_SOMEBODY'S BOY._
List to the ring of the midnight song!
'Tis somebody's boy; The winds give to every wild echo a tongue.
Yes, somebody's boy;
The witch of the revel has waved her wand Over somebody's boy; And the spirit of evil has clasped the hand Of somebody's boy.
Comes now a yell on the midnight air From somebody's boy; Reckless, defiant, and devil-may-care, Is somebody's boy.
Foul is the bed, madly dark the dank cell, Where somebody's boy Is writhing in torture, the veriest hell, Yet, somebody's boy.
Waiting and watching, a mother's eyes weep For somebody's boy; The vigil, dear Father, O help her to keep!
For somebody's boy.
{347}
Throw round him, and over, thy Spirit to save,-- This somebody's boy, Ere fiends for his lost soul shall hollow the grave Of somebody's boy.
Fill with thy Spirit, too, our hearts we pray, That somebody's boy We may watch for, and snatch from the death-trodden way, Yes, somebody's boy.
{348}
_THE LADDIE-AND-LASSIE BIRDS._
Come sit with me in the green-wood bower, While I sing you a song of love;-- 'Tis the song of the birds In the deep, wild woods, 'Tis the song of the sweet ring-dove.
The laddie-bird says, "I have come to woo;"
And the lassie-bird, "Ah! coo, coo, coo, coo." {349}
The laddie-bird says, "With a hope to win,"-- And the lassie-bird, "Coo, coo, that is no sin."
The laddie-bird says, "Together we'll dwell,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the Linden dell."
The laddie-bird says, "And build our nest,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the tree to the West."
The laddie-bird says, "And raise our brood,"
And the lassie-bird says, "In the sweet solitude."
The laddie-bird says, "Till they're fit to fly,"
And the lassie-bird, "Yes, to the blue, blue sky."
The laddie-bird says, "Let us hie away;"-- And the lassie-bird, "Yes, and begin to-day.
The laddie-bird says, "I will take this moss,"-- And the lassie-bird says, "And I, this floss."
{350}
The laddie-bird says, "And we'll love so true;"
And the lassie-bird, "Ah, yes, coo, coo, coo."
'Tis the old-new song that the birds have sung, Aye, the birds of every race, Since the world was planned, And came forth from the hand Of the Maker, aglow with grace.
'Tis the song they will sing till time is o'er,-- 'Tis the stream that from Paradise gushed; {351} And the music that flows When the love-light glows, Will never, no, never be hushed.
{352}
Time
Eternity.
US
[Footnote: "The great watchful I is over US through TIME and ETERNITY.]