I am willing to die when my time shall come,
And I shall be glad to go,
For the world, at best, is a weary place,
And my pulse is getting low;
But the grave is dark, and the heart will fail
In treading its gloomy way;
And it wiles my heart from its dreariness,
To see the young so gay.
'Tis bleak December, cold and drear;
The wintry winds pipe shrill and high;
The red deer crouch within their lair,
And wild birds to the thicket fly.
The hoar frost silvers hedge and tree,
Now sparkling in the pale moon-ray,
The world seems growing old to me,
For I'm aweary, old, and grey-
Aweary, weary, old, and grey.
The Christmas chime, in olden time,
Rang out a joyous peal for me;
The yule log blaz'd, while mirth, and mime,
And laughter echoed cheerily.
But now, alas! how changed the scene,
How sadly sounds that peal to-day;
The world is not what it hath been,
And I'm aweary, old, and grey-
Aweary, weary, old, and grey.
I miss the happy faces now
That circled round our festive board, When pleasure lighted every brow,
And every touch wak'd friendship's chord; Whilst now, like harp of shattered string, Whose melody hath passed away, I drop, a faded, soulless thing, Forsaken, weary, old, and grey
Aweary, weary, old, and grey.
But, hush! what sounds come stealing o'er,
Like seraph choir, mine aged ear,
Strains that my soul hath loved of yore,
When all was mine that made life dear.
A light gleams o'er me-yes, I hear
The bells chime forth their olden lay;
And feel, with every gushing tear,
That I alone am old and grey,
Aweary, weary, old, and grey.
ASPIRATIONS OF YOUTH.
Montgomery.
HIGHER, higher, will we climb
Up the mount of glory,
That our names may live thro' time
In our country's story.
Happy, when her welfare calls,
He who conquers, he who falls.
Deeper, deeper, let us toil
In the mine of knowledge,
Nature's wealth and learning's spoil,
Win from school and college.
Delve we there for richer gems
Than the stars of diadems.
Onward, onward, may we press
Through the path of duty;
Virtue is true happiness;
Excellence true beauty,
Minds are of celestial birth-
Make we then a heaven of earth.
Closer, closer, let us knit
Hearts and hands together;
Where our fireside comforts sit
In the coldest weather.
O! they wander wide who roam,
For the joys of life, from home.
Nearer, dearer, bands of love
Draw our souls in union,
To our Father's house above,
To the saints' communion :
Thither every hope ascend,
There may all our labors end.
THE CROCUS'S SOLILOQUY.
Miss B. F. Gould.
Down in my solitude, under the snow,
Where nothing cheering can reach me;
Here, without light to see how to grow,
I'll trust to nature to teach me.
I will not despair, nor be idle, nor frown,
Locked in so gloomy a dwelling;
My leaves shall run up, and my roots shall run down,
While the bud in my bosom is swelling.
Soon as the frost will get out of my bed,
From this cold dungeon to free me,
I will peer up with my bright little head;
All will be joyful to see me.
Then from my heart will young petals diverge,
As rays of the sun from their focus;
I from the darkness of earth will emerge,
A happy and beautiful crocus.
Gaily array'd in my yellow and green,
When to their view I have risen,
Will they not wonder that one so serene
Came from so dismal a prison?
Many, perhaps, from so simple a flower
This little lesson may borrow,
Patient to-day, through its gloomiest hour,
We come out the brighter to-morrow.
A THOUSAND miles from land are we,
Tossing about on the roaring sea ;
From billow to bounding billow cast,
Like fleecy clouds on the stormy blast.
The sails are scattered abroad like weeds; The strong mast shake like quivering reeds; The mighty cables and iron chains,
The hull, which all earthly strength disdainsThey strain and they crack, and hearts like
Their natural hard proud strength disown.
Up and down! up and down!
From the base of the wave to the billow's
And 'midst the flashing and feathery foam,
The stormy-petrel finds a home.
A home, if such a place may be,
For her who lives on the wide, wide sea-
On the craggy ice, in the frozen air,
And only seeketh her rocky lair
To warm her young, and to teach them to spring
At once on the waves on their stormy
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