ENRICA, 1865.

HE came among us from the South

SHE

And made the North her home awhile; Our dimness brightened in her smile, Our tongue grew sweeter in her mouth.

We chilled beside her liberal glow,

She dwarfed us by her ampler scale,
Her full-blown blossom made us pale,
She summer-like and we like snow.

We Englishwomen, trim, correct,
All minted in the self-same mould,
Warm-hearted but of semblance cold,
All-courteous out of self-respect.

She woman in her natural grace,
Less trammelled she by lore of school,
Courteous by nature not by rule,
Warm-hearted and of cordial face.

So for awhile she made her home
Among us in the rigid North,
She who from Italy came forth
And scaled the Alps and crossed the foam.

But if she found us like our sea,

Of aspect colourless and chill,
Rock-girt; like it 'she found us still
Deep at our deepest, strong and free.

A CHILL.

WHAT

can lambkins do

All the keen night through?

Nestle by their woolly mother

The careful ewe.

What can nestlings do

In the nightly dew?

Sleep beneath their mother's wing
Till day breaks anew.

If in field or tree

There might only be

Such a warm soft sleeping-place

Found for me!

So

SOMEWHERE OR OTHER.

OMEWHERE or other there must surely be The face not seen, the voice not heard, The heart that not yet-never yet-ah me! Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, may be near or far;
Past land and sea, clean out of sight;
Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star
That tracks her night by night.

Somewhere or other, may be far or near; With just a wall, a hedge, between ; With just the last leaves of the dying year Fallen on a turf grown green.

"Now

NOBLE SISTERS.

OW did you mark a falcon,
Sister dear, sister dear,

Flying toward my window

In the morning cool and clear?
With jingling bells about her neck,
But what beneath her wing?

It may have been a ribbon,
Or it may have been a ring.”-
"I marked a falcon swooping
At the break of day:

And for your love, my sister dove,
I 'frayed the thief away."—

"Or did you spy a ruddy hound,

Sister fair and tall,

Went snuffing round my garden bound,
Or crouched by my bower wall?
With a silken leash about his neck;
But in his mouth may be

A chain of gold and silver links,

Or a letter writ to me."—

“I heard a hound, highborn sister,
Stood baying at the moon :

I rose and drove him from

your wall Lest you should wake too soon.”

"Or did you meet a pretty page

Sat swinging on the gate;
Sat whistling whistling like a bird,
Or may be slept too late :
With eaglets broidered on his cap,
And eaglets on his glove?

If you had turned his pockets out,
You had found some pledge of love."
"I met him at this daybreak,

Scarce the east was red:

Lest the creaking gate should anger you,

I packed him home to bed."

Did you see

A young man tall and strong,
Swift-footed to uphold the right
And to uproot the wrong,
Come home across the desolate sea
To woo me for his wife?
And in his heart my heart is locked,

And in his life my life."

"I met a nameless man, sister,

Who loitered round our door :
I said: Her husband loves her much.

And yet she loves him more."

"Fie, sister, fie, a wicked lie,

A lie, a wicked lie,

I have none other love but him,

Nor will have till I die.

And you have turned him from our door,

And stabbed him with a lie :

I will go seek him thro' the world

In sorrow till I die."

"Go seek in sorrow, sister,

And find in sorrow too:

If thus you shame our father's name
My curse go forth with you."

JESSIE CAMERON.

[ESSIE, Jessie Cameron,

" JESSIE

Hear me but this once," quoth he. "Good luck go with you, neighbour's son,

But I'm no mate for you," quoth she. Day was verging toward the night

There beside the moaning sea,

Dimness overtook the light

66

There where the breakers be.

"O Jessie, Jessie Cameron,

I have loved you long and true.' "Good luck go with you, neighbour's son, But I'm no mate for you.