The father spake no word, but watched

The drifting clouds roll by;

He traced a misty vision too

Upon the shining sky:

A shadowy form, with well-known grace

Of weary love and care,

Above the smiling child she held,
Shook down her floating hair.

"The clouds are changing now, father, Mountains rise higher and higher!

And see where red and purple ships

Sail in a sea of fire !"

The father pressed the little hand

More closely in his

own,

And watched a cloud-dream in the sky

That he could see alone:

Bright angels carrying far away
A white form, cold and dead,
Two held the feet, and two bore up
The flower-crowned drooping head.

"See, father, see! a glory floods The sky, and all is bright,

R

And clouds of every hue and shade

Burn in the golden light.

And now,

above an azure lake

Rise battlements and towers,

Where knights and ladies climb the heights,

All bearing purple flowers."

The father looked, and, with a pang

Of love and strange alarm, Drew close the little eager child

Within his sheltering arm;

From out the clouds the mother looks
With wistful glance below,

She seems to seek the treasure left

On earth so long ago;

She holds her arms out to her child,

His cradle-song she sings:

The last

rays of the sunset gleam

Upon her outspread wings.

Calm twilight veils the summer sky,
The shining clouds are gone;

In vain the merry laughing child

Still gaily prattles on;

In vain the bright stars, one by one,
On the blue silence start,

A dreary shadow rests to-night
Upon the father's heart.

COMFORT.

AST thou o'er the clear heaven of thy

soul

Seen tempests roll?

Hast thou watched all the hopes thou wouldst have

won

Fade, one by one?

Wait till the clouds are past, then raise thine eyes To bluer skies!

Hast thou gone sadly through a dreary night,
And found no light,

No guide, no star, to cheer thee through the plain-
No friend, save pain?

Wait, and thy soul shall see, when most forlorn, Rise a new morn.

Hast thou beneath another's stern control
Bent thy sad soul,

And wasted sacred hopes and precious tears?
Yet calm thy fears,

For thou canst gain, even from the bitterest part,
A stronger heart.

Has Fate o'erwhelmed thee with some sudden blow? Let thy tears flow;

But know when storms are past, the heavens appear More pure, more clear;

And hope, when farthest from their shining rays, For brighter days.

Hast thou found life a cheat, and worn in vain
Its iron chain?

Has thy soul bent beneath earth's heavy bond?
Look thou beyond;

If life is bitter-there for ever shine

Hopes more divine !

Art thou alone, and does thy soul complain
It lives in vain?

Not vainly does he live who can endure.
Oh be thou sure,

That he who hopes and suffers here can earn
A sure return.

Hast thou found nought within thy troubled life Save inward strife?

Hast thou found all she promised thee, Deceit, And Hope a cheat?

Endure, and there shall dawn within thy breast Eternal rest!