Nature soon sickens of her joys,

And all is sad and dumb again, Save merry shouts of sliding boys About the frozen furrowed plain. The foddering-boy forgets his song,

And silent goes with folded arms; And croodling shepherds bend along, Crouching to the whizzing storms.

THE WINTER CHILL.

U

P in the morning's no' for me,

Up in the morning early;

When a' the hills are covered wi' snaw, I'm sure it's winter fairly.

Cauld blaws the wind frae east to west,
The drift is driving sairly;

Sae loud and shrill's I hear the blast,
I'm sure it's winter fairly.

The birds sit chittering in the thorn,
A' day they fare but sparely;
And lang's the night frae e'en to morn,
I'm sure it's winter fairly.

HYMN ON THE NATIVITY.

HYMN ON THE NATIVITY.

I

SING the birth was born to-night,
The Author both of life and light;
The angel so did sound it,
And like the ravished shepherds said,
Who saw the light and were afraid,

Yet searched, and true they found it.

The Son of God, the Eternal King,

That did us all salvation bring,

And freed the soul from danger;

He whom the whole world could not take, The Word, which heaven and earth did make, Was now laid in a manger.

The Father's wisdom willed it so,
The Son's obedience knew no No,

Both wills were in one stature;

And as that wisdom had decreed,
The Word was now made Flesh indeed,
And took on Him our nature.

What comfort by Him do we win,
Who made Himself the Prince of sin,
To make us heirs of glory!

To see this Babe all innocence,
A Martyr born in our defence:
Can man forget this story?

T

WINTER EVENING.

HOUGH Night approaching bids for rest prepare,
Still the flail echoes through the frosty air,
Sending at length the weary labourer home.

From him, with bed and nightly food supplied, Throughout the yard, housed round on every side,

DAYBREAK IN FEBRUARY.

Deep-plunging cows their rustling feast enjoy,
And snatch sweet mouthfuls from the passing boy,
Who moves unseen beneath his trailing load,
Fills the tall racks, and leaves a scattered road;
Where oft the swine from ambush warm and dry
Bolt out, and scamper headlong to their stye,
When Giles with well-known voice, already there,
Deigns them a portion of his evening care.

VER the ground white snow, and in the air
Silence. The stars, like lamps soon to expire,
Gleam tremblingly; serene and heavenly fair,
The eastern hanging crescent climbeth higher.
See, purple on the azure softly steals,

And Morning, faintly touched with quivering fire,
Leans on the frosty summits of the hills,
Like a young girl over her hoary sire.
Oh, such a dawning over me has come,
The daybreak of Thy purity and love;—
The sadness of the never satiate tomb
Thy countenance hath power to remove;

And from the sepulchre of Hope Thy palm

Can roll the stone, and raise her bright and calm.

C7

H

THE ICEBERG.

AWAS night-our anchored vessel slept

TWAS Out on the glassy sea;

And still as heaven the waters kept,
And golden bright—as he,

The setting Sun, went sinking slow
Beneath the eternal wave;

And the ocean seemed a pall to throw
Over the monarch's grave.

There was no motion of the air
To raise the sleeper's tress,
And no wave-building winds were there
On ocean's loveliness;

But ocean mingled with the sky

With such an equal hue

That vainly strove the 'wildered eye

To part their gold and blue.

And ne'er a ripple of the sea

Came on our steady gaze,

Save when some timorous fish stole out
To bathe in the woven blaze,-
When, floating in the light that played
All over the resting main,

He would sink beneath the wave, and dart
To his deep blue home again.