Slow spells his beads monotonous to the soft Roused by the cock, the soon-clad shepherd leaves void of art; -- SHORT is the doubtful empire of the night; Brown night retires. Young day pours in apace, And from the bladed field the fearful hare And thick around the woodland hymns arise. Across the window-pane It pours and pours; And swift and wide, With a muddy tide, Like a river down the gutter roars The sick man from his chamber, looks He can feel the cool Breath of each little pool; Grows calm again, And he breathes a blessing on the rain. From the neighboring school With more than their wonted noise And down the wet streets Sail their mimic fleets, Till the treacherous pool Ingulfs them in its whirling In the country, on every side, Like a leopard's tawny and spotted hide, To the dry grass and the drier grain In the furrowed land The toilsome and patient oxen stand; The clover-scented gale, And the vapors that arise From the well-watered and smoking soil. For this rest in the furrow after toil Their large and lustrous eyes Seem to thank the Lord, More than man's spoken word. Near at hand, From under the sheltering trees, His pastures, and his fields of grain, To the numberless beating drops He counts it as no sin That he sees therein Only his own thrift and gain. These, and far more than these, WHO has not dreamed a world of bliss Just as in joyous infancy? Who has not loved at such an hour, The crackling of the gorse-flowers near, WILLIAM HOWITT. SUMMER MOODS. I LOVE at eventide to walk alone, In vain, for flowers that bloomed but newly there; While in the juicy corn the hidden quail Cries, "Wet my foot"; and, hid as thoughts unborn, The fairy-like and seldom-seen land-rail SIGNS OF RAIN. JOHN CLARE. FORTY REASONS FOR NOT ACCEPTING AN INVITATION OF A FRIEND TO MAKE AN EXCURSION WITH HIM. 1 THE hollow winds begin to blow ; 2 The clouds look black, the glass is low, 3 The soot falls down, the spaniels sleep, 4 And spiders from their cobwebs peep. 5 Last night the sun went pale to bed, 6 The moon in halos hid her head; 7 The boding shepherd heaves a sigh, 8 For see a rainbow spans the sky. 9 The walls are damp, the ditches smell, 10 Closed is the pink-eyed pimpernel. 11 Hark how the chairs and tables crack! 12 Old Betty's nerves are on the rack ; 13 Loud quacks the duck, the peacocks cry, 14 The distant hills are seeming nigh. 15 How restless are the snorting swine! 16 The busy flies disturb the kine; 17 Low o'er the grass the swallow wings, 18 The cricket, too, how sharp he sings, 19 Puss on the hearth, with velvet paws, 20 Sits wiping o'er her whiskered jaws, 21 Through the clear streams the fishes rise, 22 And nimbly catch the incautious flies. 23 The glow-worms, numerous and light, 24 Illumed the dewy dell last night, 25 At dusk the squalid toad was seen, 26 Hopping and crawling o'er the green, 27 The whirling dust the wind obeys, 28 And in the rapid eddy plays; 29 The frog has changed his yellow vest, 30 And in a russet coat is dressed. 31 Though June, the air is cold and still, 32 The mellow blackbird's voice is shrill; 33 My dog, so altered in his taste, 34 Quits mutton-bones on grass to feast; 35 And see yon rooks, how odd their flight, 36 They imitate the gliding kite, 37 And seem precipitate to fall, 38 As if they felt the piercing ball. 39 'T will surely rain; I see with sorrow, 40 Our jaunt must be put off to-morrow. SUMMER STORM. ANONYMOUS. UNTREMULOUS in the river clear, Toward the sky's image, hangs the imaged bridge; So still the air that I can hear The slender clarion of the unseen midge ; Out of the stillness, with a gathering creep, Like rising wind in leaves, which now decreases, Now lulls, now swells, and all the while increases, The huddling trample of a drove of sheep Tilts the loose planks, and then as gradually ceases In dust on the other side; life's emblem deep, A confused noise between two silences, Finding at last in dust precarious peace. On the wide marsh the purple-blossomed grasses Soak up the sunshine; sleeps the brimming |