en of Bliss;
The thorn and the thistle may grow as they will,
Where Friendship unfolds there is Paradise still.

The bird wanders careless while Summer is green,
The leaf-hidden cradle that rocked him unseen;
When Autumn's rude fingers the woods have undressed,
The boughs may look bare, but they show him his nest.

Too precious these moments! the lustre they fling
Is the light of our year, is the gem in its ring,
So brimming with sunshine, we almost forget
The rays it has lost, and its border of jet.

While round us the many-hued halo is shed,
How dear are the living, how near are the dead!
One circle, scarce broken, these waiting below,
Those walking the shores where the asphodels blow!

Not life shall enlarge it, nor death shall divide,--
No brother new-born finds his place at my side;
No titles shall freeze us, no grandeurs infest,--
His Honor, His Worship, are boys like the rest.

Some won the world's homage,--their names we hold dear,--
But Friendship, not Fame, is the countersign here;
Make room by the conqueror crowned in the strife
For the comrade that limps from the battle of life!

What tongue talks of battle? Too long we have heard
In sorrow, in anguish, that terrible word;
It reddened the sunshine, it crimsoned the wave,
It sprinkled our doors with the blood of our brave.

Peace, Peace, comes at last, with her garland of white;
Peace broods in all hearts as we gather to-night;
The blazon of Union spreads full in the sun;
We echo its words,--We are One! We are One!

WERE THEY CRICKETS?

About seven years ago, (it is possible that some of my readers may
recall it,) the following paragraph appeared in the New York daily
papers;--

"MYSTERIOUS DISAPPEARANCE.--A young man named George Snyder
left the residence of his parents in Thirty-Third Street, last
Friday evening without his hat and taking nothing with him but
the suit which he was wearing (dark doeskin pants, and
invisible-green coat), and has not yet been heard from. It is
feared that he has wandered, in some sudden mental derangement,
off the wharves. Any information which may lead to his
discovery will be gratefully received by the distressed
parents."

No information was ever received until the 1st of April last, when the
missing man himself returned to his father'