the grand equatorial forests which supply so many of man's wants in a way unknown in the colder climes. "THE INDIAN'S HUT. "'Twas on the mighty Amazon, We floated with the tide, While steep and flowery were the banks And where the green bananas grow, "Like to the halls of Solomon, "Those wild fantastic slender cords Which hang from branches high, "All silently, for stake and pole Were sharpened where they grew ; And where the house was built, no axe But slow and still the Indian worked, "Oh, for a lodge!' thus Cowper cried ; And here's a peaceful home, A quiet spot, a calm retreat, I give the following verses on the Cayman or Alligator of the Amazon because I remember how pleased my brother was with the quotation from Macbeth, which so aptly applies to this dangerous reptile. "SONG OF THE CAYMAN. (Written, 1850.) "Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold: Thou hast no speculation in those eyes Which thou dost glare with.' "I bask in the waveless waters When the sun is shining on high, Watching the Indian children With a grim and greedy eye; Woe to the careless bather "I float on the midnight waters Which flattens the hunter's lead; "I hear the house-dog prowling, And seize him on the brink. "I dwell not in rushing waters, But in woodland pool and lake, "Midnight deeds have I witness'd, I preserve the next little poem because I feel sure that the first three verses were inspired by the memories of his childhood, while the conclusion indicates those deeper feelings still more dominant in that which follows it. "VOICES. "I remember voices Breathed in sweetest tone "Little manly voices, Brothers then were near, Soft and kindly voices; Of my sisters dear. "Grave and tender voices, "I remember voices, Tones of later years, "Eloquent and earnest, Seeming firm and true, 66 Friendship's voice deceived me, False and fickle proved. "I remember voices, Now I hear but one, "Calm amid the tempests, Live in peace with me, Thou shalt learn Earth's wisdom And Heaven's mystery.'" The following poem is probably the last written by my brother. There is no draft or note of it in his rough notebook, and it is written out carefully on a sheet of thin letterpaper which he probably obtained in Para. It was therefore almost certainly written during the two weeks before his fatal illness. "OUR BETTER MOMENTS. "Uncalled they come across the mind, A power strange, yet holy too, Breathes through our every sense; Its subtle influence. High visions, noble thinkings, flash Like meteors through the brain, 'Tis surely come again ! Better moments! Better moments! Ye are sunny angels' wings, Sent to shed a holier radiance o'er all dim and worldly things. "Perchance we love to watch awhile, In simple child-like mood, The ebbing of the flood, Or lie upon a mossy bank When sudden, from before our gaze, The grass-the waters fade ; Better moments! Better moments! Ye are sunny angels' wings, Sent to shed a holier radiance o'er all dim and worldly things. "Or sitting in a leafy wood, Some still and breathless hour, The joyous twitter of a bird Has strange unconscious power; The power to send through ev'ry nerve A better moment, like the dawn, Takes in its pure embrace, All life! all nature! high or mean, Of colour, tongue, or race. Better moments! Better moments! Ye are sunny angels' wings, Sent to shed a holier radiance o'er all dim and worldly things. "A thousand various scenes and tones By which our duller years of life And prostrate souls fell horror-struck But now God's momentary gleam Is sent into the soul To guide uncertain wavering feet To Life's high solemn goal. Better moments! Better moments! Ye are sunny angels' wings, Sent to shed a holier radiance o'er all dim and worldly things." Of the numerous versified enigmas he wrote, I print four of the best. They may interest some of my younger readers. They are not difficult to guess, but I give the solutions at the end. ENIGMAS. I. "There was a Spanish gentleman "We saw him at the opera, The very point of chivalry And oft upon my Second seen Where Seville's beauties came, But still we knew him as my First, ""Twas I who brought that gentleman With skins of smuggled wine; |