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 steal

ing,

Though desolate oceans between us may roar,

The beach-and the stars-and the waters revealing

Thoughts bright as the ripples which break on the shore.

LOOK ALOFT.

BY J. LAWRENCE, JUN.

[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 exclamation, "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 sorrow 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.

LOOK ALOFT.

Should they who are dearest, the son of thy heart-
The wife of thy bosom-in sorrow depart,

"Look aloft," from the darkness and dust of the tomb,

To that soil where "affection is ever in bloom."

And oh! when death comes in terrors, to cast
His fears on the future, his pall on the past,
In that moment of darkness, with hope in thy heart,
And a smile in thine eye, "look aloft" and depart!

123

TO A HUMMING-BIRD

BY J. R. SUTERMEISTER.

BIRD of the Summer bower!

Whose burnished plumage to the air is given,
How thy bill dips in each luxuriant flower,
How thy wing fleets through heaven!

Thou seemst to Fancy's eye

An animated blossom born in air;

Which breathes and bourgeons in the golden sky,

And sheds its odours there.

Thou seemst a rainbow hue

Touched by the sunbeam into life and light;

As cuts thy rosy wing the welkin through
In its eternal flight.

Thou art not born of Earth!

Thy home is in the free and pathless air!
The wild flower eglantine bloomed on thy birth,
And threw its fragrance there.

T