If clouds have dimmed the brightness,
They quickly passed away,

And when I've reached the river
I shall be always gay.”

Long years had changed the maiden
When there she stood again;
Youth's glee had left her spirit,
Her eyes were dimmed with pain.
Was it the song her childhood,
Or that her girlhood knew,
That reached her world-worn spirit
Watching its waters blue?

She heard a sadder murmur
Than she had heard before:
"Oh, never gleams the sunlight
In brightness, as of yore!
I'm weary of the meadow,

I'm weary of my tune :
The nights are dark and cheerless,
The winter cometh soon."

An aged woman watched it

With tear-dimmed, anxious eye,

And bent her ear to listen

To the streamlet's symphony.

But oh, it sang that evening
A changed, a sadder sound:
"I go my weary journey,

To that great ocean bound.

"My life is sad and restless,
I water many a grave,
I fear the heaving ocean,
I fear the mighty wave."
But still the child and maiden
And weary woman's heart

Read not aright its lesson,
Nor what its music taught.

Their own hearts beat too loudly
The stream's low tones to hear;
Their spirits' voices heard they
And not its music clear.
I'll tell you what it murmured,
What were the words it sung
As bluebells kissed its waters

And sedge-grass o'er it hung.

It said, "My life is humble,
But very tranquil too;

I gaze for ever upwards

On that deep sky of blue.

After the cloudlets gather

The sunshine seems more bright; I know the morning cometh

Though dark may be the night.

"Sometimes the flowerets wither:
I make them fresh again;
I bathe the thirsty willows
When falls no gentle rain.
The work my Maker gives me
It makes me glad to do;
His smile is in the sunshine,
His blessing in the dew.

"The ocean I am nearing
Is beautiful and fair:

He leads me through the meadow,
He'll make me happy there.
And anywhere and everywhere,
So that I do His will

And do my life's work bravely,

I shall be happy still."

L. R.

LESSONS FOR IDLERS, FROM TEACHERS

OF INDUSTRY.

"Go to the ant, thou sluggard; consider her ways, and be wise."

"I went by the field of the slothful, and by the vineyard of the man void of understanding; and, lo, it was all grown over with thorns, and nettles had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall thereof was broken down. Then I saw, and considered it well: I looked upon it, and received instruction." PROV. xxiv. 30, 31, 32.

I Slept and Dreamed.

"Thou should'st not sleep, as others do:
Awake! be vigilant, be brave.

The coward and the sluggard too

Must wear the fetters of the slave."

SLEPT and dreamed that life was beauty;
I woke and found that life was duty:
Was then thy dream a shadowy lie?
Toil on, sad heart, courageously,
And thou shalt find thy dream to be
A noon-day light, and truth to thee.

The Bee.

HOU cheerful bee! come: freely come

And travel round my woodbine bower,
Delight me with thy wandering hum,
And rouse me from my musing hour.

Oh, try no more yon tedious fields,
Come taste the sweets my garden yields ;
The treasure of each blooming mine,
The bud, the blossom, all are thine!

And, careless of the noontide heat,
I'll follow as thy rambling guides,

To watch thee pause, and chafe thy feet
And sweep them o'er thy downy sides;
Then in a flower-bell nestling lie,

And all thy busiest ardour ply;
Then o'er the stem, though fair it grow,
With touch rejecting, glance and go.

Oh nature, kind! oh labourer, wise!
That roam'st along the summer ray,
Glean'st every bliss thy life supplies,
And meet'st prepar'd thy wintry day;
Go, envied, go with crowded gates
Thy hive thy rich return awaits.
Bear home thy store in triumph gay,
And shame each idler on thy way!

PROFESSOR SMYTH.