And each put a horn into his mouth, "And there,' said they, 'the merry winds go, Away from every horn; And those shall clear the mildew dank From the blind old widow's corn: "Oh, the poor blind widow — Though she has been blind so long, "And some they brought the brown linseed, "Oh, the poor lame weaver! "And then upspoke a brownie, "I've spun a piece of hempen cloth, A little sheet for Mary's bed And an apron for her mother.' "And with that I could not help but laugh, "And all on the top of the Caldon-Low And nothing I saw but the mossy stones "But, as I came down from the hill-top, I heard, afar below, How busy the jolly miller was, And how merry the wheel did go! "And I peeped into the widow's field, The yellow ears of the mildewed corn "And down by the weaver's croft I stole, To see if the flax were high; But I saw the weaver at his gate 66 With the good news in his eye! Now, this is all that I heard, mother, So, prithee, make my bed, mother, For I'm tired as I can be!" THE FAIRY TO PUCK. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE. OVER hill, over dale, Thorough bush, thorough briar, Thorough flood, thorough fire, SONG OF THE ELFIN MILLER. ALLAN CUNNINGHAM, FULL merrily rings the millstone round, So the meal comes in a shower; Work, fairies, fast, for time flies pastI borrowed the mill an hour. The miller he's a worldly man, So draw the sluice of the churl's dam, The top of the grain on hill and plain One elf goes chasing the wild bat's wing One hunts the fox for the white o' his tail O haste, my brown elf, bring me corn Hilloah! my hopper is heaped high; Haste, elves, and turn yon mountain burn Ha! bravely done, my wanton elves, See how the dust from the mill flies, THE LARCH AND THE OAK. THOMAS CARLYLE. A Fable. "WHAT is the use of thee, thou gnarled sapling?" said young larch-tree to a young oak. oak. "I grow three feet in a year, thou scarcely so many inches; I am straight and taper as a reed, thou straggling and twisted as a loosened withe." "And thy duration," answered the oak, "is some third part of man's life and I am appointed to flourish for a thousand years. Thou art felled and sawed into paling, where thou rottest and art burned after a single summer; of me are fashioned battle-ships, and I carry mariners and heroes into unknown seas." The richer a nature the harder and slower its devel |