ver, great. The charm of the
various individuality, and of the refreshing presence of conscience yet
unprofaned, is greater than can be found elsewhere in this work-day
world. Those were not idle words which came from the lips of Wisdom
Incarnate:--"Their angels do always behold the face of my Father": "Of
such is the kingdom of heaven."

A PICTURE.

[AFTER WITHER.]

Sweet child, I prithee stand,
While I try my novel hand
At a portrait of thy face,
With its simple childish grace.

Cheeks as soft and finely hued
As the fleecy cloud imbued
With the roseate tint of morn
Ere the golden sun is born:--
Lips that like a rose-hedge curl,
Guarding well the gates of pearl,
--What care I for pearly gate?
By the rose-hedge will I wait:--
Chin that rounds with outline fine,
Melting off in hazy line;
As in misty summer noon,
Or beneath the harvest moon,
Curves the smooth and sandy shore,
Flowing off in dimness hoar:--
Eyes that roam like timid deer
Sheltered by a thicket near,
Peeping out between the boughs,
Or that, trusting, safely browse:--
Arched o'er all the forehead pure,
Giving us the prescience sure
Of an ever-growing light;
As in deepening summer night,
Over fields to ripen soon
Hangs the silver crescent moon.

* * * * *

TWO AND ONE.

I.

The winter sun streamed pleasantly into the room. On the tables lay the
mother's work of the morning,--the neatly folded clothes she had just
been ironing. A window was opened a little way to let some air into the
room too closely heated by the brisk fire. The air fanned the leaves of
the ivy-plant that stood in the window, and of the primrose which
seemed ready to open in the warm sun. Above, there hung a cage, and a
canary-bird shouted out now and then its pleasure at the sunny day, with
a half-dream perhaps of a tropical climate in the tropical air with
which the coal-fire filled the room. Mrs. Schroder leaned back in her
old-fashioned rocking-chair, and folded her hands, one over the other,
ready to rest after her morning's labor. She was willing to take the
repose won by her work; indeed, this was the only way she had managed to
preserve her strength for all the work it was necessary for her to do.
She had been conscious that her powers had answered for just so much and
no more, and she had never been able to make further demands upon them.

When years before s