ad;
Yet in those flute-like voices, mingling low,
Is woman's tenderness--how soon her woe!

"Her lot is on you--silent tears to weep,
And patient smiles to wear through suffering's hour;
And sunless riches, from affection's deep,
To pour on broken reeds a wasted shower!
And to make idols, and to find them clay,
And to bewail that worship--therefore pray!

"Her lot is on you, to be found untired,
Watching the stars out by the bed of pain,
With a pale cheek, and yet a brow inspired,
And a true heart of hope, though hope be rain,
Meekly to bear with wrong, and cheer decay,
And oh! to love through all things--therefore pray

"And take the thought of this calm vesper time,
With its low murmuring sounds and silvery light,
On through the dark days, fading from their prime,
As a sweet dew to keep your souls from blight.
Earth will forsake--oh! happy to have given
Th' unbroken heart's first tenderness to heaven!"--Mrs. Hemans

CHAPTER IV.

LIGHTHOUSE HOMES.

"And as the evening darkens, lo! how bright,
Through the deep purple of the twilight air,
Beams forth the sudden radiance of its light,
With strange unearthly splendour in its glare.

"Not one alone: from each projecting cape,
And perilous reef, along the ocean's verge,
Starts into life a dim gigantic shape,
Holding its lantern o'er the restless surge.

"Like the great giant Christopher, it stands
Upon the brink of the tempestuous waves,
Wading far out upon the rocks and sands,
The night-o'ertaken mariner to save.

"And the great ships sail outward, and return,
Bending and bowing o'er the billowy swells;
And ever joyful as they see it burn,
They wave their silent welcomes and farewells.

"Steadfast, serene, immovable, the same
Year after year, through all the silent night,
Burns on for evermore that quenchless flame--
Shines on that inextinguishable light."--Longfellow.

No history of Grace Darling would be complete that did not contain some
reference to lighthouses; since it was in one of them that she lived,
and in association with it that her thrilling deeds were done. The
lighthouse is not a modern invention, though modern science and art
have brought it to its present state of perfection. The beacon-fire
was known to the ancients, and the fire-towers of the Mediterranean
were justly celebrated.

The first regular light seems