evil can pass;
When thou goest abroad, on thy bosom wear
A nosegay, and trust me an angel is near.

Do but water the lilies at break of day,
For the hours of the morn thou'lt be whiter than they;
Let a rose round thy bed night-sentry keep,
And angels will rock thee on roses to sleep.

No frightful dreams can approach thy bed,
For around thee an angel his watch will have spread;
And whatever visions thy Guardian, to thee,
Permits to come in, very good ones will be.

When thus thou art kept by a heavenly spell,
Shouldst thou now and then dream that I love thee right well;
Be sure that with fervor and truth I adore thee,
Or an angel had ne'er set mine image before thee.

The visitors soon began to arrive. There were among them some amusing
characters, so well supported as to give rise during the evening to many
entertaining scenes; but to me this was the group and this the incident
of the evening. Not a group or an incident for prurient curiosity or
frivolous jest, but for an earnest and reverent recognition of that
beautiful law imposed on Nature by her Great Author, by which the feeble
delight in receiving, and the strong in giving support--that law by
which a pure and self-abnegating affection is made the source of life in
all its commingling relations--of its duties and its sympathies--its
joys and its sorrows--of its severest probation and its loftiest
development.

It was in the solemnity of spirit, engendered by thoughts like these,
that I stood at the window of my room, looking forth upon the still and
moonlit night, long after our friends had left us. My door opened softly
and Annie glided in, and ere I was aware of her presence, was standing
beside me with her head resting on my shoulder. A tear was on the cheek
to which I pressed my lips. A few whispered words told me whence the
ring came--but not for the public are the pure, guileless confidences of
that hour.

Our holiday festivities were over, and the next day the Christmas Guests
departed. They had stepped aside awhile from the dusty thoroughfares on
which they were accustomed to pursue their several avocations, for the
interchange of friendly sympathy with each other, and the offering of
grateful hearts to Heaven, and now they were returning, cheered and
strengthened to their allotted work. Reader, go thou and do likewise

"Like a star
That maketh not haste,
That taketh no rest,