"You are old," said the youth;

"one would hardly suppose

That your eye was as steady as ever;

Yet you balanced an eel on the end of your nose
What made you so awfully clever ? ""

"I have answered three questions, and that is enough,"
Said his father; "don't give yourself airs!

Do you think I can listen all day to such stuff?

Be off, or I'll kick you down stairs!"

ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND.

That day Lewellyn little loved
The chase of hart or hare,

And scant and small the booty proved, -
For Gelert was not there.

Unpleased, Lewellyn homeward hied;
When, near the portal seat,
His truant Gelert he espied,
Bounding his lord to greet.

But when he gained his castle-door,
Aghast the chieftain stood;
The hound all o'er was smeared with gore,
His lips, his fangs, ran blood.

Lewellyn gazed with fierce surprise,
Unused such looks to meet;
His favorite checked his joyful guise,
And crouched, and licked his feet.

Onward in haste Lewellyn passed,
And on went Gelert too,
And still where'er his eyes he cast,
Fresh blood-drops shocked his view.

O'erturned his infant's bed he found,
With blood-stained covert rent ;
And all around the walls and ground
With recent blood besprent.

He called his child, -no voice replied;
He searched with terror wild:
Blood, blood he found on every side,
But nowhere found his child...

"Hell-hound! my child's by thee devoured,"
The frantic father cried,
And to the hilt his vengeful sword

He plunged in Gelert's side.

His suppliant looks, as prone he fell,
No pity could impart;

But still his Gelert's dying yell
Passed heavy o'er his heart.

THE preacher was a mulatto, about forty years old. He read the twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew-parable of the virgins until, as he got near the end of the parable and the foot of the page, and went up to the next page, he found something was wrong. The pages did not hitch. He studied for a min ute, and said:

"Brudderin, de ress of de parable am not hyar. But I'll tell you all de ress. Dem foolish virgins got de do' shet in dere face, and it sarved dem right."

Then he took for his text, "Dese shall go into eberlastin' punishment, but de righteous inter life eternal." Here are some of his inspirations:

66

Why are so many of dese hyar seats vacant?

"Where is de brudders and sisters who ought to be settin' byar?

"Oh, some of dem is down on Bay Street sparkin', and some

of dem is in card-houses, and some is in drunken-houses, and some is sittin' at home bekase deyse too tired!

Oh-er, brudderin, when you true believers gets up to de white frone, den people will come to you and say:

"Gib us of your oil, for our lamps done gone out;' and you will say-er, You can't come dat game on us.' No-er, for de tex says, 'Dese shall go into eberlastin' punishment, but de righteous inter life eternal.'

66

Dere's a great many people talks 'ligion bery loud down in Bay Street in de daytime, but where is dey to-night?

"Why-er, deyse foolin' round expectin' when de bridegroom comes-er to borry oil from dem dat's got mo'.

"But what does the Scripter say-er?

A

"Why, it says, 'Let dem go radder to him dat sells it at de sto';' and while dey is gone, de do' is slammed shet, for de tex says, 'Dese shall go into eberlastin' punishment, but de righteous inter life eternal.''

“Now, brudderin and friends, what would you think of any of you ladies and gentlemen who would go splurgin' down Bay Street with a hat, a watch, a coat, or dress or bonnet on what didn't belong to you,-stickin' up your nose bekase you's so bery fine, and eberybody sayin', as you go 'long, dem wan't your own close. wouldn't you feel cheap? "But dey's goin' to be fooled, for de tex says-er eternal! dese shall go into eberlastin punishment, but de righteous inter life

"Oh, yes-er, my beloved brudderin and sisters, you can't go a-sailin' into hebben on borrowed close, as you sails down Bay Street, for it is written, Ebery tub mus' stand on its own bottom, and ebery knee shall bow, and ebery tongue shall confess dat fire and brimstone shall be dere po'tion for eber and eber;' and de tex says, Dese shall go into eberlastin' punishment, but de righteous inter life eternal."

I WALK down the valley of silence
Down the dim voiceless valley- alone!
And I hear not the fall of a footstep
Around me save God's and my own,
And the hush of my heart is as holy
As hours when angels have flown!

Long ago, was I weary of voices
Whose music my heart could not win;
Long ago, I was weary of noises
That fretted my soul with their din.
Long ago, was I weary of places
Where I met but the human

and sin.

I walked through the world with the worldly,
I craved what the world never gave,
And I said: "In the world each ideal,
That shines like a star on life's wave,
Is tossed on the shore of the real,
And sleeps like a dream in a grave.”

And still did I pine for the perfect,
And still found the false with the true;
I sought not the human for heaven,

But caught a mere glimpse of the blue. And I wept when the clouds of the mortal Veiled even that glimpse from my view.

I

And I toiled on, heart-tired of the human, :1 And I mourned not the mazes of men;

Till I knelt long ago at an altar,

And heard a voice call me; since then
I walk down the valley of silence
That lies far beyond mortal ken.

Do you ask what I found in the valley?

Tis my trysting-place with the Divine; And I fell at the feet of the Holy,

And above me a voice said, “Be mine." Then rose from the depths of my spirit

An echo: "My heart shall be thine."

Do you ask how I live in the valley?
I weep, and I dream and I pray;
But my tears are as sweet as the dewdrops
That fall on the roses of May:

And my prayer like a perfume from censers
Ascendeth to God night and day.