SATURDAY AFTERNOON.

N. P. WILLIS.

LOVE to look on a scene like this,
Of wild and careless play,

And persuade myself that I am not old,

And

my locks are not yet gray;

For it stirs the blood in an old man's heart,
And it makes his pulses fly,

To catch the thrill of a happy voice,
And the light of a pleasant eye.

I have walked the world for four score years;
And they say that I am old,

And my heart is ripe for the reaper, Death,
And my years are well nigh told.

It is very true; it is very true;
I'm old, and "I 'bide my time;"

But

my heart will leap at a scene like this, And I half renew my prime.

Play on, play on; I am with you there,
In the midst of your merry ring;
I can feel the thrill of the daring jump,
And the rush of the breathless swing.

I hide with you in the fragrant hay,
And I whoop the smothered call,
And my feet slip up on the seedy floor,
And I care not for the fall.

I am willing to die when my time shall come, And I shall be glad to go;

For the world, at best, is a weary place,

And my pulse is getting low:

But the grave is dark, and the heart will fail
In treading its gloomy way;

And it wiles my heart from its dreariness,
To see the young so gay.

THE ALPINE FLOWERS.

MRS. L. H. SIGOURNEY.

["This piece is, perhaps, the finest of Mrs. Sigourney's poetry. It is in some respects so sublime, that it forcibly reminds us of Coleridge's Hymn before Sunrise in the Vale of Chamouny."George B. Cheever's Poets of America, p. 309.]

EEK dwellers mid yon terror-stricken cliffs!

With brows so pure, and incense-breathing lips,
Whence are ye?-Did some white-winged mes-

senger

On Mercy's missions trust your timid germ

To the cold cradle of eternal snows?
Or, breathing on the callous icicles,
Bid them with tear-drops nurse ye?—
-Tree nor shrub

Dare that drear atmosphere; no polar pine
Uprears a veteran front; yet there ye stand,
Leaning your cheeks against the thick-ribbed ice,
And looking up with brilliant eyes to Him
Who bids you blcom unblanched amid the waste
Of desolation. Man, who, panting, toils.
O'er slippery steeps, or trembling, treads the verge
Of yawning gulfs, o'er which the headlong plunge
Is to eternity, looks shuddering up,

And marks ye in your placid loveliness

Fearless, yet frail-and, clasping his chill hands,
Blesses your pencilled beauty. 'Mid the pomp
Of mountain summits rushing on the sky,
And chaining the rapt soul in breathless awe,
He bows to bind you drooping to his breast,
Inhales your spirit from the frost-winged gale,
And freer dreams of heaven.

EVENING.

LORD BYRON.

It is the hour when from the boughs The nightingale's high note is heard; It is the hour when lovers' vows

Seem sweet in every whisper'd word; And gentle winds, and waters near, Make music to the lonely ear. Each flower the dews have lightly wet,

And in the sky the stars are met,

And on the wave is deeper blue,

And on the leaf a browner hue,
And in the heaven that clear obscure,
So s ftly dark, and darkly pure,
Which follows the decline of day,

As twilight melts beneath the moon away.