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The New Poetical Reader.

CHILDREN.-Longfellow.

COME to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows,
, And the brooks of morning run.

In your hearts are the birds and the sunshine,
In your thoughts the brooklet's flow;
But in mine is the wind of Autumn,

And the first fall of the snow.

Ah! what would the world be to us,
If the children were no more?
We should dread the desert behind us
Worse than the dark before.

What the leaves are to the forest,
With light and air for food,
Ere their sweet and tender juices
Have been hardened into wood,-

That to the world are children;
Through them it feels the glow
Of a brighter and sunnier climate
Than reaches the trunks below.

Come to me, O ye children!
And whisper in my ear

What the birds and the winds are singing
In your sunny atmosphere.

For what are all our contrivings,
And the wisdom of our books,
When compared with your caresses,
And the gladness of your looks?

Ye are better than all the ballads
That ever were sung or said;
For ye are living poems,

And all the rest are dead.

TRUST IN GOD AND DO THE RIGHT.— N. Macleod.

COURAGE, brother, do not stumble,
Though thy path be dark as night;
There's a star to guide the humble
'Trust in God, and do the right.'

Let the road be rough and dreary,
And its end far out of sight,
Foot it bravely! strong or weary,
'Trust in God, and do the right.'

Perish policy and cunning!

Perish all that fears the light!
Whether losing, whether winning,
'Trust in God, and do the right.'

Trust no party, sect, or faction;
Trust no leaders in the fight;
But in every word and action,
'Trust in God, and do the right.'

Trust no lovely forms of passion;
Fiends may look like angels bright;
Trust no custom, school, or fashion,
'Trust in God, and do the right.'

Simple rule, and safest guiding,
Inward peace, and inward might,
Star upon our path abiding,

'Trust in God, and do the right.'

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