rtake to watch
her. Dost thou believe seriously, Susanna," and Mrs. Astrid's voice
changed into the most affectionate tones, while she clasped the young
maiden in her arms, "dost thou believe that thou canst so easily escape
me? No, no, my child! Thou deceivest thyself there. Since thou hast
saved our lives, thou hast become our life-captive--thou, and with thy
little Hulda! But supper is laid under the lime-trees in the garden, my
child; and let us gather strength from it for the approaching strife."

THE LAST STRIFE.

The winged troops hie
From the black woods outpouring;
Under them fly
Storms and waves roaring.
Over them waken
Mild stars, and beckon
The troop to the sheltering palms.

AUTUMN SONG, BY VELHAVEN.

There is on earth much sorrow and much darkness; there is crime and
sickness,--the shriek of despair, and the deep, long, silent torture.
Ah! who can name them all, the sufferings of humanity, in their
manifold, pale dispensations? But, God be praised! there is also an
affluence of goodness and joy; there are noble deeds, fulfilled hopes,
moments of rapture, decades of blissful peace, bright marriage-days, and
calm, holy death-beds.

Three months after the strife just mentioned, there was solemnised at
Semb, in Heimdal, one of those bright wedding-days, when the suns of
nature and of men's hearts combined to call forth on earth a paradise,
which is always to be found there, though frequently hidden, fettered,
deeply bound by the subterranean powers.

Yet from the faces of the fallen shine out
The lofty features of their heavenly birth,
And Daphne's heart beats 'neath the rugged bark.

TEGNER.

It was an autumn day, but one of those autumn days when a sun warm as
summer and a crystally pure air cause the earth to stand forth in the
brightest splendour before the azure-blue eyes of heaven; when Nature
resembles a novice, who adorns herself the most at the moment that she
is about to take the nun's veil, and to descend into her winterly grave.
The heights of the dale shone in the most gorgeous play of colours. The
dark pines, the soft-green firs, the golden-tinged birches, the hazels
with their pale leaves, and the mountain ashes with their bunches of
scarlet berries, arranged themselves on these in a variety of changing
masses; while the Heimdal river, intoxicated with the floods of heaven,
roared onward more impetuous and powerful than ever. Many-coloured
herds, wh