She followed him right gladly, it was not far to go
To meet and dwell forever with him who loved her so.

With many tears they prayed her to stay, but all in vain ; Long waited they her coming, but she never came again.

18

Beneath the morning's primal ray, —
So soft, so sweet, so pure, so brief,
So lightly passes childhood's grief.

She wept,-
-as falls the summer shower
On bended grass and glistening flower,
That lift their heads to heaven again,
The brighter for the gentle rain, —
So laughs the lip,—so lights the eye,—
As girlhood's fleeting tears pass by.

She wept,
as dreary rains at morn,
On harvest fields of gather'd corn,
Where mirth is o'er and joy is done,
And hope is wither'd up and gone;
So fell the tears that seem'd to start

From woman's crush'd and bleeding heart.

Sweeps bleak through branches stripp'd and gray, And frozen falls the stormy rain

From boughs that may not bud again ;·

So wither'd Eld's last tears are shed,

Lone, helpless, heartless, hopeless, - dead!

SUMMER EVENING MELODY.

BY JAMES T. FIELDS.

Go forth the sky is blue above,
And cool the green sod lies below, —
"Tis such an hour as claims for love
The halcyon moments as they flow.

The glow-worm lends her twinkling lamp,
The cricket sings his soothing strain,

And fainter sounds the weary tramp
Of footsteps in the grassy lane.

Go forth! ye pallid sons of care!

Too long your thoughts to earth are given, — To-night sweet music haunts the air,

And fragrant odors breathe of heaven.