ows of night round thee fall,
For the lights have gone out in the castle,
The lights have gone out in the hall.
And the Rhine waters silently flow,
The old bells ring solemn and slow,
O boatman,
Play lightly,
Play lightly,
O boatman, play lightly and low.

[Illustration: ABOVE THE TOWN.]

III.

The lamps of the stars shine above thee
As they shone when the vineyards were green,
In the long vanished days of the palgrave,
In the days of the palgravine.
Play lightly, thy life tides are flowing,
Thy fate in the palgrave's recall,
For the lights have gone out in the castle,
The lights have gone out in the hall.
And the Rhine waters silently flow,
And the old bells ring solemn and slow,
O boatman,
Play lightly,
Play lightly,
O boatman, play lightly and low.

The narratives of the evening devoted to the Bells on the Rhine were
closed by a story by Master Lewis.

"I do not often relate stories," he said; "but I have a German story
in mind, the lesson of which has been helpful to my experience. It is
a legend and a superstition, and one that is not as generally familiar
to the readers of popular books as are many that have been told at
these meetings. I think you will like it, and that you will not soon
forget it."

"TO-MORROW."

Once--many years, perhaps centuries ago--a young German student,
named Lek, was travelling from Leipsig to the Middle Rhine. His
journey was made on foot, and a part of it lay through the
Thuringian Forest.

He rested one night at the old walled town of Saalfeld, visited the
ruins of Sorenburg, and entered one of the ancient roads then
greatly frequented, but less used now, on account of the shorter and
swifter avenues of travel.

Towards evening he ascended a hill, and, looking down, was surprised
to discover a quaint town at the foot, of which he had never heard.

It was summer; the red sun was going down, and the tree-tops of the
vast forests, moved by a gentle wind, seemed like the waves of the
wide sea. Lek was a lover of the beautiful expressions of Nature, of
the poetry of the forests, hills, and streams; and he sat down on a
rock, under a spreading tree, to see the sunset flame and fade, and
the far horizon