118

THE PLEASURE BOAT.

From that far isle the thresher's flail

Strikes close upon the ear;
The leaping fish, the swinging sail

Of yonder sloop sound near.

The parting sun sends out a glow
Across the placid bay,

Touching with glory all the show.

Careening to the wind, they reach,
With laugh and call, the shore.
They've left their footprints on the beach;
But them I hear no more.

Goddess of Beauty, must I now

Vowed worship to thee pay?

Dear goddess, I grow old, I trow :—
My head is growing gray.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.

BY W. LEGGETT.

THE birds, when winter shades the sky,
Fly o'er the seas away,

Where laughing isles in sunshine lie,
And summer breezes play:

And thus the friends that flutter near

While fortune's sun is warm,

Are startled if a cloud appear,

And fly before the storm.

But when from winter's howling plains

Each other warbler's past,

The little snow bird still remains,

And cherups midst the blast.

Love, like that bird, when friendship's throng

With fortune's sun depart,

Still lingers with its cheerful song,

And nestles on the heart,

LINES FOR MUSIC.

BY T. S. FAY.

OVER forest and meadow the night breeze is stealing,
The blush of the sunset is glowing no more—
And the stream which we love, harmless fires revealing,
With ripples of silver, is kissing the shore.

I have watched from the beach which your presence enchanted,

In the star-lighted heaven each beautiful gem,

And I sighed as I thought, ere the break of the morning,
From the gaze of my eyes you must vanish like them.
Then stay where the night-breeze o'er flowers is stealing,
And raise your young voices in music once more;
Let them blend with the stream, its soft murmurs reveal-
ing,

In the ripples of silver which roll to the shore.

But when summer has fled, and yon flowers have faded, And the fields and the forests are withered and sere

LINES FOR MUSIC.

121

When the friends now together, by distance are parted,
Leaving nothing but winter and loneliness here;
Will you think of the hour, when in friendship united,

I lingered at evening to bid you adieu;

When I paused by the stream, with the stars so delighted, And wished I might linger for ever with you?

Oh, forget not the time when that night-breeze was stealing,

Though desolate oceans between us inay roar,

The beach-and the stars-and the waters revealing

Thoughts bright as the ripples which break on the shore.

[The following lines were suggested by an anecdote, said to have been related by the late Dr. Godman, of the ship-boy who was about to fall from the rigging, and was only saved by the mate's characteristic excla. mation, "Look aloft, you lubber."]

In the tempest of life, when the wave and the gale
Are around and above, if thy footing should fail

If thine eye should grow dim, and thy caution depart― "Look aloft" and be firm, and be fearless of heart.

If the friend, who embraced in prosperity's glow

With a smile for each joy and a tear for each wo, Should betray thee when sorrows like clouds are arrayed, "Look aloft" to the friendship which never shall fade.

Should the visions which hope spreads in light to thine

eye,

Like the tints of the rainbow, but brighten to fly, Then turn, and through tears of repentant regret, "Look aloft" to the sun that is never to set.