future's page
Two words in letters of fire--(one Doom,--one Mystery,--
Alpha the last, and the first Omega) and names it an Age.

[December 31, 1900.]

A CLOWN'S PRELUDE.

Behold! I cover up this trail of tears
A moment's weakness left upon my cheek,
And hush my heart a little ere I speak
Lest the false note ring true on other ears;
The music rises and the empty cheers
Proclaim the harlequin, and lo! I stand
The painted fool again and kiss my hand
With jocund air to Folly's worshippers.
So day by day life's bitter bread is earned
With lips that smile and frame the mirthless joke,
And frailer grows the soul that once was strong,--
The joyless soul of one whose trade has turned
Life's tragic mantle to a jester's cloak,
Life's diapason to a jester's song.

A LEGEND OF GOLD.

Lucifer craved one boon of God
After his fall, as his own to hold;
So He gave him a mite in heaven's sight,
But lo! the gift that He gave was--Gold.

And Lucifer wrought with the rugged ore
Till he fashioned it wondrous fair, and then
He set a price on the precious store,
And the price was the blood and tears of men.

Blood and tears! and the price was paid;
Blood was nothing, and tears were free;
And Lucifer smiled at the fools and said:
"Surely your souls should belong to me!"

So he offered the earth with its golden heart,
And the seas with their fleets from pole to pole;
And they looked with lust on the world-wide mart,
And said in their hearts,--"It is worth the soul!"

And kings were they, and they ruled right well;
Gorgeously sped their sovereign day ...
But Lucifer hath their souls in Hell,
And their gold and their empires--where are they?

THE EAGLE AND THE FLOWER.

The eyrie clung to the shattered cliff
That the glacier's torrent thundered under;
And the unfledged eaglet's lifted eye
Looked out on the world of peak and sky
In silent wonder.

The mountain daisy, dainty white,
That grew by the side of the lofty eyrie,
Saw the young wings beat on the eagle's breast,
And the restless eyes in the fagot-nest
Grow grim and fiery.

The days went by and the wings grew strong,
And the crag-built home was at last deserted;
But, close to the nest that her love had left,