From distant chambers of the house they ran
To greet their loving father lovingly;

Pride of his house and of his heart were they:
Hurried he next to GREEN, who seem'd too long
In dressing, sprang upon him playfully,
And call'd him "Brother PHŒBUS."

"PHŒBUS" laugh'd

At ELI's last; and ELI seem'd to him
The shrewdest best physician he had seen.
PHOEBE's small figure pacing on the lawn
Then caught his eye, but soon was lost to view,
Going he knew not where: and now down stairs
With ELI, on the hearth-rug, "PHŒBUS" stands,
And forward all the rest with PHOEBE came,

It chanced that morning these three girls were ask’d
To join a picnic-party: RACHEL would,

If PHŒBE would go with them; FANNY begg'd
Enoch Arden,) For "Brother PHŒBUS" (as they call'd him) too:

page

Him, while to Dorking fowls they toss some crusts
Left from the meal, they told; and saying to him
"Go with us 6 Brother PHOEBUS,' we shall ride;"
He gave consent, but at the time to go

He half essay'd to thwart them in their wish :—
Would there be many join them? yet he went.

To be continued.

T. G. S..

LEGENDS OF PETERBOROUGH MINSTER.

II. THE CONVERSION OF WOLFADE.

Saint Chad, before his door

Was sitting, lost in thought,

And much he mourned o'er

The land so deeply brought

To careless sin and evil ways:
And then he sighed for former days
When Peada began to build

A minster large, but by his queen

Was cruelly betrayed and killed;

And of his work there nought was seen
But bare foundations cheerless on the mead,

A sadd'ning relic of a pious deed.

King Wolfere, thanes, and all his court,
Seemed bad as pagans turned, for nought
But as their Saxon sires were wont
They cared to do get drunk and hunt.

The saint was quite deep
In such dreary rumination,

And heavily did weep

For the almost heathen nation

With his eyes on the ground;
When at once a great sound

Of puffing and blowing so terribly loud
He heard, and up started,

And (though never fainted-hearted)

Was startled a little to see in a cloud
Of steam, two branching horns arise
Above a pair of monstrous eyes.

He thought he saw Satan himself, or some peer
From the regions below, yet felt little of fear,
Nor more at opponents infernal to faint

Inclined than did Dunstan the militant saint.

He crossed himself quickly, and " Avaunt ye," began, Then saw it was neither a devil nor man,

'Twas only a hart that from hunters had flown

All day with the speed of the wind, but now blown And exhausted to death, could not make a bound more,

So made a dead stop at the hermit's door.

It gave a beseeching and terrified look

And eagerly took a long draught from the brook;
Then, powerless to fly persecution and hate,

It dropt itself down as if careless of fate.
Though most austere,
Downright severe

As doubtless some would term it,
You ne'er would find

A heart more kind

Than that of Chad the hermit.
He said, as pity touched his breast
To see the fainting creature rest,
"Poor panting trembler, bide thee still,
And I will shield thee safe from ill."
The spreading boughs he moved aside
Of trees that grew there, so to hide
It from the view of those who sought
Its life. Then all at once he thought
He something-though I can't say why-
Could most miraculous descry

In such

A very strange deed;

And much

He wondered, "For what purpose can
By heaven be sent,

What surely ne'er meant

Of itself to the dwellings of man
To fly in its need?"

He wondered long, nor waited long,

For soon he heard the sound

Of a horse's hoofs at headlong speed,
Come rattling o'er the ground.
And hot and tired and sweating much
From his long and heavy run,
On smoking steed, came prince Wolfade,
King Wolfere's eldest son.
"Hallo! old man, hast seen a stag
Come flying somewhere near?"
"O, haughty prince, 'tis not the hart,
But heaven that brought thee here."
"What meanest thou, thou crabbed churl ?"
In wrath the prince began;

But at second looks felt shame to rail
Against the aged man.

With milder tone again he said,

"Hast seen the stag I've sought?"
"As the hart to water brooks art thou
To living water brought,

O prince, I long have wept the sins
Of this fair land to see;

And now, in answer to my prayers,

Hath heaven commissioned thee
To bid the lawless cease from wrong,
And sin to stalk no more."

The prince returned, "I oft have wished
Good order to restore,

And law and justice make revered

Throughout the kingdom's range:

The will I have, but lack the power

All this aright to change.

The hermit said, "Kind heaven hath given
To thee the will-'tis well:

O hear my aged voice, while I
The path of right do tell."

And then a lengthy yarn he spun-began
To tell of Peada's days, how every man
In Mercia was a Christian, fields were tilled,
And blood in wrath or wine was never spilled,
How each man's goods were safe from knavish lifts,
And priests and hermits lived on cheerful gifts.
Then next he gave an accurate account
Of its present fallen state, and great amount
Of sin and wrong and wickedness that moved
The wrath of heaven to fall. He lastly proved,
By a prosy mode I need not here repeat,
That the christian faith was fit, sufficient, meet,
And able all the country's woes to end,
And lasting peace and plenty sure to send.
Prince Wolfade, who sure was a sensible youth,
In his very long speech saw a great deal of truth.
The creed of the christian he clearly perceived
Superior to that of the pagan, believed

That a great deal of good it might do to the nation,
And asked of the hermit a short explanation

Of its doctrines and faith. As the day was now done,
He promised return the next day with the sun;
And often he came, whene'er time could be had,
To list to the zealous instruction of Chad.

His teaching was earnest, his life of the best,
The prince very much by them both was impressed,
And all the old writers agree that, in short,
This model young Saxon did just as he ought-
Repented his sins, paganism despised,

And soon by the joyful Saint Chad was baptized.

B.

AN INDIAN MOTHER.

An Indian woman and her child, who was about seven years old, were travelling along the beach of Lake Erie, to a camp a few miles distant. The boy observed some wild grapes growing on the top of the bank, and expressed such a strong desire to obtain them, that his mother, seeing a ravine at a little distance, by which she thought she could gain the edge of the precipice, resolved to gratify him. Having desired him to remain where he was, she ascended the steep, and was allured much farther into the woods than she at first intended. In the mean time, the wind began to blow vehemently, but the boy wandered carelessly along the beach, seeking for shells, till the rapid rise of the lake rendered it impossible for him to return to the spot where he had been left by his mother. He immediately began to cry aloud, and she, being on her return, heard him; but, instead of descending the ravine, hastened to the edge of the precipice, from the bottom of which the noise seemed to proceed. On looking down, she beheld her son struggling with the waves, and vainly endeavouring to climb up the bank, which was fifty feet perpendicular height, and very slippery. There being no possibility of rendering him assistance, she was on the point of throwing herself down the steep, when she saw him catch hold of a tree that had fallen into the lake, and mount one of its most projecting branches. He sat astride upon this, almost beyond the reach of the surges, while she continued watching him in an agony of grief, hesitating whether she should endeavour to find her way to the camp, and procure assistance, or remain near her boy However, evening was now about to close, and as she could not proceed through the woods in the dark, she resolved at least to wait till the moon rose. She sat on the top of the precipice a whole hour, and during that time occasionally ascertained that her son was alive, by hearing his cries amidst the roaring of the waves; but when the moon appeared he was not to be seen. She now felt convinced that he was drowned, and giving way to utter despair, threw herself on the turf. Soon after, she heard a feeble voice cry, in the Indian language, Mamma, I'm here, come and help me. The distracted mother started up, and saw her boy scrambling upon the edge of the bank; she sprang forward to catch his hand, but the ground by which he held giving way, he was precipitated into the lake, and perished among the rushing billows.