Roll with thee, Earth, this grain of dust,
As through the Vast thou whirlest;
On, on through zones of dark and light
Still waft me, blind and reeling,
Around the sun, and with his flight
In wilder orbits wheeling.

Speed on through deeps without a shore,
This Atom with thee bearing,
Thyself a grain of dust-no more-
'Mid fume of systems flaring.
Ah, what am I to thirst for power,
Or pore on Nature's pages,-
Whirl'd onward, living for an hour,
And dead through endless ages?

From THE HOUSE OF A HUNDRED LIGHTS

BY RIDGELY TORRENCE

What! doubt the Master Workman's hand
because my fleshly ills increase?

No; for there still remains one chance
that I am not His Masterpiece.

From PSALM XIX

BY DAVID

The heavens declare the glory of God;
And the firmament sheweth his handywork.

Day unto day uttereth speech,

And night unto night sheweth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language

Where their voice is not heard.

Their line is gone out through all the earth,
And their words to the end of the world.

In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun,
Which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
And rejoiceth

As a strong man to run a race.

His going forth is from the end of the heaven,

And his circuit unto the ends of it:

And there is nothing hid from the heat thereof.

Who can understand his errors?

Cleanse thou me from secret faults.

Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins;

Let them not have dominion over me:

Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent

From the great transgression.

Let the words of my mouth,

And the meditations of my heart,

Be acceptable in thy sight,

O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer.

MY WAGE

BY JESSIE B. Rittenhouse

I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,

However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store;

For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.

I worked for a menial's hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,

That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have paid.

DAYS

BY RALPH WALDO EMERSON

Daughters of Time, the hypocritic Days,
Muffled and dumb like barefoot dervishes,
And marching single in an endless file,
Bring diadems and fagots in their hands.
To each they offer gifts after his will,
Bread, kingdoms, stars, and sky that holds them all.
I, in my pleachèd garden, watched the pomp,
Forgot my morning wishes, hastily

Took a few herbs and apples, and the Day
Turned and departed silent. I, too late,
Under her solemn fillet saw the scorn.

AFTER BLENHEIM

BY ROBERT Southey

It was a summer evening,
Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage door
Was sitting in the sun;

And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin
Roll something large and round
Which he beside the rivulet

In playing there had found;

He came to ask what he had found
That was so large and smooth and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head, And with a natural sigh

66

"Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

"Who fell in the great victory.

"I find them in the garden,

For there's many here about,

And often when I go to plow

The ploughshare turns them out.

For many thousand men," said he, "Were slain in that great victory."

"Now tell us what 'twas all about," Young Peterkin he cries; And little Wilhelmine looks up With wonder-waiting eyes; "Now tell us all about the war, And what they fought each other for."

"It was the English," Kaspar cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they fought each other for
I could not well make out.
But every body said," quoth he,
"That 'twas a famous victory.

"My father lived at Blenheim then, Yon little stream hard by;

They burnt his dwelling to the ground,

And he was forced to fly:

So with his wife and child he fled,
Nor had he where to rest his head.

"With fire and sword the country round Was wasted far and wide,

And many a childing mother then

And newborn baby died:

But things like that, you know, must be At every famous victory.