My infant stretched his little hands imploringly to me, And struggled with the ravenous bird, all vainly, to get free: At intervals, I heard his cries, as loud he shrieked and

screamed!

Until upon the azure sky a lessening spot they seemed.

"The vulture flapped his sail-like wings, though heavily he flew;

A mote upon the sun's broad face, he seemed unto my view, But once I thought I saw him stoop, as if he would alight,'Twas only a delusive thought, for all had vanished quite.

"All search was vain, and years had passed; that child was ne'er forgot,

When once a daring hunter climbed unto a lofty spot, From whence upon a rugged crag the chamois never reached,

He saw an infant's fleshless bones the elements had bleached!

"I clambered up that rugged cliff-I could not stay away,I knew they were my infant's bones thus hastening to decay; A tattered garment yet remained, though torn to many a shred:

The crimson cap he wore that morn was still upon his head."

That dreary spot is pointed out to travelers, passing by, Who often stand, and musing gaze, nor go without a sigh; And as I journeyed, the next morn, along the sunny way, The precipice was shown to me, whereon the infant lay.

THE TWO ANCHORS.-R. H. STODDARD.

It was a gallant sailor man,

Had just come from sea,

And as I passed him in the town,

He sang "Ahoy!" to me.

I stopped, and saw I knew the man,-
Had known him from a boy;
And so I answered sailor-like,
Avast!" to his "Ahoy!"

I made a song for him one day,-
His ship was then in sight,-
The little anchor on the left,
The great one on the right."

I

gave

his hand a hearty grip. "So you are back again?

They say you have been pirating
Upon the Spanish Main;

Or was it some rich Indiaman
You robbed of all her pearls?

Of course you have been breaking hearts
Of poor Kanaka girls!"
"Wherever I have been," he said,
"I kept my ship in sight,-
"The little anchor on the left,
The great one on the right.'

"I heard last night that you were in:
I walked the wharves to-day,
But saw no ship that looked like yours.
Where does the good ship lay?

I want to go on board of her."
"And so you shall," said he;

"But there are many things to do
When one comes home from sea.

You know the song you made for me?
I sing it morn and night,-

'The little anchor on the left,

The great one on the right.''

"But how's your wife and little one?"

He hugged his wife and child; he sang,

His spirits were so light,

"The little anchor on the left, The great one on the right."

'Twas supper-time, and we sat down,-
The sailor's wife and child,

And he and I: he looked at them,
And looked at me, and smiled.

"I think of this when I am tossed
Upon the stormy foam,

And, though a thousand leagues away,
Am anchored here at home."
Then, giving each a kiss, he said,

"I see, in dreams at night,

This little anchor on my left,
This great one on my right."

THE RUM FIEND'S PORTRAIT.-T. DE WITT TALMAGE

This foul thing gives one swing to its scythe, and our best merchants fall; their stores are sold, and they sink into dishonored graves.

Again it swings its scythe, and ministers of the gospel fall from the heights of Zion, with long-resounding crash of ruin and shame.

Some of your own households have already been shaken. Perhaps you can hardly admit it; but where was your son last night? Where was he Friday night? Where was he Thursday night; Wednesday night; Tuesday night; Monday night?

Nay, have not some of you in your own bodies felt the power of this habit? You think that you could stop? Are you sure you could? Go on a little further, and I am sure you cannot. I think, if some of you should try to break away, you would find a chain on the right wrist, and one on the left; one on the right foot, and another on the left. This serpent does not begin to hurt until it has wound round and round. Then it begins to tighten, and strangle, and crush, until the bones crack, and the blood trickles, and the eyes start from their sockets, and the mangled wretch cries: "Oh, Heaven! oh, Heaven! help! help!" But it is too late and not even the fires of woe can melt the chain when once it is fully fastened.

I have shown you the evil beast. The question is, who will hunt him down, and how shall we shoot him? I answer, first, by getting our children right on this subject. Let them grow up with an utter aversion to strong drink. Take care how you administer it even as medicine. If you find that they have a natural love for it, as some have, put in a glass of it some horrid stuff, and make it utterly nauseous. Teach them, as faithfully as you do the catechism, that rum is a fiend. Take them to the almshouse, and show them the wreck and ruin it works. Walk with them into the homes that have been scourged by it. If a drunkard hath fallen into a ditch, take them right up where they can see his face, bruised, savage, and swollen, and say: “Look, my son! Rum did that!" Looking out of your window at some one who,

intoxicated to madness, goes through the street, brandishing his fist, blaspheming God, a howling, defying, shouting, reeling, raving and foaming maniac, say to your son: Look; that man was once a child like you!" As you go by the grogshop, let them know that that is the place where men are slain, and their wives made paupers, and their children slaves. Hold out to your children all warnings, all rewards, all counsels, lest in after-days they break your heart and curse your gray hairs.

A COOK OF THE PERIOD.

The looks of yer, ma'am, rather suits me
The wages ye offer 'ill do;
But thin I can't inter yer sarvice
Without a condition or two.
And now, to begin, is the kitchen
Commodgeous, with plenty of light,
And fit, ye know, fur intertainin'
Sech fri'nds as I'm like to invite?

And nixt, are yous reg'lar at male-times?
Becase, 'taint convainyent, ye see,
To wait, and if I behaves punkshul,
It's no more than yous ought to be.
And thin is your gurrels good-natured?
The rayson I lift my last place,
The French nuss was sich a high lady,
I sint a dish-cloth at her face.

And have yer the laste of objiction
To min droppin' in whin they choose?
I'v got some enlivinin' fust cousins

That frayquintly brings me the news.
I must have thim trayted powlitely;
I give yer fair warnin', ma'am, now,
If the airy gate be closed agin thim,
You'll find me commincin' a row.
These matthers agrayed on between us,
I'd try yer a wake, so I wud.
(She looks like the kind I can manage,
A thin thing without any blud!)
But mind, if I comes for a wake, ma'am,
I comes for that time, and no liss;
And so, thin, purvillin' ye'd want me,
Jusht give me yer name and addriss.

THE SISTERS.-JOHN G. WHITTIER.

Annie and Rhoda, sisters twain,
Woke in the night to the sound of rain,

The rush of wind, the ramp and roar
Of great waves climbing a rocky shore.
Annie rose up in her bed-gown white,
And looked out into the storm and night.
"Hush, and hearken!" she cried in fear,
“Hearest thou nothing, sister dear?”

"I hear the sea, and the plash of rain,
And roar of the north-east hurricane.
"Get thee back to the bed so warm,
No good comes of watching a storm.

"What is it to thee, I fain would know,
That waves are roaring, and wild winds blow?

No lover of thine's afloat to miss
The harbor-lights on a night like this."

"But I heard a voice cry out my name,
Up from the sea on the wind it came!

"Twice and thrice have I heard it call,
And the voice is the voice of Estwick Hall!"

On her pillow the sister tossed her head. "Hall of the Heron is safe," she said.

"In the tautest schooner that ever swam
He rides at anchor in Anisquam.

"And, if in peril from swamping sea
Or lee-shore rocks, would he call on thee?"

But the girl heard only the wind and tide,
And wringing her small, white hands, she cried,-

"O Sister Rhoda! there's something wrong;
I hear it again so loud and long.

"Annie! Annie!' I hear it call,

And the voice is the voice of Estwick Hall."

Up sprang the elder, with eyes aflame, "Thou liest! He never would call thy name!