If clouds have dimmed the brightness, And when I've reached the river Long years had changed the maiden She heard a sadder murmur I'm weary of my tune : 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 To that great ocean bound. "My life is sad and restless, Read not aright its lesson, Their own hearts beat too loudly And sedge-grass o'er it hung. It said, "My life is humble, 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: "The ocean I am nearing He leads me through the meadow, 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: The coward and the sluggard too Must wear the fetters of the slave." SLEPT and dreamed that life was beauty; The Bee. HOU cheerful bee! come: freely come And travel round my woodbine bower, Oh, try no more yon tedious fields, And, careless of the noontide heat, To watch thee pause, and chafe thy feet And all thy busiest ardour ply; Oh nature, kind! oh labourer, wise! PROFESSOR SMYTH. |