nd confide me the story,
Chant it to me in a short plaintive song;
Perhaps it may speak of a sweet transient glory
That faded and died 'mid disaster and wrong.

Perhaps I may speak some word that has healing
For solitude's wounds, e'en sweet tho' they be,
For sorrows augment by sacred concealing,
And steal from the heart ev'ry wish to be free.

Dear blessed bird! you have stopped at my pleading,
My soul aids my ears to catch your sweet tone:
"If life is not sweetened by presence and breeding,
'Tis better by far to travel alone.

"I have learned as my wings have borne me thro' groves
Where gods their ambrosial nectar sip,
That the heart's best experience ever proves,
Joy comes not from _presence_, but _companionship_."

A LESSON FROM NATURE.

O who has not felt his gay heart beat with gladness,
As forth he has wandered some morning in May?
It drives away care and relieves us from sadness,
It cheers the lone heart and makes us feel gay.

We see how all Nature rejoices around us,
The plants as they spring from the earth seem to smile,
The fresh growing leaves of the groves now surround us,
And soft sounds of Spring-time unite to beguile.

The earth is now teeming with bright vegetation,
The early spring flowers are now in their bloom,
And where'er we look there appears animation
Just bursting the cells of the last winter's tomb.

The soft breeze of May-day, we welcome it near us,
As filled with rich fragrance it comes thro' the trees,
And the bright feathered songsters apparently fear us
No more than the odors that float on the breeze.

They tune their sweet voices and sing their devotion,
Their hearts seem so light, so merry and free,
That ideal beauty graces each motion,
While they playfully dart from bush and from tree.

Our hearts beat with rapture too great for expression
While viewing sweet Nature, so lovely, so gay,
And hearing those sweet lulling sounds in succession,
We wished in our joy it always were May.

Thus tempted to linger and spend one short hour,
In looking around us in bliss most supreme,
We found a choice spot in a fine shady bower,
Where near it there murmured a bright silver stream.

From this lovely spot we intently were watching
The scenes that sur