a last farewell,
Is lost from their yearning sight.
But not alone is that maiden fair
Of the pearl-white face and the golden hair.

"Thou knowest I love thee, Blanche," he said,
Who walked by the maiden's side,
And her cheeks flushed up with a sweeter red
When he asked her to be his bride.
Though humble, their love was pure as light--
As pure as the snow they trod;
And the peal from the belfry woke the night
Like a voice from the Throne of God:
Or plaudits of angels glad with delight
At their Maker's approving nod.
Through a manly bosom it sent a thrill,
For it came with the bells did the girl's "I will."

DAWN AND DEATH.

The sobbing winds of winter
Lingered sadly round the door,
Then ran in mystic meanings
Through the dark across the moor;
The window panes were streaming
With the tears which heaven wept,
And a mother sat a-dreaming
O'er an infant as it slept:
Its little hands were folded;
And its little eyes of blue
Were clothed in alabaster
With the azure peeping through:
Its face, so still and star-like,
Was as white as maiden snow:
And it breathed in faintest ripples,
As the wavelets come and go.

The morn in golden beauty
Through the lattice gaily peept,
But muffled was the window
Of the room where darling slept:
The mother's heart was breaking
Into tears like Summer cloud,
For a starry face was circled
With a little lily shroud;
And a soul from sunny features
Like a beam of light had fled:
Before her, like a snowdrop,
Her miracle lay dead!
Ah! 'Twas cruel thus to chasten,
Though her loss was darling's gain:
And her heart would rifle Heaven
Could she clasp her babe again.

CASTLES IN THE AIR.

Autumn's sun was brightly blazing
Like a suit of golden mail;
Flocks along the mead were grazing;
Lambkins frollicked through the vale.
Brooklets gossipped o'er their beauty;
Leaves came down in whisp'ring showers;
And the vine-trees, lush and fruity,
Climbed and clung in am'rous bowers:

Beauty--gladness--
Floated round me everywhere;
Still in sadness
Built I castles in the air--
In the soft and dreamy air.

Far above me, like a spirit,
Rose an alp in proud array,
And my heart so yearned to near it
As I in the valley lay.
Ah, thought I, yon summit seemeth
Like a thr