id they were healthy with their food;
›r me-it never did me good.
woful time it was for me,

> see the end of all my gains,
e pretty flock which I had rear'd

ith all my care and pains,
> see it melt like snow away-
or me it was a woful day.

7

nother still! and still another! little lamb, and then its mother! was a vein that never stopp'd

ike blood-drops from my heart they dropp'd, ill thirty were not left alive;

hey dwindled, dwindled, one by one; nd I may say that many a time wish'd they all were gone;

eckless of what might come at last, Were but the bitter struggle past.

8

o wicked deeds I was inclined,
nd wicked fancies cross'd my mind;
nd every man I chanced to see,
thought he knew some ill of me.
To peace, no comfort could I find,
o ease within doors or without;
nd crazily and wearily

went my work about;

and oft was moved to flee from home

nd hide my head where wild beasts roam.

9

'Sir, 'twas a precious flock to me,
As dear as my own children be ;
For daily with my growing store
I loved my children more and more.
Alas! it was an evil time;

God cursed me in my sore distress ;
I pray'd, yet every day I thought
I loved my children less ;
And every week, and every day,
My flock it seem'd to melt away;
They dwindled, sir, sad sight to see
From ten to five, from five to three,
A lamb, a wether, and a ewe;
And then at last from three to two;
And, of my fifty, yesterday

I had but only one :

And here it lies upon my arm,

Alas, and I have none;

To-day I fetch'd it from the rock

It is the last of all my flock.' .

A

I:

W. Wordsworth

CLXI

THE ROMANCE OF THE SWAN'S NEST

Little Ellie sits alone

'Mid the beeches of a meadow,

By a stream-side on the grass;

And the trees are showering down
Doubles of their leaves in shadow
On her shining hair and face.

She has thrown her bonnet by;
d her feet she has been dipping
In the shallow waters' flow-
Now she holds them nakedly
her hands, all sleek and dripping,
While she rocketh to and fro.

ittle Ellie sits alone,

d the smile she softly useth ills the silence like a speech: While she thinks what shall be done, 1 the sweetest pleasure chooseth or her future, within reach.

ittle Ellie in her smile Doseth- I will have a lover, iding on a steed of steeds! He shall love me without guile; to him I will discover

hat swan's nest among the reeds.

And the steed it shall be red-roan,
I the lover shall be noble,

With an eye that takes the breath,
nd the lute he plays upon
11 strike ladies into trouble,
s his sword strikes men to death.

And the steed it shall be shod n silver, housed in azure,

nd the mane shall swim the wind; nd the hoofs along the sod

1 flash onward and keep measure, ll the shepherds look behind.

Y

'He will kiss me on the mouth

Then, and lead me as a lover,

Through the crowds that praise his deeds; And, when soul-tied by one troth,

Unto him I will discover

That swan's nest among the reeds.'

ould not hear the brook flow,
The noisy wheel was still;
ere was no burr of grasshopper,
Nor chirp of any bird;

- the beating of my own heart
Vas all the sound I heard.

at beneath the elm-tree,
watch'd the long, long shade.
1 as it grew still longer
did not feel afraid;

I listen'd for a foot-fall, listen'd for a word,—

the beating of my own heart Vas all the sound I heard.

came not,--no, he came not; The night came on alone; e little stars sat one by one Each on his golden throne; evening air pass'd by my cheek, The leaves above were stirr'd,the beating of my own heart Was all the sound I heard.

t silent tears were flowing,
When some one stood behind;
and was on my shoulder,
knew its touch was kind:

rew me nearer, nearer;
We did not speak a word,—
the beating of our own hearts

Was all the sound we heard.

R. M. Milnes