The father looked, and, with a pang

Of love and strange alarm, Drew close the little eager child Within his sheltering arm; From out the clouds the mother looks

With wistful glance below, She seems to seek the treasure left

On earth so long ago; She holds her arms out to her child,

His cradle-song she sings: The last rays of the sunset gleam Upon her outspread wings.

Calm twilight veils the summer sky,

The shining clouds are gone; In vain the merry laughing child Still gayly prattles on;

In vain the bright stars, one by

one,

On the blue silence start, A dreary shadow rests to-night Upon the father's heart.

COMFORT.

HAST thou o'er the clear heaven of thy soul

Seen tempests roll?

Hast thou watched all the hopes thou wouldst have won Fade, one by one?

Wait till the clouds are past, then raise thine eyes

To bluer skies.

Hast thou gone sadly through a dreary night,

And found no light, No guide, no star, to cheer thee through the plain,

No friend, save pain? Wait, and thy soul shall see, when most forlorn,

Rise a new morn.

Hast thou beneath another's stern control

Bent thy sad soul, And wasted sacred hopes and precious tears? Yet calm thy fears, For thou canst gain, even from the bitterest part, A stronger heart.