Else thou and I would soon be reconciled.

No more thy tears would flow

But thou would'st bless me that I bear thy child Forth from a life of woe

To One unbiased by a mother's love

Or mother's fears, to bring him up!

Perchance to aid thee when thou goest above! Then push me from the still, the sweet, sad cup!"

MISS LYDIA L. A. VERY.

THE INFANT'S GRAVE.

SLEEP, little cherub! on the breast
Of the green hillock take thy rest;
The wintry snow, the dropping rain,
Shall dash above thy head in vain;
The beaded hail, the cutting sleet,
Unheeded o'er thy head shall beat;
The spring-buds o'er thee will renew
Their blooming sweets and vernal hue;
And honeyed flowers shall o'er thee spring,
And birds their dulcet measures sing.

I. MCLELLAN.

TWO IN HEAVEN.

"You have two children," said I.

"I have four," was the reply-"two on earth, two in heaven."

There spoke the mother!

gone before !

Still hers, only

Still remembered, loved and cherished, by the hearth and at the boardtheir places not yet filled, even though their successors draw life from the same faithful breast where their dying heads were pillowed. "Two in Heaven!"

No

Safely housed from storm and tempest. sickness there, nor drooping head, nor fading eye, nor weary feet. By green pastures, tended by the good Shepherd, linger the little lambs of the heavenly fold.

"Two in Heaven!"

In

Earth less attractive. Eternity nearer. visible cords drawing the maternal soul upwards. "Still small voices" ever whisper "Come!" to the world-weary spirit.

"Two in Heaven!"

Holy

Mother of angels! Walk softly! eyes watch thy footsteps! Cherub forms bend to listen! Keep thy spirits free from earth's taint; so shalt thou go to them, though they may not return to thee.

THE EMPTY CRADLE.

SHE sits beside the cradle,

And her tears are streaming fast, For she sees the present only, While she thinks of all the past; Of the days so full of gladness, When her first-born's answering kiss Filled her soul with such a rapture That it knew no other bliss. O! those happy, happy moments! They but deepen her despair, For she bends above the cradle, And her baby is not there!

There are words of comfort spoken,
And the leaden clouds of grief
Wear the smiling bow of promise,
And she feels a sad relief;

But her wavering thoughts will wander
Till they settle on the scene
Of the dark and silent chamber,

And of all that might have been!

For a little vacant garment,

Or a shining tress of hair,

Tells her heart, in tones of anguish,

That her baby is not there!

She sits beside the cradle,

But her tears no longer flow,
For she sees a blessed vision,
And forgets all earthly woe;
Saintly eyes look down upon her,

And the voice that hushed the sea
Stills her spirits with the whisper,
"Suffer them to come to Me."
And while her soul is lifted

On the soaring wings of prayer,
Heaven's crystal gates swung inward,
And she sees her baby there!

ROBERT S. CHILTON.

BEREAVEMENT.

O YE who say, "We have a child in heaven;"
Who have felt that desolate isolation sharp
Defined in Death's own face; who have stood
beside

The silent river, and stretched out pleading hands
For some sweet babe upon the other bank,
That went forth where no human hand might
lead,

And left the shut house with no light, no sound,
No answer, when the mourners wail without!
What we have known, ye know, and only know.

GERALD MASSEY.

THE LAST SMILE.

O, WHY smiled the babe in its dying hour,
When its earth-weary days were done?
It had faded away like a blighted flower,
In the rays of the summer's sun;

Love-full was the look of the innocent child,
So peaceful, so trusting, so sweetly it smiled.

O, why did it smile? Had angels down-come
From the far-off sunny-hued land,

To bear its pure spirit away to its home,
To join a bright seraphim band?

Ah, yes, and they whispered of love and of

peace,

Of joys and of pleasures that never will cease.

D. HARDY, JR.

LITTLE GRAVES.

THERE'S many an empty cradle,

There's many a vacant bed,
There's many a lonely bosom,
Whose joy and light are fled;
For thick in every graveyard
The little hillocks lie

And every hillock represents
An angel in the sky.