But let me read thy lesson right or no, Of one good gift from thee my heart is sure; Old I shall never grow While thou each year dost come to keep me pure With legends of my childhood; ah, we owe Well more than half life's holiness to these Nature's first lowly influences, At thought of which the heart's glad doors burst ope, In dreariest days, to welcome peace and hope. -James Russell Lowell. PHILIP, MY KING "Who bears upon his baby brow the round OOK at me with thy large brown eyes, L Philip, my king! For round thee the purple Of babyhood's royal dignities. Till thou shalt find thy queen-handmaiden, Philip, my king! O, the day when thou goest a-wooing, When those beautiful lips 'gin suing, For we that love-ah! we love so Philip, my king! I gaze from thy sweet mouth up to thy brow, Philip, my king! The spirit that there lies sleeping now May rise like a giant, and make men bow As to one heaven-chosen amongst his peers. My Saul, than thy brethren higher and fairer, Let me behold thee in future years! A wreath, not of gold, but palm. One day, Philip, my king! Thou too must tread, as we trod, a way Martyr, yet monarch! till angels shout, As thou sitt'st at the feet of God victorious, "Philip, the king!" -Dinah Maria Craik Mulock. THE THREE FISHERS T HREE fishers went sailing away to the West Away to the West as the sun went down; Each thought on the woman who loved him the best, And the children stood watching them out of the town; For men must work and women must weep, And there's little to earn and many to keep, Though the harbor-bar be moaning. Three wives sat up in the lighthouse tower And trimmed the lamps as the sun went down; They looked at the squall, and they looked at the shower, And the night-rack came rolling up, ragged and brown. But men must work and women must weep, Though storms be sudden and waters deep, And the harbor-bar be moaning. |