LORD IVON. Yes-and I heard the cry Of thy small "piping mouth" as 'twere a call Come, sweet! she is not worthy Of tears like thine and mine. She fled and left me The very night! The poison was prepared And she had been a widow with the morn 52 LORD IVON AND HIS DAUGHTER. Rich as Golconda. As the midnight chimed The curtains for a last, a parting look * Had she but taken thee, I could have felt she had a mother's heart, And drain'd the chalice still. I could not leave My babe alone in such a heartless world! ISIDORE. Thank God! Thank God! BIRTH-DAY VERSES. "The heart we have lain near before our birth is the only one that cannot forget that it has loved us." My birthday !—Oh beloved mother! I did not think to count another Before I wept upon thy knees Before this scroll of absent years My own I do not care to check. I weep-albeit here alone PHILIP SLINGSBY. As if I hung upon thy neck, As if thy lips were on my own, As if this full, sad heart of mine, Were beating closely upon thine. Four weary years! How looks she now? What light is in those tender eyes? What trace of time has touch'd the brow Whose look is borrow'd of the skies How is she changed since he was there I know not if my mother's eyes Would find me chang'd in slighter things; I've wandered beneath many skies, And tasted of some bitter springs ; And many leaves, once fair and gay, And, when deserted quite, the heart Takes closer what was dear of yore And yearns to those who lov'd it first The sunshine and the dew by which its bud was nurst. Dear mother! dost thou love me yet? Am I remember'd in my home? When those I love for joy are met, Does some one wish that I would come ? Thou dost-I am belov'd of these! But, as the schoolboy numbers o'er Night after night the Pleiades, And finds the stars he found before, As turns the maiden oft her token, |