II.

"What would you do, love, if distant tidings
Thy fond confidings
Should undermine?--
And I abiding 'neath sultry skies,
Should think other eyes
Were as bright as thine?"
"Oh, name it not:--tho' guilt and shame
Were on thy name
I 'd still be true:
But that heart of thine--should another share it--
I could not bear it!
What would I do?"

III.

"What would you do, love, when home returning
With hopes high burning,
With wealth for you,
If my bark, which bounded o'er foreign foam,
Should be lost near home--
Ah! what would you do?"--
"So thou wert spared--I 'd bless the morrow,
In want and sorrow,
That left me you;
And I 'd welcome thee from the wasting billow,
This heart thy pillow--
That 's what I 'd do!"

[Decoration]

CHARLES MACKAY.

1814-1889.

_I LOVE MY LOVE._

I.

What is the meaning of the song
That rings so clear and loud,
Thou nightingale amid the copse--
Thou lark above the cloud?
What says the song, thou joyous thrush,
Up in the walnut-tree?
"I love my Love, because I know
My Love loves me."

II.

What is the meaning of thy thought,
O maiden fair and young?
There is such pleasure in thine eyes,
Such music on thy tongue;
There is such glory on thy face--
What can the meaning be?
"I love my Love, because I know
My Love loves me."

III.

O happy words! at Beauty's feet
We sing them ere our prime;
And when the early summers pass,
And Care comes on with Time,
Still be it ours, in Care's despite,
To join the chorus free--
"I love my Love, because I know
My Love loves me."

_O YE TEARS!_

O ye tears! O ye tears! that have long refused to flow,
Ye are welcome to my heart,--thawing, thawing, like the snow;
I feel the hard clod soften, and the early snow-drop spring,
And the healing fountains gush, and the wildernesses sing.

O ye tears! O ye tears! I am thankful that ye run;
Though ye trickle in the darkness, ye shall glitter in the sun.
The rainbow cannot shine if the rain refuse to fall,
And the eyes that cannot weep are the saddest eyes of all.

O ye tears! O ye tears! till I felt you on my cheek,
I was selfish in my sorrow, I was stubborn, I was weak.
Ye have given me strength to conquer, and I stand erect and free,
And know that I