Now with her empty can the maiden turned away;
But ere ten yards were gone, her footsteps she did stay.
Towards the lamb she looked; and from that shady place
I unobserved could see the workings of her face;
If nature to her tongue could measured numbers bring,
Thus, thought I, to her lamb that little maid might sing:

"What ails thee, young one? what? why pull so at thy cord?
Is it not well with thee? well both for bed and board?
Thy plot of grass is soft, and green as grass can be;
Rest, little young one, rest; what is't that aileth thee?

"What is it thou wouldst seek? what is wanting to thy heart?
Thy limbs are they not strong? and beautiful thou art.
This grass is tender grass; these flowers they have no peers,
And that green corn all day long is rustling in thy ears!

"If the sun be shining hot, do but stretch thy woollen chain;
This birch is standing by; its covert thou canst gain;
For rain and mountain storms the like thou need'st not

fear

---

The rain and storm are things that scarcely can come here.

66 Rest, little young one, rest; thou hast forgot the day When my father found thee first in places far away; Many flocks were on the hills, but thou wert owned by none, And thy mother from thy side forevermore was gone.

"He took thee in his arms, and in pity brought thee home: O, blessed day for thee! Then whither wouldst thou roam? A faithful nurse thou hast; the dam that did thee yean Upon the mountain tops no kinder could have been.

"Thou know'st that twice a day I have brought thee in this

can

Fresh water from the brook, as clear as ever ran;

And twice in the day, when the ground is wet with dew,
I bring thee draughts of milk; warm milk it is, and new.

"Thy limbs will shortly be twice as stout as they are now;
Then I'll yoke thee to my cart, like a pony in the plough;
My playmate thou shalt be; and when the wind is cold,
Our hearth shall be thy bed, our house shall be thy fold.

"Alas! the mountain tops, that look so green and fair,
I've heard of fearful winds and darkness that come there;
The little brooks, that seem all pastime and all play,
When they are angry, roar like lions for their prey.

"Here thou needest not dread the raven in the sky
Night and day thou art safe; our cottage is hard by.
Why bleat so after me? why pull so at thy chain?
Sleep, and at break of day I will come to thee again.”

As homeward through the lane I went with lazy feet,
This song to myself did I oftentimes repeat;
And it seemed, as I retraced the ballad line by line,
That but half of it was hers, and one half of it was mine.

Again, and once again, did I repeat the song:

"Nay," said I, "more than half to the damsel must belong; For she looked with such a look, and she spoke with such a

tone,

That I almost received her heart into my own."

XX.-LAPLAND.

WITH blue, cold nose and wrinkled brow,

Traveller, whence comest thou?

From Lapland's woods and hills of frost,

By the rapid reindeer crossed.

There tapering grows the gloomy fir,
And the stunted * juniper;

* Stunted, hindered from growing, and on this account small.

There the wild hare and the crow

Whiten in surrounding snow.

There the shivering huntsmen tear

Their fur coats from the grim white bear,
And the wolf and northern fox

Prowl among the lonely rocks.

[The reindeer is an animal of great benefit to the poor Laplanders. He draws their sledges rapidly over the snow, and requires very little food; scratching away the snow with his feet, and eating the moss he finds beneath it. The female reindeer supplies milk to these northern people, as the cow supplies us. The reindeer will not live in more southern countries.]

REINDEER, not in fields like ours,
Full of grass and bright with flowers;
Not in pasture-dales, where glide
Ever-flowing rivers wide;

Not on hills where verdure bright
Clothes them to the topmost height,

*Teeming, abundant.

† Niggard, barren.

Hast thou dwelling; nor dost thou
Feed upon the orange bough;
Nor doth olive, nor doth vine,
Bud and bloom in land of thine.

But thy home and dwelling are
In a region bleak and bare;
In a dreary land of snow

Where green weeds can scarcely grow;
Where the skies are gray and drear;
Where 'tis night for half the year;
Reindeer, where, unless for thee,
Human dweller could not be.

When thou wast at first designed
By the great Creative Mind,*
With thy patience and thy speed,
With thy aid for human need,
With thy foot so formed to go
Over frozen wastes of snow, -
Thou for frozen lands wast meant,
Ere the winter's frost was sent ;
And in love He sent thee forth

To thy home, the frozen north;
Where He bade the rocks produce
Bitter lichens † for thy use.

Serving long, and serving hard;
Asking but a scant reward;

*The Creative Mind is God, who planned all things before they were made. He made the cold climate of Lapland, and fitted the reindeer to live in it, and not to live in warm climates; he made the lichen, or moss, to grow there, to sustain this animal, which prefers the food provided for him to any other.

The fitness of one thing to another, as of moss to the reindeer, and the reindeer to a very cold country, where the camel and the horse would freeze to death, is called the "harmony of nature." It is, properly, "the wisdom of God in creation."

+ Pronounced li'kens.

Of the snow a short repast,

Or the mosses cropped in haste.
Reindeer, away! with all thy strength,
Speeding o'er the country's length;
Speeding onward like the wind,
With the sliding sledge behind.

XXII.-NATURAL PIETY.

RICHARD HOWITT.

A LITTLE boy, in thoughtful mood,
Alone a woodland path pursued,
Beneath the evening's tranquil sky,
He thought not where, he knew not why.
He watched the sunset fade away,
Leaving the hills with summits gray;
He saw the first faint stars appear,
And the far river's sound came near.

The birds were hushed, the flowers were closed,

*

And kine along the ground reposed;

All active life to gentle rest

Sank down, as on a mother's breast.

All sounds, all sights of earth and sky,
Came to his ear, came to his eye;
Until from these absorbed, forgot
They were, and he perceived them not.

Though from his home and friends apart,
No sense of fear disturbed his heart;

Though round him were dark shadows thrown,
He did not feel himself alone.

* Kine, cows.