Fill up the vacant chair,

Fill his heart, his children bear :

While thou and I together

In the outcast weather
Toss and howl and spin.

A SUMMER WISH.

L'

IVE all thy sweet life through, Sweet Rose, dew-sprent, Drop down thine evening dew To gather it anew

When day is bright:

I fancy thou wast meant Chiefly to give delight.

Its summer morns:

That I might bloom mine hour
A rose in spite of thorns.

O that my work were done
As birds' that soar

Rejoicing in the sun :
That when my time is run
And daylight too,

I so might rest once more
Cool with refreshing dew.

I

AN APPLE GATHERING.

PLUCKED pink blossoms from mine apple-tree,

And wore them all that evening in my hair: Then in due season when I went to see

I found no apples there.

With dangling basket all along the grass

As I had come I went the selfsame track:

My neighbors mocked me while they saw me pass So empty-handed back.

Lilian and Lilias smiled in trudging by,

Their heaped-up basket teased me like a jeer; Sweet-voiced they sang beneath the sunset sky, Their mother's home was near.

Plump Gertrude passed me with her basket full,
A stronger hand than hers helped it along;
A voice talked with her through the shadows cool
More sweet to me than song.

Ah, Willie, Willie, was my love less worth
Than apples with their green leaves piled above?
I counted rosiest apples on the earth

Of far less worth than love.

So once it was with me you stooped to talk
Laughing and listening in this very lane:
To think that by this way we used to walk
We shall not walk again!

I let my neighbors pass me, ones and twos
And groups; the latest said the night grew chill,
And hastened: but I loitered, while the dews
Fell fast I loitered still.

SONG.

WO doves upon the selfsame branch,
Two lilies on a single stem,
Two butterflies upon one flower :-
O happy they who look on them.

:

Who look upon them hand in hand

Flushed in the rosy summer light;
Who look upon them hand in hand

And never give a thought to night.

MAUDE CLARE.

UT of the church she followed them

OUT a

With a lofty step and mien :

His bride was like a village maid,
Maude Clare was like a queen.

"Son Thomas," his lady mother said,
With smiles, almost with tears :
"May Nell and you but live as true
As we have done for years;

"Your father thirty years ago
Had just your tale to tell;
But he was not so pale as you,
Nor I so pale as Nell."

My lord was pale with inward strife,
And Nell was pale with pride;
My lord gazed long on pale Maude Clare
Or ever he kissed the bride.

"Lo, I have brought my gift, my lord, Have brought my gift," she said: "To bless the hearth, to bless the board, To bless the marriage-bed.

"Here's my half of the golden chain
You wore about your neck,
That day we waded ankle-deep
For lilies in the beck:

"Here's my half of the faded leaves
We plucked from budding bough,
With feet amongst the lily-leaves, —
The lilies are budding now."

He strove to match her scorn with scorn,

He faltered in his place :

"Lady," he said, "Maude Clare,” he said, — "Maude Clare":- - and hid his face.

She turned to Nell: "My Lady Nell,

I have a gift for you;

Though, were it fruit, the bloom were gone,
Or, were it flowers, the dew.

"Take

my share of a fickle heart,

Mine of a paltry love :

Take it or leave it as you will,

I wash my hands thereof."

"And what you leave," said Nell, "I'll take, And what you spurn, I'll wear ;

For he 's my lord for better and worse,
And him I love, Maude Clare.