ians fringed, like eyes of blue,
Glimmer out of sleety dew.
Meadow green I sadly miss:
Winds through withered sedges hiss.
Oh, 't is snowing, swing me fast,
While December shivers past!

6. Frosty-bearded Father Time,
Stop your footfall on the rime!
Hard you push, your hand is rough;
You have swung me long enough.
"Nay, no stopping," say you? Well,
Some of your best stories tell,
While you swing me--gently, do!--
From the Old Year to the New.

DEFINITIONS.--2. Twit'ter-ing, making a succession of small, chirping
noises. Glimpse, a short, hurried view. 3. Blur, a dim, confused
appearance. 6. Rime, whitefrost, hoarfrost.

XXVII. HARRY AND HIS DOG. (79)

1. "Beg, Frisk, beg," said little Harry, as he sat on an inverted basket,
at his grandmother's door, eating, with great satisfaction, a porringer of
bread and milk. His little sister Annie, who had already dispatched her
breakfast, sat on the ground opposite to him, now twisting her flowers
into garlands, and now throwing them away.

2. "Beg, Frisk, beg!" repeated Harry, holding a bit of bread just out of
the dog's reach; and the obedient Frisk squatted himself on his hind legs,
and held up his fore paws, waiting for master Harry to give him the
tempting morsel.

3. The little boy and the little dog were great friends. Frisk loved him
dearly, much better than he did anyone else; perhaps, because he
recollected that Harry was his earliest and firmest friend during a time
of great trouble.

4. Poor Frisk had come as a stray dog to Milton, the place where Harry
lived. If he could have told his own story, it would probably have been a
very pitiful one, of kicks and cuffs, of hunger and foul weather.

5. Certain it is, he made his appearance at the very door where Harry was
now sitting, in miserable plight, wet, dirty, and half starved; and that
there he met Harry, who took a fancy to him, and Harry's grandmother, who
drove him off with a broom.

6. Harry, at length, obtained permission for the little dog to remain as a
sort of outdoor pensioner, and fed him with stray bones and cold potatoes,
and such things as he could get for him. He also provided him with a
little basket to sleep in, the very same which, turned up, afterward
served Harry for a seat.

7. After a while, having proved his good qualities by barking away a set
of pilferers, who were making an attack on the great pear tree, he was
admitted into the house