yes have grown dim, whose lips tremblingly
plead, "Lead, kindly light." "Lead, kindly light." The words are
whispered by the old, whose tired feet are unable to move, whose palsied
hands are helpless, whose head is bowed by the weight of years, whose
eyes are sightless, from whose trembling lips are scarcely heard the
whispered prayer, "Lead, kindly light."

"Lead, kindly light." The sunken eyes are closed in death, the tired
hands are folded, the heart has ceased to beat, the mute lips are
stilled, the weary feet are at rest, a look of ineffable peace rests
upon the still face, while all the air is filled with sweet music and
the murmur of gentle voices pleading, "Lead, kindly light."

A FABLE

[Illustration]

In one of the German forests the stood a tree, which could not be
classified by any of the learned scientists. It was not more beautiful
than many others, but there were distinctive peculiarities which no
other tree possessed. Her dress was of a sadder hue than that of her
companions, and the birds refused to build their nests in her branches.
She was unable to understand the language of her brothers and sisters
and so stood alone and unheeded in the dense forest. One morning she
awakened and found standing by her side a companion tree, odd, like
herself, and she said in her heart:--"I shall be no longer alone. He
will understand my language and we shall hold sweet converse." But he,
in his heart, was saying--"What strange tree is this? We two are unlike
all our companions. I like it not." But she did not hear the murmur of
discontent, and her heart grew glad within her at the great joy that had
come to her and she said in her heart:--"I will cause him to forget that
we are unlike our companions; I will sing to him my softest songs and
gradually her dress of sombre green assumed a brighter hue, young buds
sprang forth, her branches waved softly in the breeze and she wooed the
birds by gentle voice to build their nests in her arms, and,

"In foul weather and in fair,
Day by day in vaster numbers,
Flocked the poets of the air."

At eventide she folded them in her bosom, that their songs might not
disturb the sleep of her companion, and while all the forest slept, she
alone was awake and, in the silence of the night, she murmured softly,
"Ich liebe Dich," and when the sun arose the birds from her arms flew
through the forest, singing, "Ich liebe Dich," and all the trees took up
the song; th