Still to the unstained past kept true and leal, Still on these plains could breathe her mountain air, And fortune's heaviest gifts serenely bear,

Which bend men from their truth and make them

reel.

"For ruling wisely I should have small skill, Were I not lord of simple Dara still;

That sceptre kept, I could not lose my way." Strange dew in royal eyes grew round and bright, And strained the throbbing lids; before 't was night Two added provinces blest Dara's sway.

THE FIRST SNOW-FALL.

HE snow had begun in the gloaming,

THE

And busily all the night

Had been heaping field and highway

With a silence deep and white.

Every pine and fir and hemlock

Wore ermine too dear for an earl, And the poorest twig on the elm-tree Was ridged inch deep with pearl.

From sheds new-roofed with Carrara
Came Chanticleer's muffled crow,

The stiff rails were softened to swan's-down,
And still fluttered down the snow.

I stood and watched by the window
The noiseless work of the sky,

And the sudden flurries of snow-birds,
Like brown leaves whirling by.

I thought of a mound in sweet Auburn
Where a little headstone stood;

How the flakes were folding it gently,
As did robins the babes in the wood.

Up spoke our own little Mabel,

Saying, "Father, who makes it snow?" And I told of the good All-father Who cares for us here below.

Again I looked at the snow-fall,
And thought of the leaden sky

That arched o'er our first great sorrow,
When that mound was heaped so high.

I remembered the gradual patience
That fell from that cloud like snow,
Flake by flake, healing and hiding
The scar of our deep-plunged woe.

2*

And again to the child I whispered,

"The snow that husheth all,

Darling, the merciful Father

Alone can make it fall!"

Then, with eyes that saw not, I kissed her; And she, kissing back, could not know That my kiss was given to her sister,

Folded close under deepening snow.

THE SINGING LEAVES.

"W

A BALLAD.

I.

HAT fairings will ye that I bring?"
Said the King to his daughters three;

"For I to Vanity Fair am boun,

Now say, what shall they be?"

Then up and spake the eldest daughter,
That lady tall and grand:

"O, bring me pearls and diamonds great,
And gold rings for my hand."

Thereafter spake the second daughter,
That was both white and red:

"For me bring silks that will stand alone,
And a gold comb for my head."

Then came the turn of the least daughter,
That was whiter than thistle-down,