I wish to give you all my blessing, But wondered what their father meant, They all to try their strength began: They tugg'd and strain'd, and tried again, And when their labour vain they found, Again the good old man proceeded Replied the sire: ""Twas my intent While you are join'd in friendship's throng But if by quarrel and dispute And thus the strengthening cord divide, BABY'S SHOES. W. C. BENNETT. O THOSE little, those little blue shoes! That those shoes would buy, Those little blue unused shoes! For they hold the small shape of feet Years since grew still, And ceased from their totter so sweet! And O, since that baby slept, So hush'd! how the mother has kept, That little dear treasure, And o'er them thought and wept! For they mind her for evermore And blue eyes she sees Look up from her knees, As they lie before her there, That's a gleam in the place, With its little gold curls of hair. Then O wonder not that her heart That no little feet use, And whose sight makes such fond tears start. THE FUNERAL OF CHARLES THE FIRST, At night, in St. George's chapEL, WINDSOR. THE castle clock had toll'd midnight- His corse in earth we laid. The coffin bore his name, that those Whose bones were laid below. "Peace to the Dead" no children sung, Slow pacing up the nave; No prayers were read, no knell was rung, We only heard the Winter's wind, A moonbeam, from the arch's height, We thought we saw the banners then, 'Tis gone! again on tombs defaced, And now the chilly, freezing air, We laid the broken marble floor- And when we closed the sounding door THE SPIDER AND THE BEE. DEAN SWIFT. UPON the highest corner of a large window there dwelt a certain spider, swollen up to the first magnitude by the destruction of infinite numbers of flies whose spoils lay scattered before the gates of his palace, like human bones before the cave of some giant. The avenues to his castle were guarded with turnpikes and palisadoes, all after the modern way of fortification. After you had passed several courts you came to the centre, wherein you might behold the constable himself in his own lodgings, which had windows fronting to each avenue, and ports to sally out upon all occasions of prey or defence. In this mansion he had for some time dwelt in peace and plenty, without danger to his person by swallows from above, or to his palace from brooms from below: when it was the pleasure of fortune to conduct thither a wandering bee, to whose curiosity a broken pane in the glass had discovered itself, and in he went; where, expatiating awhile, he at last happened to alight upon one of the outward walls of the spider's citadel; which, yielding to the unequal weight, sunk down to the very foundation. Thrice he endeavoured to force his passage, and thrice the centre shook. The spider within, feeling the terrible convulsion, supposed at first that nature was approaching to her final dissolution; or else, that Beelzebub, with all his legions, was come to revenge the death of many thousands of his subjects whom his enemy had slain and devoured. However, he at length valiantly resolved to issue forth and meet his fate. Meanwhile the bee had acquitted himself of his toils, and, posted securely at some distance, was employed in cleansing his wings, and disengaging them from the rugged remnants of the cobweb. By this time the spider had adventured out, when, beholding the chasms, the ruins and dilapidations of his fortress, he was very near at his wits' end; he stormed like a madman, and swelled till he was ready to burst. At length, casting his eye upon the bee, and wisely gathering causes from events (for they knew each other by sight), "A plague split you," said he, "for a giddy puppy, is it you that have made this litter here? could * Beelzebub, in the Hebrew, signifies lord of flies. |