ugh
To give that word the reverence due,
And gently said: "My Mother!"

_Sir Walter Scott._

The Old Man Dreams

O for one hour of youthful joy!
Give back my twentieth spring!
I'd rather laugh a bright-haired boy
Than reign a gray-beard king;

Off with the spoils of wrinkled age!
Away with learning's crown!
Tear out life's wisdom-written page,
And dash its trophies down!

One moment let my life-blood stream
From boyhood's fount of flame!
Give me one giddy, reeling dream
Of life all love and fame!

My listening angel heard the prayer,
And, calmly smiling, said,
"If I but touch thy silvered hair,
Thy hasty wish hath sped.

"But is there nothing in thy track
To bid thee fondly stay,
While the swift seasons hurry back
To find the wished-for day?"

Ah! truest soul of womankind!
Without thee what were life?
One bliss I cannot leave behind:
I'll take--my--precious--wife!

The angel took a sapphire pen
And wrote in rainbow dew,
"The man would be a boy again,
And be a husband, too!"

"And is there nothing yet unsaid
Before the change appears?
Remember, all their gifts have fled
With those dissolving years!"

"Why, yes; for memory would recall
My fond paternal joys;
I could not bear to leave them all:
I'll take--my--girl--and--boys!"

The smiling angel dropped his pen--
"Why, this will never do;
The man would be a boy again,
And be a father too!"

And so I laughed--my laughter woke
The household with its noise--
And wrote my dream, when morning broke,
To please the gray-haired boys.

_Oliver Wendell Holmes._

Washington's Birthday

The bells of Mount Vernon are ringing to-day,
And what say their melodious numbers
To the flag blooming air? List, what do they say?
"The fame of the hero ne'er slumbers!"

The world's monument stands the Potomac beside,
And what says the shaft to the river?
"When the hero has lived for his country, and died,
Death crowns him a hero forever."

The bards crown the heroes and children rehearse
The songs that give heroes to story,
And what say the bards to the children? "No verse
Can yet measure Washington's glory.

"For Freedom outlives the old crowns of the earth,
And Freedom shall triumph forever,
And Time must long wait the true song of his birth
Who sleeps by the beautiful river."

_Hezekiah Butterworth._

April! April! Are You Here?

April! April! ar