e of the willow,
To the bower of the twilight it led her at last,
There lay the bosom so often her pillow,
But the dagger was in it, its beating was past.
Round the neck of the youth a light chain was entwining,
The dagger had cleft it, she joined it again.
One dark curl of his, one of her's like gold shining,
'They hoped this would part us, they hoped it in vain.
Race of dark hatred, the stern unforgiving.
Whose hearts are as cold as the steel which they wear.
By the blood of the dead, the despair of the living,
Oh, house of my kinsman, my curse be your share!'
She bowed her fair face on the sleeper before her,
Night came and shed its cold tears on her brow;
Crimson the blush of the morning past o'er her,
But the cheek of the maiden returned not its glow.
Pale on the earth are the wild flowers weeping,
The cypress their column, the night-wind their hymn,
These mark the grave where those lovers are sleeping
Lovely--the lovely are mourning for them."

_The Casket._

* * * * *

THE COSMOPOLITE.

* * * * *

COUNTRY CHARACTER.

(_For the Mirror_.)

Country society has but little relief; and in proportion to intellectual
refinement, this monotony appears to increase. We have always been
favourable to Book Clubs in country towns, and about ten years since,
established one in the anti-social town of ----. The plan worked well; its
economy was admired, and extensively adopted all over England, but we
heard little of its contributing to the social enjoyments of the people.
Twenty families reading the same books, and these passed from house to
house, among the respectability of the town, might have brought about
a kind of consanguinity of opinion, and led to frequent interchange of
civilities, meetings of the members at each others' houses, or at least
a sort of how-d'ye-do acquaintance. The case was otherwise. The attorney
and the doctor joined our society that their families of ten or twelve
sons and daughters might keep under the sixpences and shillings of the
circulating library; but they soon became jealous of _new books_, although
they often returned them uncut and unread; and so far from knitting the
bonds of acquaintance, we at last thought our plan served to estrange the
members, by affording the little aristocracy frequent opportunities for
venting their splenetic pride; the book