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Life At the king's gate, the crafty noon
Lessons
Unwove its yellow nets of sun;
Out of their sleep in terror soon

The guards waked one by one.

"Ho there! Ho there! Has no man seen
The king?" The cry ran to and fro;
Beggar and king, they laughed, I ween,
The laugh that free men know.

On the king's gate the moss grew gray;

The king came not. They called him dead; And made his eldest son one day

Slave in his father's stead.

H. H.

December

In a drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy tree,
Thy branches ne'er remember
Their green felicity:
The north cannot undo them,
With a sleety whistle through them;
Nor frozen thawings glue them
From budding at the prime.

In a drear-nighted December,
Too happy, happy brook,

Thy bubblings ne'er remember
Apollo's summer look;
But with a sweet forgetting,

They stay their crystal fretting,
Never, never petting

About the frozen time.

Ah! would 'twere so with many
A gentle girl and boy!
But were there ever any
Writhed not at passed joy?
To know the change and feel it,
When there is none to heal it,
Nor numbed sense to steal it,

Life Lessons

Was never said in rhyme.

JOHN KEATS.

The End of the Play

The play is done; the curtain drops,
Slow falling to the prompter's bell:

A moment yet the actor stops,

And looks around, to say farewell. It is an irksome word and task;

And, when he's laughed and said his say,

He shows, as he removes the mask,

A face that's anything but gay.

Life Lessons

One word, ere yet the evening ends,

Let's close it with a parting rhyme,
And pledge a hand to all young friends,
As fits the merry Christmas time.
On life's wide scenes you, too, have parts,
That Fate ere long shall bid you play;
Good-night! with honest gentle hearts
A kindly greeting go alway!

Come wealth or want, come good or ill,
Let young and old accept their part,
And bow before the Awful Will,

And bear it with an honest heart.
Who misses, or who wins the prize?
Go, lose or conquer as you can:
But if you fail, or if you rise,

Be each, pray God, a gentleman.

A gentleman, or old or young!

(Bear kindly with my humble lays;)
The sacred chorus first was sung
Upon the first of Christmas days:
The shepherds heard it overhead—
The joyful angels raised it then:
Glory to Heaven on high, it said,

And peace on earth to gentle men.

My song, save this, is little worth;
I lay the weary pen aside,

And wish you health, and love, and mirth,

As fits the solemn Christmas-tide. As fits the holy Christmas birth,

Be this, good friends, our carol stillBe peace on earth, be peace on earth,

To men of gentle will.

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY. From" Dr. Birch and his Young Friends."

Life Lessons

A Farewell

My fairest child, I have no song to give you;
No lark could pipe to skies so dull and gray;
Yet, ere we part, one lesson I can leave you
For every day.

Be good, sweet maid, and let who will be clever;
Do noble things, not dream them, all day

long:

And so make life, death, and that vast forever

One grand, sweet song.

CHARLES KIngsley.

Life Lessons

A Boy's Prayer

God who created me

Nimble and light of limb,
In three elements free,

To run, to ride, to swim:
Not when the sense is dim,

But now from the heart of joy,

I would remember Him:

Take the thanks of a boy.

HENRY CHARLES BEECHING.

Chartless

I never saw a moor,

I never saw the sea;

Yet know I how the heather looks,

And what a wave must be.

I never spoke with God,

Nor visited in heaven;

Yet certain am I of the spot
As if the chart were given.

EMILY DICKINSON.

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