-
Half-hid by the snow's fleecy spread;
A bud and a poor trampled blossom--
And both are quite dead.

So fair and so fragile! just twenty--
How mocking the bells sound to-night!
She starved in this great land of plenty,
When she tried to grope back to the light.
Christ. are Thy disciples inhuman,
Or only for _men_ hast Thou died?
No mercy is shown to a woman
Who once steps aside.

Again he leans over the shrouded
Still form of the mother and wife;
Very lonely the way seems, and clouded,
As he looks down the vista of life.
With the sweet Christmas chimes there is blended
The knell for a life that is done,
And he knows that his joys are all ended
And his waiting begun.

So long have the years been, so lonely,
As he counts them by Christmases gone.
"I am homesick," he murmurs; "if only
The Angel would lead the way on.
I am cold, in this chill winter weather;
Why, Maudie, dear, where have you been?
And you, too, sweet wife--and together--
O Christ, let me in"

The children ran in from the hallway,
"Were you calling us, grandpa?" they said.
Then shrank, with that fear that comes alway
When young eyes look their first on the dead.
The freedom so longed for is given.
The children speak low and draw near:
"Dear grandpa keeps Christmas in Heaven
With grandma, this year."

AFTER THE ENGAGEMENT

Well, Mabel, 'tis over and ended--
The ball I wrote was to be;
And oh! it was perfectly splendid--
If you _could_ have been here to see.
I've a thousand things to write you
That I know you are wanting to hear,
And one, that is sure to delight you--
I am wearing Joe's diamond, my dear!

Yes, mamma is quite ecstatic
That I am engaged to Joe;
She thinks I am rather erratic,
And feared that I might say "No."
But, Mabel, I'm twenty-seven
(Though nobody _dreams_ it, dear),
And a fortune like Joe's isn't given
To lay at one's feet each year.

You know my old fancy for Harry--
Or, at least, I am certain you guessed
That it took all my sense not to marry
And go with that fellow out west.
But that was my very first season--
And Harry was poor as could be,
And mamma's good practical reason
Took all the romance out of me.

She whisked me off over the ocean,
And had me presented at court,
And got me all out of the notion
That ranch life out west was my forte.
Of course I have never repented--
I'm not such a go