ACCOUNT CURRENT. Contra, Ch. Oh, what joys from woman spring ! | Source of bliss and purest peace ! | Eden could not comfort bring, | Till fair woman show'd her face. I When she came, good honest Adam Clasp'd the gift with open arms, He left Eden for his madam, | So our parent prized her charms. Courtship thrills the soul with pleasure ; | Virtue's blush on beauty's cheek : Happy prelude to a treasure Kings have left their crowns to seek ! | Lovely looks and constant courting, I Sweet’ning all the toils of life; Cheerful children, harmless sporting, Lovely woman made a wife !| Modest dress and gentle carriage, Love triumphant on his throne; | These the blissful fruits of marriage 1 None but fools would live alone. | THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE, (REV. CHARLES WOLFE.) As his corse to the rampart we hurried ; Not a soldier discharg’d his farewell shoti | O'er the grave where our hero we buried. I We buried him darkly at dead of night, I The sods with our bayonets turning, | By the struggling moonbeam's misty light, And the lantern dimly burning. I No useless coffin enclos'd his breast, | Nor in sheet, nor in shroud, we wound him; i But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, | With his martial cloak around him.! And we spoke not a word of sorrow ;] And we bitterly thought of the morrow. | And smooth'd down his lonely pillow, | That the foe, and the stranger would tread o'er his head; And o'er his cold ashes upbraid him ; | In the grave where a Briton has laid him. / When the clock told the hour for retiring ; And we heard the distant, and random gun, That the foe was sullenly firing. I Slowly, and sadly we laid him down From the field of his fame, fresh, and gory:1 We carv'd not a line',- | we rais'd not a stone', 1 But left him alone in his glory. I PART IV. READINGS AND RECITATIONS FOR SENIOR STUDENTS. THE MAY QUEEN. (ALFRED TENNYSON.) You must wake and call me early, call me early, mother dear; To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new year : Of all the glad new year, mother, the maddest, merriest day, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. There's many a black,—black eye, they say, but none so bright as mine ; There's Margaret, and Mary, there's Kate, and Caroline; But none so fair as little Alice in all the land they say:So I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. I sleep so sound all night, mother, that I shall never wake, If you do not call me loud, when the day begins to break; But I must gather knots of flowers, and buds, and gar lands gay, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. As I came up the valley, whom think you should I see, But Robin leaning on the bridge beneath the hazel-tree; He thought of that sharp look, mother, I gave him yes terdayBut I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. He thought I was a ghost, mother, for I was all in white, And I ran by him without speaking, like a flash of light. They call me cruel-hearted, but I care not what they say, For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. Little Effie shall go with me to-morrow to the green, Queen; away, And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. The honeysuckle round the porch has wov'n its wavy bowers, And by the meadow-trenches, blow the faint sweet cuckoo-flowers; And the wild marsh-marigold shines like fire, in swamps nd hollows grey : And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. The night winds come and go, mother, upon the meadow grass, And the happy stars above them seem to brighten as they pass ; There will not be a drop of rain the whole of the live long day, And I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. All the valley, mother, 'll be fresh, and green, and still, And the cowslip and the crowfoot are over all the hill, And the rivulet in the flowery dale 'll merrily glance and play; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. So you must wake and call me early,— call me early, mother dear; To-morrow 'll be the happiest time of all the glad new year : To-morrow 'll be of all the year the maddest, merriest day; For I'm to be Queen o' the May, mother, I'm to be Queen o' the May. NEW YEAR'S EVE. If you're waking, call me .early,—call me early, mother dear; For I would see the sun rise upon the glad new year :It is the last new year that I shall ever see, Then you may lay me low i' the mould, and think no more of me. To-night I saw the sun set: he set and left behind of mind; And the new year's coming up, mother, but I shall never The blossom on the blackthorn, the leaf upon the tree. Last May we made a crown of flowers; we had a merry see day; Beneath the hawthorn on the green they made me Queen of May : And we danced about the May-pole and in the hazel copse, Till Charles's wain came out above the tall white chim ney tops. |