THE KITTEN AND THE FALLING LEAVES.

THAT way look, my Infant, lo
What a pretty baby-show!

See the Kitten on the wall,

Sporting with the leaves that fall,

Withered leaves-one-two-and three

From the lofty elder tree!

Through the calm and frosty air

Of this morning bright and fair,

Eddying round and round they sink,

Softly, slowly one might think,

From the motions that are made,

Every little leaf conveyed

Sylph or Fairy hither tending,—
To his lower world descending,
Each invisible and mute,

In this wavering parachute.

-But the Kitten, how she starts,
Crouches, stretches, paws, and darts!
First at one, and then its fellow,
Just as light and just as yellow;
There are many now-now one—
Now they stop, and there are none.

What intenseness of desire

In her upward eye of fire!

With a tiger-leap half-way

Now she meets the coming prey,

Lets it go as fast, and then

Has it in her power again:

Now she works with three or four,

Like an Indian conjuror;

Quick as he in feats of art,

Far beyond in joy of heart.

Were her antics played in the eye

Of a thousand standers-by,

Clapping hands with shout and stare,
What would little Tabby care

THE MAYING.

And Fate is kind to those who strive

To make existence pleasant,

With harmless joys and simple tastes,

And kindness ever present.

We'll not complain; so come away,

And when we want a treasure,

We'll use these May-day memories

To buy forgotten pleasure.

32-2

WEDDED LOVE.

THIS fair Bride

In the devotedness of youthful love,
Preferring me to parents and the choir
Of gay companions, to the natal roof,
And all known places and familiar sights
(Resigned with sadness gently weighing down.
Her trembling expectations, but no more
Than did to her due honour, and to me
Yielded, that day, a confidence sublime.
In what I had to build upon)—this Bride,
Young, modest, meek, and beautiful, I led
To a low cottage in a sunny bay,
Where the salt sea innocuously breaks,
And the sea-breeze as innocently breathes,

On Devon's leafy shores; a sheltered hold,

In a soft clime encouraging the soil

To a luxuriant bounty! As our steps

Approach th' embowered abode-our chosen seat-
See, rooted in the earth, its kindly bed,
Th' unendangered myrtle, decked with flowers,
Before the threshold stands to welcome us!
While, in the flowering myrtle's neighbourhood,
Not overlooked, but courting no regard,
Those native plants, the holly and the yew,
Gave modest intimation to the mind

Of willingness with which they would unite.
With the green myrtle, t' endear the hours
Of winter, and protect that pleasant place.
Wild were the walks upon those lonely Downs,
Track leading into track; how marked, how worn
Into bright verdure, among fern and gorse,

Winding away its never-ending line.

On their smooth surface, evidence was none:

But, there, lay open to our daily haunt,

A range of unappropriated earth,

Where youth's ambitious feet might move at large; Whence, unmolested wanderers, we beheld