And so these men of Indostan Exceeding stiff and strong, MORAL. So, oft in theologic wars I'M GROWING OLD. My days pass pleasantly away, My nights are blest with sweetest sleep; I feel no symptoms of decay, I have no cause to mourn nor weep; My foes are impotent and shy, My friends are neither false nor cold: My growing talk of olden times, My growing love of easy shoes, I'm growing fonder of my staff, I'm growing careless of my dress, I see it in my changing taste, I'm growing old. Ah me! my very laurels breathe י! Thanks for the years whose rapid flight My sombre muse too sadly sings! Thanks for the gleams of golden light That tint the darkness of their wings! The light that beams from out the sky, Those heavenly mansions to unfold Where all are blest, and none may sigh"I'm growing old!" KISS ME SOFTLY. KISS me softly and speak to me low, Kiss me softly and speak to me low. Kiss me softly and speak to me low,- What if Envy should chance to hear? Kiss me softly and speak to me low. Kiss me softly and speak to me low: Kiss me softly and speak to me low. ROBERT TRAIL SPENCE LOWELL, THE RELIEF OF LUCKNOW. OH! that last day in Lucknow fort! That the enemy's mines had crept surely in, To yield to that foe meant worse than death; It was one day more, of smoke and roar, There was one of us, a corporal's wife, A fair young gentle thing, Wasted with fever in the siege, And her mind was wandering. She lay on the ground in her Scottish plaid, And I took her head on my knee; "When my father comes hame frae the pleugh”—she said— "Oh! please then waken me. وو She slept like a child on her father's floor In the flecking of woodbine-shade, When the house-dog sprawls by the open door, And the mother's wheel is stay'd. It was smoke and roar, and powder-stench, And hopeless waiting for death; But the soldier's wife, like a full-tired child, I sank to sleep, and I had my dream And wall and garden ;—a sudden scream There Jessie Brown stood listening, "The Highlanders! Oh! dinna ye hear The McGregor's? Ah! I ken it weel; "God bless thae bonny Highlanders ! Along the battery-line her cry Had fallen among the men; And they started, for they were there to die: Was life so near them then? They listen'd, for life; and the rattling fire Far off, and the far-off roar Were all;-and the colonel shook his head, Then Jessie said "That slogan's dune; We heard the roar and the rattle afar, So the men plied their work of hopeless war, And knew that the end was near. It was not long ere it must be heard,— It was no noise of the strife afar, It was the pipes of the Highlanders, And they wept and shook one another's hands, And every one knelt down where we stood, That happy day, when we welcomed them, And the General took her hand, and cheers And the pipers' ribbons and tartan stream'd, And our joyful cheers were broken with tears, For the pipes play'd “ Auld Lang Syne." 66 LOVE DISPOSED OF. HERE goes Love! Now cut him clear, In the deep he may sleep, |