THE CHESNUT PARTY.

"Merrily sang the crickets forth

One fair October night;

And the stars looked down, and the northern crown Gave its strange fantastic light.

"A nipping frost was in the air,

On flowers and grass it fell:

And the leaves were still on the eastern hill,
As if touched by a fairy spell.

"To the very top of the tall nut-trees
The Frost-King seemed to ride;
With his wand he stirs the chesnut-burrs,
And straight they are opened wide.

"And squirrels and children together dream
Of the coming winter's hoard;
And many, I ween, are the chesnuts seen
In hole or in garret stored.

"The children are sleeping in feather-beds,
Poor Bun in his mossy nest,-

He courts repose, with his tail on his nose,
On the others warm blankets rest.

THE CHESNUT PARTY.

"Late in the morning the sun gets up
From behind the village spire;

And the children dream, that the first red gleam
Is the chesnut-trees on fire!

"The squirrel had on when he first awoke
All the clothing he could command;

And his breakfast was light-he just took a bite
Of an acorn that lay at hand;

"And then he was off to the trees to work ;-
While the children some time it takes
To dress, and to eat what they think meet
Of coffee and buckwheat cakes.

"O, there is a heap of chesnuts, see!' Cried the youngest of the train;

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For they came to a stone where the squirrel had thrown What he meant to pick up again.

"And two bright eyes from the tree o'erhead,

Looked down on the open bag,

Where the nuts went in-and so to begin,

Almost made his courage flag.

"Away on the hill, outside the wood,

Three giant trees there stand;

And the chesnuts bright that hang in sight,
Are eyed by the youthful band.

"And one of their number climbs the tree,
And passes from bough to bough,—
And the children run--for with pelting fun
The nuts fall thickly now.

"Some of the burrs are still shut tight,—
Some open with chesnuts three,-
And some nuts fall with no burrs at all—
Smooth, shiny, as nuts should be.

"O, who can tell what fun it was
To see the prickly shower!

To feel what a whack, on head or back,
Was within a chesnut's power!—

"To run beneath the shaking tree,
And then to scamper away;
And with laughing shout to dance about
The grass where the chesnuts lay.

"With flowing dresses, and blowing hair,
And eyes that no shadow knew,-
Like the growing light of a morning bright,-
The dawn of the summer blue!

"The work was ended-the trees were strippedThe children were tired of play,'

(

And they forgot (but the squirrel did not)

The wrong they had done that day."

MISS WARNER.

THE RAIN-CONCERT.

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THE RAIN-CONCERT.

MILLIONS of tiny rain-drops

Are falling all around;

They 're dancing on the house-tops,
They're hiding in the ground.

They are fairy-like musicians,
With any thing for keys,
Beating tunes upon the windows,
Keeping time upon the trees.

A light and airy treble

They play upon the stream, And the melody enchants us, Like the music of a dream.

A deeper base is sounding

When they're dropping into caves, With a tenor from the zephyrs

And an alto from the waves.

It seems as if the warbling

Of the birds in all the bowers
Had been gathered into rain-drops
And was coming down in showers.

THE LITTLE ANGEL.

RIGHT into our house one day,
A dear little angel came;
I ran to him, and said softly,
"Little angel, what is your name?"

He said not a word in answer,

But smiled a beautiful smile,

Then I said, "May I go home with you?
Shall you go in a little while?”

But mamma said, "Dear little angel,
Don't leave us! oh, always stay!
We will all of us love you dearly!
Sweet angel! oh, do n't go away!"

So he staid, and he staid, and we loved him,
As we could not have loved another;
Do you want to know what his name is?
His name is my little brother!