doom which follows the horror of a ghost's
speech. "I can't help it," she said, however, doggedly swinging the
pail back and forth. "I can't gin my consent ter starvin' of folks,
even if they air a-hidin' an' a-runnin' from jestice." . . . .

FOOTNOTE:

[47] By permission of Houghton, Mifflin, and Company, Boston.

DANSKE DANDRIDGE.

~1859=----.~

MRS. DANDRIDGE was born in Copenhagen, when her father, Honorable
Henry Bedinger, was minister to Denmark. In 1877 she was married to
Mr. Stephen Dandridge of Shepherdstown, West Virginia. Her first name,
Danske, is the pretty Danish word for Dane, and is pronounced in two
syllables.

WORKS.

Joy, and other Poems.

Mrs. Dandridge's poems are as dainty and airy as if the elves
themselves had led her to their bowers and discovered to her their
secrets; and this is truly what her poetic sense has done, for the
poet is a seer and singer of the secrets of nature.

THE SPIRIT AND THE WOOD SPARROW.

(_From Joy, and other Poems._[48])

'Twas long ago:
The place was very fair;
And from a cloud of snow
A spirit of the air
Dropped to the earth below.
It was a spot by man untrod,
Just where
I think is only known to God.
The spirit, for a while,
Because of beauty freshly made
Could only smile;
Then grew the smiling to a song,
And as he sang he played
Upon a moonbeam-wired cithole
Shaped like a soul.

There was no ear
Or far or near,
Save one small sparrow of the wood,
That song to hear.
This, in a bosky tree,
Heard all, and understood
As much as a small sparrow could
By sympathy.
'Twas a fair sight
That morn of Spring,
When on the lonely height,
The spirit paused to sing,
Then through the air took flight
Still lilting on the wing.
And the shy bird,
Who all had heard,
Straightway began
To practice o'er the lovely strain;
Again, again;
Though indistinct and blurred,
He tried each word,
Until he caught the last far sounds that fell
Like the faint tinkles of a fairy bell.

Now when I hear that song,
Which has no earthly tone,
My soul is carried with the strain along
To the everlasting Throne;
To bow in thankfulness and prayer,
And gain fresh faith, and love, and patience, there.

FOOTNOTE:

[48] By permission of the