sparkling stars
(Each a heavenly gem),
And their light so gentle is,
We can look at them.

"And the flashing fire-flies
Round us gleam and glance,
Like a countless host of fays
In an airy dance.
And the moth king, velvet-winged,
Dainty kiss bestows,
As he whispers, 'You are sweet,
Sweet as any rose.'

"Grieve no more for us, dear friend;
Thrice content we are,
Loved by moth and fire-fly,
Dew-drop, moon, and star.
And while you o'er garden reign
In the bright daylight,
We are hailed by wand'ring winds,
Flower queens of night."

OLD TIMES IN THE COLONIES.

BY CHARLES CARLETON COFFIN.

No. III.

ISAAC BRADLEY AND JOSEPH WHITTAKER.

Twelve miles from the sea, on the bank of the Merrimac River, is the
busy town of Haverhill. It was a small settlement in 1690. There was a
cluster of houses and a meeting-house. The country beyond, all the way
to Canada, was a wilderness. The Indians came down the river in their
bark canoes, carrying them past the falls where the city of Lowell now
stands, past Amoskeag Falls, where the Manchester factories to-day are
humming. They caught beaver, bear, and foxes, and sold the furs to the
traders.

The Indians were under the influence of the French, and when war broke
out between France and England for the restoration of James II. to the
throne from which he had fled, the settlers of Haverhill, in common with
the people all along the frontier, knew that the Indians, influenced by
the French in Canada, might be upon them at any moment.

[Illustration: EARLY SETTLERS GOING TO MEETING.--DRAWN BY HOWARD PYLE.]

The settlers had their guns ever at hand. If at work in the field, they
placed them where they could seize them quickly. When they went to bed
at night, they put a stout bar of wood across the door, and examined
the flints and the priming. On Sunday, when they went to meeting, each
man carried his gun, and the minister looked down from the pulpit upon
men who had powder-horns and bullet-pouches slung across their
shoulders, and whose muskets were standing in the corners of their pews.
Some of the settlers kept watch outside while the others were in
meeting. They went on scouts through the dark woods, peering among the
trees to see if the Indians were prowling in the vicinity.

The settlers were obliged to work hard. While the men were at work in
the fields, the women were spinning and weaving. Boys and g