"Gone! Her pure young life beguiled the hours. Oh, weary days! Oh, lonely nights! Gone all the happiness of care! All life's sweet pleasures ended! Henceforth her steps I shall not hear. Nor will there be an answer to my calling. But I shall meet her yet again,—not here, but there!" "Gone!" Hand in hand, Bell and Linda, Daisy and Mary, and after them Caleb and Moses, Job and Ben, and all the school, slowly along the pathway moving. With swelling hearts they bear her through the churchyard gates. "Gone!" Leaning on his spade the gray-haired sexton waits. He lifts the coffin-lid; they see her smiling face, and on her brow the light of heaven! So will she look for evermore. "Gone!" It is over. They drop their flowers in the grave and move away, the bell above them tolling. So they lay her down to sleep, and yet they do not think of her as being there, but as having gone where everything is bright and beautiful and pure. -Extract from "Caleb Krinkle." A BACHELOR'S GROWL. I'm a grumpy old bachelor, I am seven-and-forty I am fussy and crusty, And as dry as a bone; So, ladies-good ladies!- Go shake out your ringlets, And show off your wiles; But pray, pray remember I am not the man! I'm frozen to blushes; I'm proof against eyes; That young Cupid can lance; I'm not in the market At any advance! I sew my own buttons; I walk forth in trembling, But I do fear my head; Is a growl and a nod; So, ladies-déar ladies!- In the pluralest way; As logic can be: If I don't marry you, And yet there's nine spinsters There's two dozen widows Who'd change their estate; There's silly young maidens Who blush at my bow, All-all bent on marrying me, No matter how! WHAT I LIVE FOR.-G. LINNEUS BANKS. I live for those who love me, Whose hearts are kind and true; For the heaven that smiles above me, For all human ties that bind me, I live to learn their story, Who've suffered for my sake; To emulate their glory, And follow in their wake; Whose deeds crown history's pages, And time's great volume make. I live to hold communion With all that is divine; "Twixt nature's heart and mine; Reap truths from fields of fiction, I live to hail that season, I live for those who love me, For those who know me true; For the heaven that smiles above me, And awaits my spirit too; For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that I can do. THE SIREN'S WEDDING-RING.-G. H. JESSOP. Where the river's mimic billows On some old cathedral frieze- And to see her was to love. Day by day the shadows shifted, From her tears a tribute drew; Like a diamond, sparkled through, To her siren whisper listening, Sought the talisman-and death. Some, nerved on by wild affection, Breathless to the sedgy bank; And the ring and swimmer sank. Still, they say, the maid doth linger To a siren whisper hearkening, Though the waves above are darkening, Men still seek a golden glitter, And would realize a dream. THE SOLDIER'S CRADLE-HYMN.-MARY MCGUIRE. From a field of death and carnage Day by day he pined and wasted Through the dreary, long night watches Weary sufferers moaning, tossing, It was night; the lights burned dimly; Through his hair her fingers went. With that same sad, plaintive moaning, Then in song her voice rose sweetly, |