ill clink the beaded edge
Of the beaker, while I pledge
Safety over surf and sedge,
Foaming round the sunken ledge,
In the track of all the loved ones we remember.

And through Carolinian woods,
Ever muffled in the hoods
Of their fir-trees' aromatic evergreen,
I can hear the mellow stops,
Ever swaying in their tops,
To the playing of an organist unseen.
And the breezes bring the balm
Of the solitude and psalm,
From that indolence of calm,
In the land of pine and palm,
Over hills, and over rivers and savannas,
Till my feelings undergo
All their mortal overthrow,
In celestial strains which flow,
In a song of peace below,
From those regions where archangels sing hosannas.

* * * * *

A friend who has roamed in his time over the deserts and slept in
Bedawee tents; one to whom the East is as a second mother, and in whose
faith the Koran is necessary to really put the finishing touch to a true
gentleman, sends us the following eccentric proverbs from the Arabic.

Words of Wisdom.

'A well is not to be filled with dew.'

There speaks the Arab, choice of water as of wine.

'May a deadly disease love you and Allah hate you!'

Uncle Toby, who would not have had the heart to curse a dog so, would
have found the Excommunication of Ernulphus quite outdone in the desert,
where cursing is perfected.

'He lays goose eggs, and expects young turkeys.'

'The dream of the cat is about mice.'

Meaning, as we say, that what is bred in the bone will not come out of
the flesh. AESOP has dramatized this proverb in a pretty fable.

'The people went away; the baboons remained.'

'A rose fell to the lot of a monkey.'

Or, as the Latins said, '_Asinus ad Lyram_'--'A gold ring in a sow's
ear.'

'God bless him who pays visits, and short ones at that.'

'The husband of two parrots--a neck between two sticks.'

'I asked him about his father. "My uncle's name is SHAYB,"
he replied.'

'They wanted a keeper for the pigeon-house, and gave the keys to
the cat.'

'Filth fell upon dirt. "Welcome! my friend," said he.'

'Scarcer than fly-brains.'

'Gain upon dirt rather than loss upon musk.'

Musk plays a great part in the East. Even the porters in Cairo bear bags
of it and are scented by it.

'When the monkey reigns, dance before