ce,
The bird had flown, but the lesson stayed,
And Mabel went in from the garden gate
A better, and wiser, and happier maid.

For bright, or dark is this life of ours,
Just as we make it, children dear--
With naughty deeds come the chilling showers
While the skies of the good are bright and clear.

Baby Kathleen

Into my life, out of Paradise,
She came like a bird, and the low-hung skies
With the muttered threats of their tempest cloud,
That had covered my life with its dismal shroud
Vanished like dew, when the new day springs
From her rosy couch, and unfolds her wings.
Unfolds her wings for her airy flight
From the mist hung dawn to the purple night,
She hovered so near I could almost reach--
My trembling heart was o'erfull for speech,
When joy! oh! joy, on my throbbing breast
She folded her wings for a moment to rest,
For a moment the gates of pearl were ajar
All earth was alight with the radiant star,
That shone o'er Bethlehem's manger low,
On that wonderful night of the long ago.
But I recked for naught of the glowing skies,
While the lovelight shone from her starry eyes;
But my beautiful song bird, blithe and free
With her plumage white was too fair for me,
Adown through the shining gates there came
Voices of angels, calling her name.
I had felt the thrill that her presence brought,
I had learned the lesson her love had taught,
She came, and my life was a garden fair,
She fled, and that life was a desert bare,
But my beautiful bird I will find once more
When I wing my flight to the far off shore,
And Heaven, Ah! Heaven will be so bright
When I find my bird with her plumage white,
When I look once more in her starry eyes,
I shall know I have entered Paradise.

[Illustration: "TWO BOYS"]

Two Boys

Two boys beside my knee
With eyes so dark and deep;
Two snow-white souls, the God of Love
Has given to me to keep.
My cup of joy o'er-ran
That Summer's day,
I knew they were my own--
My own alway.
My fair twin boys--Ah! me,
I look for you
Out o'er life's trodden paths,
And turn anew
To Him, who never yet
Has failed to hear
A mother's prayer for those
She holds so dear.
Oh! eyes so dark and sweet,
May Heaven's light
Shine o'er the paths you tread
And make them bright.
You could not go astray--
For all along
A wall of