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Bessie Chandler

Out to the breadth of rainy sea.

He heard the wind beat loud and free, The gilded casement, sullenly Falling away with mist and rain.

Ω Maidenhood.

AIDEN with the meek, brown eyes, In whose orbs a shadow lies Like the dusk in evening skies! *But, oh, it's a weary thing To wear a crown and be a king; Oh, for one golden hour and sweet, To serve the king with willing feet!"

But he would sleep and from his heart The jewelled, silken girdle loose, And give it room to turn and choose An easier measure for its beat.

Into the gilded chamber crept A breath of summer, blown with rain Thou whose locks outshine the sun, Golden tresses, wreathed in one, As the braided streamlets run!

Standing, with reluctant feet Where the brook and river meet, Womanhood and childhood fleet!

Gazing with a timid glance, On the brooklet's swift advance, On the river's broad expanse!

PEEK-A-BOO. (431) T Deep and still, that gliding stream Beautiful to thee must seem As the river of a dream.

Then why pause with indecision, When bright angels in thy vision Beckon thee to fields Elysian?

Seest thou shadows sailing by, As the dove, with startled eye, Sees the falcon's shadow fly?

Hearest thou voices on the shore, That our ears perceive no more, Deafened by the cataract's roar?

O, thou child of many prayers!

Life hath quicksands-life hath snares; Care and age come unawares !

Like the swell of some sweet tune, Morning rises into noon, May glides onward into June.

Childhood in the bough where slumbered Birds and blossoms many-numbered; Age, the bough with snows encumbered.

Gather, then, each flower that grows, When the young heart overflows, To embalm that tent of snows.