SUNRISE ON THE HILLS. I heard the distant waters dash I saw the current whirl and flash- The woods were bending with a silent reach. The musick of the village-bell Came sweetly to the echo-giving hills, And the wild horn, whose voice the woodland fills, That faint and far the glen sent out, Where, answering to the sudden shot, thin smoke If thou art worn and hard beset With sorrows that thou wouldst forget- Dim the sweet look that Nature wears. 67 THE PEBBLE AND THE ACORN. BY H. F. GOULD. "I AM a Pebble! and yield to none!" Were the swelling words of a tiny stone, "Nor time nor seasons can alter me; I am abiding, while ages flee. The pelting hail and the drizzling rain Out of the world, like the blades of grass; And many a foot on me has trod, That's gone from sight, and under the sod! I am a Pebble! but who art thou, Rattling along from the restless bough?" The Acorn was shocked at this rude salute, And lay for a moment abashed and mute; THE PEBBLE AND THE ACORN. She never before had been so near And soon, in the earth, she sunk away But it was not long ere the soil was broke By the peering head of an infant oak! And, as it arose and its branches spread, The Pebble looked up, and wondering said :"A modest Acorn! never to tell What was enclosed in its simple shell; That the pride of the forest was folded up In the narrow space of its little cup! 69 And meekly to sink in the darksome earth, Which proves that nothing could hide her worth! To come and admire the beautiful tree, I have been idling from year to year. Shall show the purpose for which I've been!" And it lies there wrapped in silence yet. CONSUMPTION. BY J. G. PERCIVAL. THERE is a sweetness in woman's decay, Or ever was steeped in fragrant dew, When all that was bright and fair, has fled, O! there is a sweetness in beauty's close, Has mantled her cheek with its heavenly dye, |