But if the Lord will be my friend,
I know that all is well.
If all my earth-ly friends should die, And leave me mourn-ing here; Since God re-gards the or-phan's cry, O what have I to fear?
If I am rich, He'll guard my heart,
Temp-ta-tion to with-stand;
And make me will-ing to im-part
The boun-ties of his hand.
If I am poor, He can sup-ply,
Who has my ta-ble spread;
Who feeds the ravens when they cry,
And fills his poor with bread.
And, Lord, what-ev-er grief or ill
For me may be in store,
Make me sub-mis-sive to thy will,
And I will ask no more.
At-tend me through my youth-ful way,
What-ev-er be my lot;
And when I'm fee-ble, old, and grey, O Lord, for-sake me not!
Then still, as seasons hasten by,
I will for Heaven pre-pare:
That God may take me when I die,
To dwell for ev-er there.
WHO IS THY NEIGHBOUR.
THY neigh-bour? It is he whom thou
Hast pow-er to aid and bless ;
Whose ach-ing heart, or burn-ing brow,
Thy sooth-ing hand may press.
Thy neigh-bour? "Tis the faint-ing poor,
Whose eye with want is dim,
Whom hun-ger sends from door to door ;-
Go thou and suc-cour him.
Thy neigh-bour? 'Tis that wea-ry man,
Whose years are at their brim,
Bent low with sick-ness, cares, and pain ;—
Go thou and com-fort him.
Thy neigh-bour? 'Tis the heart be-reft
Of ev-er-y earth-ly gem ;
Wid-ow and or-phan, help-less left ;—
Go thou and shel-ter them.
Thy neigh-bour? Yon-der toil-ing slave,
Fet-tered in thought and limb,
Whose hopes are all be-yond the grave ;—
Go thou and ran-som him.
Oh, pass not, pass not heed-less by :
Per-haps thou canst re-deem
The break-ing heart from mis-er-y,-
Oh, share thy lot with him.
THE FOX AND THE CROW.
THE fox and the crow, in prose, I well know,
Man-y good lit-tle boys can re-hearse;
Per-haps it will tell, pret-ty near-ly as well,
If we try the same fa-ble in verse.
In a dai-ry, a crow hav-ing ven-tured to go,
Some food for her young ones to seek,
Flew up in the trees, with a large piece of cheese
Which she joy-ful-ly held in her beak.
A fox who lived by, to the tree saw her fly,
And to share in the prize made a vow;
For hav-ing just dined, he for cheese felt in-clined,
So he went and sat un-der the bough.
She was cun-ning, he knew, but so was he too,
And with flat-ter-y ad-apt-ed his plan;
For he knew if she'd speak, it must fall from her beak :
So bow-ing po-lite-ly, be-gan :-
""Tis a very fine day ;”—not a word did she say ;— "The wind, I be-lieve, Ma'am, is south;
A fine har-vest for peas;" he then looked at the cheese,
But the crow did not open her mouth.
Sly Ren-ard, not tired, her plu-mage ad-mired,
"How charm-ing! how brill-iant its hue!
The voice must be fine of a bird so div-ine,
Ah, let me just hear it-pray do.
"Be-lieve me, I long to hear a sweet song."
The sil-ly crow fool-ish-ly tries-
And she scarce gaye one squall, when the cheese she let fall, And the fox ran a-way with the prize.
THE FABLE OF THE YOUNG MOUSE.
IN a crack near the cup-board, with dain-ties pro-vi-ded,
A cer-tain young mouse with her moth-er re-si-ded.
So se-cure-ly they lived on that for-tu-nate spot,
An-y mouse in the land might have en-vied their lot.
But one day the young mouse, who was given to roam,
Hav-ing made an ex-cur-sion some way from her home,
On a sud-den re-turn'd, with such joy in her eyes,
That her grey, se-date pa-rent, ex-press'd some sur-prise.
"O Moth-er!" said she, "the good folks of this house,
I'm con-vinced, have not an-y ill-will to a mouse;
And those tales can't be true which you al-ways are tell-ing,
For they've been at such pains to con-struct us a dwell-ing.
"The floor is of wood, and the walls are of wires,
Ex-act-ly the size that one's com-fort re-quires;
And I'm sure that we there should have noth-ing to fear,
If ten cats with their kittens at once should ap-pear.
"And then they have made such nice holes in the wall,
One could slip in and out, with no trouble at all;
But for-cing one through such rough cran-nies as these,
Al-ways gives one's poor ribs a most ter-ri-ble squeeze.
"But the best of all is, they've pro-vi-ded us well With a large piece of cheese of most ex-quis-ite smell; 'Twas so nice, I had put in my head to go through, When I thought it my du-ty to come and fetch you."
"Ah child," said her moth-er, "be-lieve I in-treat, Both the cage and the cheese are a ter-ri-ble cheat;
Do not think all that trouble they took for our good, They would catch us, and kill us all there, if they could, As they've caught and kill'd scores; and I nev-er could learn That a mouse, who once en-ter'd, did ev-er re-turn !”
Let the young peo-ple mind what the old peo-ple say,
And when dan-ger is near them, keep out of the way.
THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME.
. On the back of an oak-leaf, so brill-iant-ly green,
A lit-tle trans-pa-rent ex-cres-cence was seen;
And there a young prom-is-ing in-sect did dwell,
As co-sy and snug as a snail in his shell.
He had plen-ty to eat, and a blank-et so warm,
That he nev-er com-plain'd of the frost or the storm ;
But the fool-ish young grub was de-ter-mined to see
What the pros-pect out-side of his dwell-ing might be.
So, ear-ly one mor-ning, while yet it was dark,
He woke from his slum-bers and rose with the lark;
And nib-bled so cease-less-ly, quick-ly and well,
That he soon made a hole in the wall of his cell.
He trav-ersed the leaf, and went on down the stem,
And the far-dis-tant branch-es-he vis-it-ed them,
Till the shades of the eve-ning drew grad-u-al-ly on,
And our wan-der-er was tired, and his pleas-ures were gone
"Oh, what shall I do?" he ex-claimed in his grief :--
“Oh, how shall I get to my own lit-tle leaf?
It is miles, I be-lieve, to the top of the tree,
And how I'm to reach it I re-al-ly can't see."
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