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THE IDLE SHEPHERD BOYS.

Seeing that he should lose the prize,
"Stop!" to his comrade, Walter cries-
He stopped with no good will:

Said Walter then, "Your task is here,
"Twill baffle you for half a year.

"Cross, if you dare, where I shall cross-Come on, and in my footsteps tread!" The other took him at his word,

And followed as he led.

It was a spot which you may see

If ever you to Langdale go;

Into a chasm a mighty block

Hath fallen, and made a bridge of rock:

The gulf is deep below;

And in a basin black and small,

Receives a lofty waterfall.

With staff in hand across the cleft
The challenger pursued his march;
And now, all eyes and feet, hath gain'd
The middle of the arch,

When list! he hears a piteous moan-
Again!-his heart within him dies-
His pulse is stopp'd, his breath is lost,
He totters, pallid as a ghost,

And, looking down, espies

A lamb, that in the pool is pent
Within that black and frightful rent.

The lamb had slipt into the stream,
And safe without a bruise or wound
The cataract had borne him down
Into the gulf profound.

His dam had seen him when he fell,

She saw him down the torrent borne,

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And while, with all a mother's love,
She from the lofty rocks above
Sent forth a cry forlorn,

The lamb, still swimming round and round,
Made answer to that plaintive sound.

When he had learn'd what thing it was,
That sent this rueful cry; I ween,
The boy recover'd heart, and told
The sight which he had seen.
Both gladly now deferr'd their task;
Nor was there wanting other aid—
A poet, one who loves the brooks
Far better than the sage's books,
By chance had thither stray'd;

And there the helpless lamb he found
By those huge rocks encompass'd round.

He drew it gently from the pool,

And brought it forth into the light:

The shepherds met him with his charge,

An unexpected sight!

Into their arms the lamb they took,

Said they, "He's neither maim'd nor scarr'd.”
Then up the steep ascent they hied,

And placed him at his mother's side;
And gently did the bard

Those idle shepherd boys upbraid,

And bade them better mind their trade.

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Page

Christian's Progress, the,

Churchyard Scene,

Churchyard, Sun-dial in a,

City Child's Complaint, the,

Comforter, God the only,

Complaint of Nature, the,

Condition of Kings Human,

Conscience,

William Lisle Bowles,
Mrs. E. Hawkshaw,

Close of the Week, a Child's Hymn for the, James Hogg,

Thomas Moore,

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Nature, the,

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Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 112

Nathaniel P. Willis,

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, 291
Henry Neele,

136

John Wilson,

413

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Henry Kirke White,

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John Wilson,

410

257

313

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Robert Southwell,

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Thomas Dale, ·

165

Beaumont and Fletcher, 215

James Gates Percival,

189

Alexander Pope,

.355

Thomas Parnell,

52

Thomas K. Hervey,

416

Sir John Denham,

376

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Country Life, Retirement of,

Country Sports,

Country, Virtue and Happiness in the,
Creation, Description of the,
Creation, Hymn on the,

James Thomson,

Sir Henry Wotton,
Edward Young,

Michael Bruce,

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Alexander Pope,

381

252

Abraham Cowley,

378

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Isaac Watts,

49

Krummacher,

176

James Montgomery,

106

Isaac Watts,

50

Creator, Hymn to the,

DANCE, the Children's, .

Dawnings of Genius,

John Milton,

30

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Robert Southey,

Death,

Robert Blair,

Death,

Robert Nicoll,

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. 114

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