th's wide expansion,
Where icebergs glittered, and where torrents foamed.

From pole to pole, across the hot Equator,
Restless as sea-gulls whirling o'er the deep;
From Snowden's crown to AEtna's fiery crater,
From Indian valley to Caucasian steep;

From Chimborazo, loftiest of all mountains
Trod by man's foot, to Nova Zembla's shore;
From Iceland Hecla's ever-boiling fountains,
To where Cape Horn's incessant surges roar;

From France's vineyards to Antarctic regions,
From England's pastures to Arabia's sands,
From the rude North, with her unnumbered legions,
To the sweet South's depopulated lands;

O'er all those scenes, or beautiful or splendid,
Which man risks wealth, and peace, and life to see,
I roved at will--but all my journeys ended,
Returned to gaze upon the old oak-tree.

But, ah! beneath those broad, outreaching branches,
What other forms, what different feet had strayed,
Since I, a youth, went forth to dare the chances
Which adverse Fortune in my path had laid.

Past my meridian, sinking toward the season
When Hope's horizon is with clouds o'ercast,
When sportive Fancy yields to sober Reason,
I came and questioned the remembered Past.

I came and stood by that oak-tree so hoary,
Forgetting all the intervening years,
Stood on that turf, so blent with childhood's story,
And poured my heart out in one gush of tears.

I had returned to claim my father's dwelling,
Borne like a waif on Time's returning tide--
Summoned I came, by one brief missive telling
That all I left behind and loved had died.

Wiser and sadder than in life's bright morning,
As softly fall the sun's last rays on me,
As when I saw their early glow adorning
The emerald foliage of this old oak-tree.

PAULINE GREY.

OR THE ONLY DAUGHTER.

BY F. E. F., AUTHOR OF "AARON'S ROD," "TELLING SECRETS," ETC.

(_Concluded from page_ 233.)

The result of Mr. Grey's investigations _was_ decidedly unfavorable.
He had much difficulty, in the first place, in obtaining any distinct
information at all, most people hating to commit themselves in such a
matter. He was generally answered evasively, and one or two merely
said, "they knew no good of him."

A friend, however, undertook to make the inquiries, and with much
better success than Mr. Grey coul