drive the spoiler from out his coast,
That terror and famine his land await,
And from north to south 'twill be desolate.

Thus, the ravening 1 locust is strong and grim;
And what were an armèd man to him?
Fire turns him not, nor sea prevents,
He is stronger by far than the elements !2
The broad green earth is his prostrates prey,
And he darkens the sun at noon of day!

THE DIVERTING HISTORY OF JOHN GILPIN

-Cowper.

(Showing how he went farther than he intended, and came safe home again.)

JOHN GILPIN was a citizen

Of credit and renown;

A trainband captain eke was he
Of famous London town.

John Gilpin's spouse7 said to her dear,
"Though wedded we have been
These twice ten tedious years, yet we
No holiday have seen.

"To-morrow is our wedding-day,
And we will then repair9
Unto the Bell at Edmonton,
All in a chaise and pair.

1 Ravening, greedy to devour. 2 Elements, used to express earth, air, fire, and water, which the ancients termed elements. 8 Prostrate, thrown down, at his mercy. 4 Diverting, amusing. 5 Trainband, a company of men trained to act as soldiers, militia. 6 Eke, also, besides. Spouse, wife (or husband). 8 Tedious, long, wearisome. 9 Repair, to go to a place.