hers labor, to stay at home while others wander. We touch at last the
mysterious door--are we to be pitied or to be envied?

The desert of the life behind,
Has almost faded from my mind,
It has so many fair oases
Which unto me are holy places.

It seems like consecrated ground,
Where silence counts for more than sound,
That way of all my past endeavor
Which I shall tread no more forever.

And God I was too blind to see,
I now, somewhat from blindness free,
Discern as ever-present glory,
Who holds all past and future story.

Eternity is all in all;
Time, birth and death, ephemeral--
Point where a little bird alighted,
Then fled lest it should be benighted.

* * * * *

LV.

RHYMES AND CHIMES

(ALL BRAND NEW)

SUITABLE FOR AUTOGRAPH ALBUMS.

As free as fancy and reason,
And writ for many a season;
In neither spirit nor letter
To aught but beauty a debtor.

INTRODUCTORY.

The reader knows
His woes.
How oft "someone has blundered!"
How oft a thought
Is caught,
And rhyme and reason sundered!
With line and hook,
Just look!
And see a swimming hundred--
A school of rhymes
And chimes
As free as summer air.
So, if you wish
To fish,
Please angle anywhere.

I.

Thou pet of modern art,
Since I the spell have broken,
Now on thy journey start,
And gather many a token
From many an honest heart,
The best or thought or spoken.

II.

Go forth, thou little book,
And seek that wondrous treasure,
Affection's word and look,
Which only heaven can measure.

III.

This Album comes a-tapping
At many a friendly door;
Yea, gently, gently rapping--
"Hast aught for me in store?
Dear Love and Truth I show,
To point a life's endeavor--
Thanks for thy heart! I go
And bear it on forever."

IV.

"Whose name was writ in water!"
It was not so of Keats.
How many a son and daughter
His gentle name repeats!
And Friendship and Affection
Will keep thy name as bright,
If Beauty give protection
And wed thee to the Right.

V.

So you desire my heart!
Well, take it--and depart.
It is not cold and heavy,
It is not light,
Seeks to be