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Toss the light ball-bestride the stick

(I knew so many cakes would make him sick!)
With fancies, buoyant as the thistle-down,
Prompting the face grotesque, and antic brisk,
With many a lamb-like frisk,

(He's got the scissors, snipping at your gown!)

Thou pretty opening rose !

(Go to your mother, child, and wipe your nose !) Balmy and breathing music like the South, (He really brings my heart into my mouth!) Fresh as the morn, and brilliant as its star,— (I wish that window had an iron bar!) Bold as the hawk, yet gentle as the dove,(I'll tell you what, my love,

I cannot write, unless he's sent above!)

T. Hood.

XXXIX.

INCIDENT OF THE FRENCH CAMP.

OU know, we French stormed Ratisbon :

A mile or so away

On a little mound, Napoléon

Stood on our storming day;

With neck out-thrust, you fancy how,

Legs wide, arms locked behind,

As if to balance the prone brow
Oppressive with its mind.

Just as perhaps he mused 'My plans
That soar, to earth may fall,

Let once my army-leader Lannes
Waver at yonder wall,'—

Out 'twixt the battery-smokes there flew
A rider, bound on bound
Full-galloping: nor bridle drew

Until he reached the mound.

Then off there flung in smiling joy,
And held himself erect
By just his horse's mane, a boy :
You hardly could suspect-
(So tight he kept his lips compressed,
Scarce any blood came thro')

You looked twice ere you saw his breast
Was all but shot in two.

'Well,' cried he, 'Emperor, by God's grace

We've got you Ratisbon !

The Marshal's in the Market-place,

And you'll be there anon
To see your flag-bird flap his vans

Where I, to heart's desire,

Perched him!' The Chief's eye flashed; his plans Soared up again like fire.

The Chief's eye flashed; but presently

Softened itself, as sheathes

A film the mother eagle's eye

When her bruised eaglet breathes : 'You're wounded!' 'Nay,' his soldier's pride Touched to the quick, he said:

'I'm killed, Sire!' And, his Chief beside,

Smiling the boy fell dead.

R. Browning.

XL.

THE FORSAKEN MERMAN.

OME dear children, let us away;
Down and away below.

Now my brothers call from the bay ;
Now the great winds shorewards blow;
Now the salt tides seawards flow;
Now the wild white horses play,
Champ and chafe and toss in the spray.
Children dear, let us away.

This way, this way.

Call her once before you go.
Call once yet,

In a voice that she will know :
'Margaret! Margaret!'

Children's voices should be dear
(Call once more) to a mother's ear:
Children's voices wild with pain.
Surely she will come again.
Call her once, and come away.
This way, this way.

'Mother dear, we cannot stay.'
The wild white horses foam and fret,
Margaret! Margaret !

Come dear children, come away down.
Call no more.

One last look at the white-walled town,
And the little grey church on the windy shore,
Then come down.

She will not come though you call all day.
Come away, come away.

Children dear, was it yesterday

We heard the sweet bells over the bay?
In the caverns where we lay,

Through the surf and through the swell,
The far-off sound of a silver bell?
Sand-strewn caverns cool and deep,
Where the winds are all asleep;

Where the spent lights quiver and gleam;
Where the salt weed sways in the stream ;
Where the sea-beasts ranged all round
Feed in the ooze of their pasture ground;
Where the sea-snakes coil and twine,
Dry their mail and bask in the brine;
Where great whales come sailing by,
Sail and sail, with unshut eye,
Round the world forever and aye?

When did music come this way?
Children dear, was it yesterday?

Children dear, was it yesterday
(Call yet once) that she went away?

Once she sat with you and me,

On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea.
And the youngest sat on her knee.

She combed its bright hair, and she tended it well,

When down swung the sound of the far-off bell,

She sighed, she looked up through the clear green sea, She said, 'I must go, for my kinsfolk pray

In the little grey church on the shore to-day. 'Twill be Easter-time in the world-ah me!

And I lose my poor soul, Merman, here with thee."

I said: 'Go up, dear heart, through the waves :
Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea-caves.'
She smiled, she went up through the surf in the bay,
Children dear, was it yesterday?

Children dear, were we long alone?
'The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan;

Long prayers,' I said, 'in the world they say.'

‘Come,' I said, and we rose through the surf in the bay. We went up the beach in the sandy down

Where the sea-stocks bloom, to the white-walled town, Through the narrow paved streets, where all was still To the little grey church on the windy hill.

From the church came a murmur of folk at their prayers, But we stood without in the cold-blowing airs.

We climbed on the graves on the stones worn with rains,
And we gazed up the aisle through the small leaded panes.
She sat by the pillar; we saw her clear;

Margaret, hist! come quick, we are here.
Dear heart,' I said, 'we are here alone.
The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan.'

But, ah! she gave me never a look,

For her eyes were sealed to the holy book.

'Loud prays the priest; shut stands the door.'

Come away, children, call no more,

Come away, come down, call no more.

Down, down, down,

Down to the depths of the sea,

She sits at her wheel in the humming town,

Singing most joyfully.

Hark what she sings: 'O joy, O joy,

From the humming street, and the child with its toy,
From the priest and the bell, and the holy well,

From the wheel where I spun,

And the blessed light of the sun.'

And so she sings her fill,

Singing most joyfully,

Till the shuttle falls from her hand,

And the whizzing wheel stands still.

She steals to the window and looks at the sand,
And over the sand at the sea;

And her eyes are set in a stare ;
And anon there breaks a sigh,

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