For Memorizing

Ceaseless aspiring,

Ceaseless content,

Darkness or sunshine

Thy element;

Glorious fountain,

Let my heart be

Fresh, changeful, constant,

Upward, like thee!

-Lowell.

THREE COMPANIONS.

We go on our walk together
Baby, and dog, and I-
Three little merry companions
'Neath any sort of sky;
Blue, as our baby's eyes are,
Gray, like our old dog's tail;
Be it windy, or cloudy, or stormy,
Our courage will never fail.

Baby's a little lady;

Dog is a gentleman brave;
If he had two legs as you have,
He'd kneel to her like a slave;
As it is he loves and protects her,
As dog and gentleman can.
I'd rather be a kind doggie,

I think, than a cruel man.

-Dinah Muloch-Craik.

For Memorizing

A LIFE LESSON.

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your doll, I know;
And your tea-set blue,

And your play-house, too,

Are things of the long ago;

But childish troubles will soon pass by.

There! little girl; don't cry!

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your slate, I know;
And the glad, wild ways
Of your school-girl days

Are things of the long ago;

But life and love will soon come by.
There! little girl; don't cry!

There! little girl; don't cry!

They have broken your heart, I know;

And the rainbow gleams

Of your youthful dreams

Are thing of the long ago;

But heaven holds all for which you sigh.
There! little girl; don't cry!

-James Whitcomb Riley.

For Memorizing

THE FIFTIETH BIRTHDAY OF AGASSIZ.

66

It was fifty years ago

In the pleasant month of May,
In the beautiful Pays de Vaud,
A child in its cradle lay.

And Nature, the old nurse, took
The child upon her knee,
Saying: "Here is a story-book

Thy Father has written for thee."

'Come, wander with me," she said,

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Into regions yet untrod;

And read what is still unread
In the manuscripts of God."

And he wandered away and away
With Nature, the dear old nurse,
Who sang to him night and day
The rhymes of the universe.

And whenever the way seemed long,
Or his heart began to fail,

She would sing a more wonderful song,

Or tell a more marvelous tale.

So she keeps him still a child,

And will not let him go,

Though at times his heart beats wild

For the beautiful Pays de Vaud;

For Memorizing

Though at times he hears in his dreams.

The Ranz des Vaches of old,
And the rush of mountain streams

From glaciers clear and cold;

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And the mother at home says, Hark!

For his voice I listen and yearn;

It is growing late and dark,

And my boy does not return!"

-Longfellow.

THE SCULPTOR.

Chisel in hand stood a sculptor-boy
With his marble block before him,
And his face lit up with a smile of joy

As an angel-dream passed o'er him;
He carved the dream on that shapeless stone
With many a sharp incision;

With heaven's own light the sculpture shone;
He had caught that angel-vision.

Sculptors of life are we, as we stand

With our souls uncarved before us,
Waiting the hour when, at God's command,
Our life-dream shall pass o'er us.

If we carve it then on the yielding stone
With many a sharp incision,

Its heavenly beauty shall be our own;
Our lives that angel-vision.

-Bishop Doane.

For Memorizing

ANOTHER BLUE DAY.

So, here hath been dawning
Another blue day;
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?

Out of Eternity

This new Day is born

Into Eternity

At night will return.

Behold it aforetime

No eye ever did;

So soon it forever

From all eyes is hid.

Here hath been dawning

Another blue day;

Think, wilt thou let it

Slip useless away?

-Thomas Carlyle.