A tremulous sigh, as the gentle night wind Through the forest leaves softly is creeping; While stars up above, with their glittering eyes, Keep guard-for the army is sleeping. There's only the sound of the lone sentry's tread As he tramps from the rock to the fountain, As he mutters a prayer for the children asleep, The moon seems to shine just as brightly as then, Leaped up to his lips-when low, murmured vows Then drawing his sleeve roughly over his eyes, He passes the fountain, the blasted pine tree,- Yet onward he goes, through the broad belt of light, It looked like a rifle: "Ha! Mary, good-by!" All quiet along the Potomac to-night,— While soft falls the dew on the face of the dead,- MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME By STEPHEN COLLINS FOSTER HE sun shines bright in our old Kentucky THE home; "Tis summer, the darkeys are gay; The corn top's ripe and the meadow's in the bloom, The young folks roll on the little cabin floor, By'm by hard times comes knockin' at the door,- CHORUS Weep no more, my lady; O weep no more to-day! They hunt no more for the possum and the coon, The day goes by, like a shadow o'er the heart, The time has come, when the darkeys have to part, The head must bow, and the back will have to bend, Wherever the darkey may go; A few more days, and the troubles all will end, In the field where the sugar-cane grow; A few more days to tote the weary load, A few more days till we totter on the road, THE FORSAKEN MERMAN [C By MATTHEW ARNOLD OME, dear children, let us away; Now my brothers call from the bay, Champ and chafe and toss in the spray. Children dear, let us away! This way, this way! Call her once before you go Call once yet! In a voice that she will know "Margaret! Margaret!" Children's voices should be dear "Mother dear, we cannot stay! The wild white horses foam and fret." Margaret! Margaret! Come, dear children, come away down; One last look at the white-wall'd town, And the little gray church on the windy shore; She will not come though you call all day; Come away, come away! Children dear, was it yesterday We heard the sweet bells over the bay? Through the surf and through the swell, Sand-strewn caverns, cool and deep, Children dear, was it yesterday Once she sate with you and me, On a red gold throne in the heart of the sea, And the youngest sate on her knee. She comb'd its bright hair, and she tended it well, When down swung the sound of a far-off bell. She sigh'd, she look'd up through the clear green. sea; She said: "I must go, for my kinsfolk pray In the little gray church on the shore to-day. "Twill be Easter-time in the world-ah me! And I lose my poor soul, Merman! here with thee.” I said: "Go up, dear heart, through the waves; Say thy prayer, and come back to the kind sea caves!" She smil'd, she went up through the surf in the bay. Children dear, was it yesterday? Children dear, were we long alone? "The sea grows stormy, the little ones moan; |