THE FOUR WINDS. But thou, sweet wind! Wind of the fragrant South, Wind from the bowers of jasmine and of rose And flowering forests come with dewy wings, The low mound where she lies. C. H. LÜDERS. The Return. NOW at last I am at home Wind abeam and flooding tide, And the offing white with foam, Strange how we've been wandering What world honors could avail Loss of this the slanted mast, As the sad land sinks apace, With it sinks each thought of care; Think not now of aging face; Question not the whitening hair: THE RETURN. And the light we thought had fled And the waves we used to plow Hours like this we two have known Round our bow the ripples purled, As the swift tide outward streamed Through a hushed and ghostly world, Where our harbor reaches seemed Like a river that we dreamed. Then we saw the black hills sway Through the tangled meadow-grass. Through the glooming we have run Seen the crimson-edgèd sun -- Burn the sea's gray bound away — Little cared we where we drove So the wind was strong and keen. Graybeard pleasures are but toys; Trim the sheet and face the blast; Sail into the happy past! L. F. TOOKER. BEREAVED. Bereaved. LET me come in where you sit weeping, The little arms that slowly, slowly loosed aye, Their pressure round your neck; the hands you used To kiss. Such arms- such hands I never knew. May I not weep with you? Fain would I be of service say some thing, Between the tears, that would be comforting,— But ah! so sadder than yourselves am I, Who have no child to die. J. W. RILEY. |