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"Tell my sister not to weep for me, and sob with drooping head, When the troops come marching home again with glad and gallant tread, But to look upon them proudly, with a calm and steadfast eye,

For her brother was a soldier too, and not afraid to die;

And if a comrade seek her love, I ask her in my name

To listen to him kindly, without regret or shame,

And to hang the old sword in its place (my father's sword and mine) For the honor of old Bingen, -dear Bingen on the Rhine.

"There's another, not a sister: in the happy days gone by

You'd have known her by the merriment that sparkled in her eye;
Too innocent for coquetry, too fond for idle scorning,

O friend! I fear the lightest heart makes sometimes heaviest mourning! Tell her the last night of my life (for, ere the moon be risen,

My body will be out of pain, my soul be out of prison), —

I dreamed I stood with her, and saw the yellow sunlight shine
On the vine-clad hills of Bingen, — fair Bingen on the Rhine.

"I saw the blue Rhine sweep along, I heard, or seemed to hear,
The German songs we used to sing, in chorus sweet and clear;
And down the pleasant river, and up the slanting hill,

The echoing chorus sounded, through the evening calm and still;
And her glad blue eyes were on me, as we passed, with friendly talk,
Down many a path beloved of yore, and well-remembered walk!
And her little hand lay lightly, confidingly, in mine, -

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But we'll meet no more at Bingen, -loved Bingen on the Rhine."

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His trembling voice grew faint and hoarse, his grasp was childish weak,-
His eyes put on a dying look, he sighed, and ceased to speak;
His comrade bent to lift him, but the spark of life had fled,
The soldier of the Legion in a foreign land is dead;

And the soft moon rose up slowly, and calmly she looked down
On the red sand of the battle-field, with bloody corses strown;
Yet calmly on that dreadful scene her pale light seemed to shine,
As it shone on distant Bingen, fair Bingen on the Rhine.

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WE HAVE BEEN FRIENDS TOGETHER.

WE have been friends together
In sunshine and in shade,
Since first beneath the chestnut-
trees,

In infancy we played.
But coldness dwells within thy heart,
A cloud is on thy brow;
We have been friends together,

Shall a light word part us now?

We have been gay together;

We have laughed at little jests; For the fount of hope was gushing Warm and joyous in our breasts,

But laughter now hath fled thy lip,
And sullen glooms thy brow;

We have been gay together,

Shall a light word part us now?

We have been sad together;

We have wept with bitter tears O'er the grass-grown graves where slumbered

The hopes of early years.
The voices which are silent there
Would bid thee clear thy brow;
We have been sad together.

Oh, what shall part us now?

JOHN BOYLE O'REILLY.

PEACE AND PAIN.

THE day and night are symbols of creation,

And each has part in all that God has made:

There is no ill without its compensation,

And life and death are only light

and shade.

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There never beat a heart so base and A sin of youth, atoned for and for

sordid

But felt at times a sympathetic

glow; [ed, There never lived a virtue unrewardNor died a vice without its meed of woe.

given, Takes on a virtue, if we choose to find:

When clouds across our onward path are driven,

We still may steer by its pale light behind.

In this brief life despair should never | A sin forgotten is in part to pay for,

reach us;

The sea looks wide because the shores are dim;

The star that led the Magi still can

teach us

The way to go if we but look to Him.

A sin remembered is a constant

gain:

Sorrow, next joy, is what we ought to pray for,

As next to peace we profit most from pain.

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God! what was that, like a human shriek

From the winding valley? Will nobody speak?

Will nobody answer those women who cry

As the awful warnings thunder by?

Whence come they? Listen! And

now they hear

The sound of the galloping horsehoofs near;

They watch the trend of the vale,

and see

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In

front of the terrible swath it mowed.

For miles it thundered and crashed behind,

But he looked ahead with a steadfast mind;

"They must be warned!" was all he said,

[ingly, | As away on his terrible ride he sped.

The rider who thunders so menac-
With waving arms and warning When heroes are called for, bring the

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crown

To this Yankee rider: send him down On the stream of time with the Curtius old;

His deed as the Roman's was brave and bold,

And the tale can as noble a thrill awake,

For he offered his life for the people's sake.

FOREVER.

THOSE We love truly never die, Though year by year the sad memorial wreath,

A ring and flowers, types of life and death,

Are laid upon their graves.

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But 'tis not so: another heart may FOR every sin that comes before the

thirst

For that kind word, as Hagar in

the wild

light,

And leaves an outward blemish on the soul,

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Never the ocean wave falters in flowing;

Never the little seed stops in its growing;

More and more richly the rose heart keeps glowing,

Till from its nourishing stem it is riven.

"Labor is worship!" -the robin is singing;

"Labor is worship!"-the wild bee is ringing;

Listen! that eloquent whisper, upspringing,

Speaks to thy soul from out Nature's great heart. From the dark cloud flows the lifegiving shower; From the rough sod blows the softbreathing flower; From the small insect, the rich coral bower;

Only man shrinks, in the plan, from his part.

Labor is life!-'Tis the still water

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Labor is glory!- the flying cloud lightens;

Only the waving wing changes and brightens;

Idle hearts only the dark future frightens;

Play the sweet keys, wouldst thou keep them in tune!

Labor is rest,- from the sorrows that greet us;

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