When blue Autumnal skies were spread,
The sun was veiled in smoke,
And honeysuckles bright and red,
Entwined the purple oak-
'Twas then twin shadows, side by side,
Grew long in sunset's smile,
And in the cottage porch my pride
Was bonnie Mary Lyle.

"Twas Winter, and the winds were chill, And bitter was the air,

And all the oaks upon the hill

Were leafless, lone and bare;
But by the ruddy fireside,

When snow o'er-topped the stile,
I kissed by night my blushing bride,
My loving Mary Lyle.

But Seasons now are all as one
Though age its frost has shed,

And through thy jet black tresses run
Full many a silver thread;

Yet though thou hast a dimmer eye,
I see thy former smile,

And blessing thee, I'll live and die,
My old wife, Mary Lyle.

BONNIE KITTY.

WHEN the sunlight kissed the mountain,
Bonnie Kitty came to bring
Silver water from the fountain,

Where the water-cresses spring. Shrinking from my love's caresses,

Loose her raven ringlets drooped, And the streamlet caught her tresses,

As she blushed, but smiling stooped

"Kitty!" cried I, "hear thy lover!"
But the laughing maiden fled
To the cottage, through the clover,
With its nodding blossoms red-
"Wanton Willie, cease to tarry,"

Said she, as her black eye smiled, "Bonnie Kitty may not marry,

Mother needs her darling child."

Kitty's eyes are drowned in sorrow,
From her cheek the rose has fled,
For that mother on the morrow,

In the valley found a bed!

Round her green couch friends are weeping,

Oh, 'twas sad to see them part! Through the hand that I am keeping I can feel her beating heart!

Like the night that leaves the mountain,
When the gloom is turned to gold,
Once again beside the fountain,

Bonnie Kitty I enfold.

There I spoke my love's beguiling,
But she answered not my strain,
But upon my breast wept, smiling,
Like the roses after rain!

PART II.