And decks the lily fair in flowery pride,

Would, in the way His wisdom sees the best, For them and for their little ones provide;

But chiefly, in their hearts with grace divine preside.

From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs,
That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad:
Princes and lords are but the breath of kings;
"An honest man's the noblest work of God;"
And certes, in fair virtue's heavenly road,
The cottage leaves the palace far behind;

What is a lordling's pomp?-a cumbrous load,
Disguising oft the wretch of human kind,
Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refin'd!

O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!

For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil

Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! And O! may Heaven their simple lives prevent From luxury's contagion, weak and vile!

Then, howe'er crowns and coronets be rent, A virtuous populace may rise the while,

And stand a wall of fire around their much-lov'd Isle.

O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide.

That stream'd through Wallace's undaunted heart; Who dared to nobly stem tyrannic pride, Or nobly die, the second glorious part, (The patriot's God peculiarly Thou art, His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) O never, never, Scotia's realm desert, But still the patriot, and the patriot bard,

In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard.

AN OLD-TIME DISTRICT SCHOOL.

JAMES PARTON.

A district school-and what was a district school eighty years ago? It concerns us to know what manner of place it was, and what was its routine of exercises.

The schoolhouse stood in an open place, formed by the crossing of roads. It was very small and of one story; contained one apartment, had two windows on each side, a small door in the gable end that faced the road, and a low doorstep before it. It was the thing called house in its simplest form. Within and without, it was destitute of anything ornamental.

The sun in summer, the winds in winter, had their will of it; there was nothing to avert the fury of either. It was built for an average of thirty pupils, but it frequently contained fifty; and then the little school-room was a compact mass of young humanity. The teacher had to dispense with his table, and was lucky if he could find room for his chair.

The side of the apartment opposite the door was occupied chiefly by a vast fireplace, four or five feet. wide, where a carman's load of wood could burn in one prodigious fire. Along the sides of the room was a low, slanting shelf, which served for a desk to those who wrote, and against the sharp edge of which the elder pupils leaned when they were not writing.

The seats were made of "slabs," inverted, supported on sticks, and without backs. The elder

pupils sat along the sides of the room-the girls on one side, the boys on the other. The youngest pupils sat nearest the fire, where they were as much too warm as those who sat near the door were too cold. In a school of forty pupils there would be a dozen who were grown up, marriageable young men and women. Not infrequently married men, and occasionally married women, attended school in the winter.

Among the younger pupils there were usually a dozen who could not read, and half as many who did not know the alphabet. The teacher was, perhaps, one of the farmer's sons of the district, who knew a little more than his elder pupils, and only a little, or he was a student who was working his way through college. His wages were those of a farm laborer- ten or twelve dollars a month and his board. He boarded "round," that is he lived a few days at each of the houses of the district, stopping longest at the most agreeable place.

The grand qualification of a teacher was the ability "to do" any sum in the arithmetic. To know arithmetic was to be a learned man. Generally the teacher was very young, sometimes not more than sixteen years old.

a part' ment, a room in a building. a vert', to turn aside.

com pact', dense; close together. des' ti tute, completely lacking.

dis pense', do without.

ga' ble, where the two sides of a roof form

a triangle.

hu man'i ty, human life.

or' na men' tal, adorning.

qual' i fi ca' tion, that which fits for a duty or work.

slab, plank with bark on one side.

ROBERT BURNS.

FITZ-GREENE HALLECK.

I've stood beside the cottage bed

Where the bard-peasant first drew breath; A straw-thatched roof above his head, A straw-wrought couch beneath.

And I have stood beside the pile,

His monument—that tells to Heaven
The homage of earth's proudest isle
To that bard-peasant given !

Bid thy thoughts hover o'er that spot,
Boy minstrel, in thy dreaming hour;
And know, however low his lot,
A poet's pride and power.

The pride that lifted Burns from earth,
The power that gave a child of song
Ascendency o'er rank and birth,

The rich, the brave, the strong:

And if despondency weigh down
Thy spirit's fluttering pinions then,
Despair-thy name is written on
The roll of common men.

There have been loftier themes than his,
And longer scrolls, and louder lyres,

And lays lit up with Poesy's

Purer and holier fires :

Yet read the names that know not death

Few nobler ones than Burns are there; And few have won a greener wreath

Than that which binds his hair.

His is that language of the heart,

;

In which the answering heart would speak, Thought, word, that bids the warm tear start, Or the smile light the cheek;

And his that music, to whose tone

The common pulse of man keeps time, In cot or castle's mirth or moan,

In cold or sunny clime.

And who hath heard his song, nor knelt
Before its spell with willing knee,
And listened, and believed, and felt
The poet's mastery

O'er the mind's sea, in calm and storm,
O'er the heart's sunshine and its showers,
O'er passion's moments, bright and warm,
O'er reason's dark, cold hours;

On fields where brave men "die or do,"
In halls where rings the banquet's mirth,
Where mourners weep, where lovers woo,
From throne to cottage hearth?

What sweet tears dim the eyes unshed,
What wild vows falter on the tongue,
When "Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,"
Or "Auld Lang Syne" is sung!