We will be patient, and assuage the feeling

We may not wholly stay;

By silence sanctifying, not concealing,

The grief that must have way.

LONGFELLOW.

Bereavement.

"The Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before."

I MARKED When vernal meads were bright,
And many a primrose smiled;

I marked her, blithe as morning light,
A dimpled three years' child.

A basket on one tender arm

Contained her precious store

Of spring flowers, in their freshest charm,
Told proudly o'er and o'er.

The other wound with earnest hold
About her blooming guide,

A maid, who scarce twelve years had told:
So walked they side by side-

One a bright bud, and one may seem

A sister-flower half blown:

Full joyous on their loving dream

The sky of April shone.

The summer months swept by: again

That loving pair I met;

On russet heath and bowery lane

Th' autumnal sun had set :

And chill and damp that Sunday eve
Breathed on the mourner's road,

That bright-eyed little one to leave
Safe in the saints' abode.

Behind, the guardian sister came,
Her bright brow dim and pale-
Oh, cheer the maiden !—in His name,
Who stilled Jairus' wail!

Thou mourn'st to miss the fingers soft
That held by thine so fast,
The fond-appealing eye, full oft
Toward thee for refuge cast.

Sweet toils! sweet cares, for ever gone!

No more from stranger's face
Or startling sound, the timid one
Shall hide in thy embrace.

Thy first glad earthly task is o'er,
And dreary seems thy way;
And what if, nearer than before,
She watch thee even to-day?

What if henceforth by Heaven's decree
She leave thee not alone,

But in her turn prove guide to thee
In ways to angels known?

Oh! yield thee to her whisperings sweet:
Away with thoughts of gloom!

In love the loving spirits greet,
Who wait to bless her tomb.

In loving hope, with her unseen,
Walk as in hallowed air;

When foes are strong, and trials keen,

Think, "What if she be there?"

The Star and the Child.

A MAIDEN walked at eventide
Beside a clear and placid stream,
And smiled, as in its depths she saw
A trembling star's reflected beam.

She smiled until the beam was lost,

As 'cross the sky a cloud was driven;
And then she sighed, and then forgot
The star was shining still in heaven.

A MOTHER sat beside life's stream,
Watching a dying child at dawn,
And smiled, as from its eye she caught
A hope that it might still live on.

She smiled until the eyelids closed,
But watched for breath until the even;
And then she wept, and then forgot
The child was living still in heaven.

R.