THE BEGGAR MAN.-Lucy Aikin.
AROUND the fire, one wintry night,
The farmer's rosy children sat;
The faggot1 lent its blazing light,

And jokes went round, and careless chat.
When, hark! a gentle hand they hear
Low tapping at the bolted door;
And thus, to gain their willing ear,

A feeble voice was heard t'implore :3
"Cold blows the blast across the moor; 4
The sleet5 drives hissing in the wind;
Yon toilsome mountain lies before:
A dreary treeless waste behind.
"My eyes are weak and dim with age;
No road, no path can I descry;"
And these poor rags ill stand the rage
Of such a keen inclement sky.
"So faint I am-these tottering feet
No more my feeble frame can bear;
My sinking heart forgets to beat,
And drifting snows my tomb prepare.
"Open your hospitable door,

And shield me from the biting blast;
Cold cold it blows across the moor,
The weary moor that I have passed!

With hasty step the farmer ran,

And close beside the fire they place
The poor, half-frozen beggar-man,
With shaking limbs and pallid face.

9

1 Faggot, a bundle of wood used for firing. 2 Feeble, weak; faint. 3 T' implore, to implore, the "o" is elided or omitted, to make one syllable less in the line. Moor, a dreary tract of country. Sleet, snow or hail mixed with rain. • Descry, see; discern.

5

7 Inclement, stormy; pitiless. 8 Drifting snows, see the "Palmer," page 3. 9 Pallid, pale.

The little children flocking came,

And warmed his stiffening hands in theirs;
And busily the good old dame

A comfortable meal prepares.

Their kindness cheered his drooping soul;
And slowly down his wrinkled cheek
The big round tears were seen to roll,
And told the thanks he could not speak.

The children, too, began to sigh,

And all their merry chat was o'er;
And yet they felt, they knew not why,
More glad1 than they had done before.

THE HERMIT WARRIOR.2-Home.

BENEATH a mountain's brow, the most remote,3
And inaccessible, by shepherds trod,

In a deep cave, dug by no mortal hand,
A hermit lived: a melancholy man,

5

Who was the wonder of our wandering swains.
Austere and lonely, cruel to himself,

Did they report him; the cold earth his bed,
Water his drink, his food the shepherd's alms.
I went to see him, and my heart was touched
With reverence7 and with pity. Mild he spake
And, entering on discourse, such stories told
As made me oft revisit his sad cell.

For he had been a soldier in his youth,

1 Glad, from having done a kind act. 2 From a speech of Norval's in the play of "Douglas," 3 Remote, distant. 4 Inaccessible, difficult to be reached. 5 Hermit, a man living in solitude for the purpose of devotion, or contemplation. 6 Swain, a rustic, a countryman. 7 Reverence, respect, veneration.

And fought in famous battles,1 when the peers
Of Europe, by the bold Godfredo 2 led,
Against the usurping infidel displayed

3

The blessed cross, and won the Holy Land.
Pleased with my admiration, and the fire

His speech struck from me, the old man would shake
His years away, and act his
young encounters;
Then, having showed his wounds, he'd sit him down,
And all the live-long day discourse of war.
To help my fancy, in the smooth green turf
He cut the figures of the marshalled 5 hosts:
Described the motions, and explained the use
Of the deep column 6 and the lengthened line;
The square, the crescent, and the phalanx firm,
For all that Saracen or Christian knew

7

8

Of war's vast art, was to this hermit known.

THE BLIND GIRL'S LAMENT.10

Ir is not that I cannot see
The birds and flowers of Spring!
'Tis not that beauty seems to me
A dreamy, unknown thing;-

3

6

1 Famous battles, the battles in the Crusades, a series of military expeditions undertaken by the Christians of Europe for the recovery of the Holy Land from the power of the MohamMedans. 2 Godfredo, Godfrey de Bouillon, the leader of the First Crusade. He was successful in taking Jerusalem, of which city he was styled the king. Usurping, taking without right. 4 In. fidels, Mohammedans, or followers of Mahomet, or Mohammed. Marshalled, placed in ranks. Column, a body of men drawn up in such order as to present but a narrow front, and at the same time to move with the greatest force upon the enemy. 7 Square, a body of infantry arranged in a square, done generally to resist cavalry. 8 Phalanx, in ancient military tactics, a large square battalion of foot soldiers set close to each other, with their shields joined, and pikes turned cross-ways. 9 Saracens, Arabs. 10 Lament, complaint.

Coming like crested chivalry ;1
It was all in vain, unmoved they stood,
Each like Canute to the swelling flood,
Saying, "Thou com'st not to this spot;'
But the surging 3 waters heard them not.
In the light of heaven one instant shone
Both lords and towers, and the next-were gone,
Dark over them swept the mighty main;
And the giant Sea had his own again.

MY GOOD RIGHT HAND.-Mackay.

I FELL into grief, and began to complain;
I looked for a friend, but I sought him in vain;
Companions were shy, and acquaintances cold,
They gave me good counsel,5 but dreaded their gold.

my

side,

"Let them go," I exclaimed; "I've a friend at
To lift me and aid me, whatever betide."
To trust to the world is to build on the sand :—
I'll trust but in Heaven and my good Right Hand.”

My courage revived in my fortune's despite,7
And my hand was as strong as my spirit was light;
It raised me from sorrow, it saved me from pain,
It fed me, and clad3 me again and again.

1 Crested chivalry, soldiers with plumes in their helmets. 2 Canute, King of England. "The old writers of history relate how that Canute was one day disgusted with his courtiers for their flattery, and how he caused his chair to be set on the seashore, and feigned to command the tide as it came up not to wet the edge of his robe, for the land was his; how the tide came up, of course, without regarding him; and how he then turned to his flatterers, and rebuked them, saying, What was the might of any earthly king to the might of the Creator, who could say unto the sea, Thus far shalt thou go, and no farther.'" (Dickens.) 3 Surging, swelling, rolling high. 4 Main, ocean. 5 Counsel, advice. Betide, happen. Despite, defiance. 8 Clad, clothed.

The friends who had left me came back every one,
And darkest advisers1 looked bright as the sun :
I need them no more, as they all understand,-
I thank thee, I trust thee, my good Right Hand!

MAHMOUD.2-Leigh Hunt.

3

THERE came a man, making his hasty moan
Before the Sultan Mahmoud on his throne,
And crying out-"My sorrow is

my right, And I will see the sultan, and to-night."

Sorrow," said Mahmoud, "is a reverend thing: I recognise its right, as king with king. Speak on." "A fiend has come into my house," Exclaimed the staring man, "and tortures us: One of thine officers;-he comes, the abhorred,5 And takes possession of my house, my board, My bed:-I have two daughters and a wife, And the wild villain comes, and makes me mad with life."

6

"Is he there now?" said Mahmoud. "No; he left
The house when I did, of my wits bereft ;7

And laughed me down the street, because I vowed
I'd bring the prince himself to lay him in his shroud.8
I'm mad with want-I'm mad with misery,

And, oh! thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out for thee!"

1 Darkest advisers, persons who had gloomily given their counsel or advice. 2 Mahmoud, sovereign of Ghizni or Ghazna, an ancient empire of Hindostan. He reigned from A.D. 997 to 1029. This great conqueror, who stripped many neighbouring kings of their territories, is extolled by Mohammedan writers for his regard to justice and his religious zeal. 3 Sultan, sovereign, king-a title applied to the monarch of Turkey, and formerly to the governors of various districts of Asia. Recognise, own, concede. 5 Abhorred, hated, detested. 6 Board, food. 7 Bereft, deprived. Shroud, the dress of the dead, a winding-sheet.