In the dim church porch an hour ago
We waited the bride's fair face to see;
Now life has a sadder sight to show,

A darker picture for you and me.

No need to seek for the shadow here,

There are shadows lurking everywhere;
These streets in the brightest days are drear,
And black as the blackness of despair.
But this is the house. Take heed, my friend,
The stairs are rotten, the way is dim;
And up the flights, as we still ascend,
Creep, stealthily, phantoms dark and grim.

Enter this chamber. Day by day,

Alone in this chill and ghostly room,
A child- a woman - which is it, pray?—
Despairingly waits for the hour of doom!
Ah! as she wrings her hands so pale,

No gleam of a wedding-ring you see;
There's nothing to tell. You know the tale
God help her now in her misery!

I dare not judge her. I only know
That love was to her a sin and a snare,
While to the bride of an hour ago

It brought all blessings its hands could bear!

I only know that to one it came

Laden with honor and joy and peace;

Its gifts to the other were woe and shame,
And a burning pain that shall never cease.

I only know that the soul of one

Has been a pearl in a golden case;
That of the other a pebble thrown
Idly down in a wayside place,

Where all day long strange footsteps trod,
And the bold, bright sun drank up the dew!
Yet both were women. O righteous God,
Thou only canst judge between the two!

THE COURT OF BERLIN.

KING Frederick, of Prussia, grew nervous and ill
When pacing his chamber one day,

Because of the sound of a crazy old mill
That clattered so over the way.

"Ho, miller!" cried he, "what sum shall you take

In lieu of that wretched old shell?

It angers my brain and it keeps me awake."
Said the miller, "I want not to sell."

"But you must," said the king, in a passion for once.
"But I won't," said the man, in a heat.

"Gods! this to my face?

face? Ve are daft, or a dunce We can raze your old mill with the street."

Ay, true, my good sire, if such be your mood,”
Then answered the man with a grin;

"But never you'll move it the tenth of a rood
As long as a court 's in Berlin."

"Good, good,” said the king, —for the answer was grand,

As opposing the Law to the Crown,

"We bow to the court, and the mill shall stand,
Though even the palace come down."

Frankfort Yeoman.

PART XII.

Parting and Absence.

$3

Why, why repine, my friend,
At pleasures slipt away?

Some the stern Fates will never lend,
And all refuse to stay.

I see the rainbow in the sky,
The dew upon the grass,
I see them, and I ask not why
They glimmer or they pass.

With folded arms I linger not
To call them back; 't were vain;
In this or in some other spot

I know they'll shine again.

WALTER S. LANDOR.

PART XII.

Parting and Absence.

"GOOD-BY."

WE say it for an hour or for years;
We say it smiling, say it choked with tears;
We say it coldly, say it with a kiss;
And yet we have no other word than this,
Good-by."

We have no dearer word for our heart's friend,
For him who journeys to the world's far end,
And scars our soul with going; thus we say,
As unto him who steps but o'er the way,

Good-by."

Alike to those we love and those we hate,
We say no more in parting. At life's gate,
To him who passes out beyond earth's sight,
We cry, as to the wanderer for a night,-

Good-by."

GRACE DENIO LITCHFIELD.

PARTING.

If thou dost bid thy friend farewell,

But for one night though that farewell may be,

Press thou his hand in thine.

How canst thou tell how far from thee

Fate or caprice may lead his steps ere that to-morrow comes?

Men have been known to lightly turn the corner of a street,

And days have grown to months, and months to lagging years, Ere they have looked in loving eyes again.

Parting, at best, is underlaid

With tears and pain.