Lusty Labour, with tired stoop,
Levels low, at every swoop,
Armfuls of ripe-coloured corn,
Yellow as the hair of morn;
And his helpers track him close,
Laying it in even rows,
On the furrow's stubbly ridge;
Nearer to the poppied hedge.
Some who tend on him that reaps
Fastest, pile it into heaps;
And the little gleaners follow
Them again, with whoop and halloo
When they find a hand of ears
More than falls to their compeers.

Ripening in the dog-star's ray,
Some, too early mown, doth lay;
Some in graceful shocks doth stand
Nodding farewell to the land
That did give it life and birth;
Some is borne, with shout and mirth,
Drooping o'er the groaning wain.
Through the deep embowered lane;
And the happy cottaged poor,
Hail it, as it glooms their door,
With a glad, unselfish cry,
Though they'll buy it bitterly.

And the old are in the sun,
Seeing that the work is done
As it was when age was young;
And the harvest song is sung;
And the quaint and jocund tale
Takes the stint-key from the ale,
And as free and fast it runs
As a June rill from the sun's
Dry and ever-drinking mouth:--
Mirth doth alway feel a drowth.
Butt and barrel ceaseless flow
Fast as cans can come and go;
One with emptied measures comes
Drumming them with tuneful thumbs;
One reels field-ward, not quite sober,
With two cans of ripe October,
Some of last year's brewing, kept
Till the corn of this is reaped.

Now 'tis eve, and done all labour,
And to merry pipe and tabor,
Or to some cracked viol strummed
With vile skill, or table drummed
To the tune of some brisk measure,
Wont to stir the pulse to pleasure,
Men and maidens timely beat
The ringing ground with frolic feet;
And the laugh and jest go round
Till all mirth in noise is drowned.

_Literary Souvenir_.

* * * * *

ARMORIAL BEARINGS AT CROYDON PALACE.

(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)

Sir,--In No. 266 of the Mirror, _Sagittarius_ wishes to know the name of
the person whose armorial bearings are emblazoned at Croydon palace.

From the blazon he has given, it is rather difficult to find out; but I
should think they are meant for those of king Richard II. Impaled on the
dexter side with those of his patron saint, Edward the Confe