THE CLAIMS OF GENTLENESS AND REVERENCE.

“How can I teach your children gentleness,
And mercy to the weak, and reverence
For Life, which, in its weakness or excess,
Is still a gleam of God’s omnipotence,
Or Death, which, seeming darkness, is no less
The selfsame light, although averted hence,
When by your laws, your actions, and your speech,
You contradict the very things I teach?”

* * * * *

The birds were doomed; and, as the record shows,
A bounty offered for the heads of crows.

* * * * *

THE RESULT OF THEIR DESTRUCTION.

Devoured by worms, like Herod, was the town,
Because, like Herod, it had ruthlessly
Slaughtered the Innocents.  From the trees spun down
The canker-worms upon the passers-by,
Upon each woman’s bonnet, shawl, and gown,
Who shook them off with just a little cry;
They were the terror of each favorite walk,
The endless theme of all the village talk.

    The farmers grew impatient, but a few
      Confessed their error, and would not complain,
    For after all, the best thing one can do
      When it is raining, is to let it rain. 
    Then they repealed the law, although they knew
      It would not call the dead to life again;
    As school-boys, finding their mistake too late,
    Draw a wet sponge across the accusing slate.

    That year in Killingworth the Autumn came
      Without the light of his majestic look,
    The wonder of the falling tongues of flame,
      The illumined pages of his Doom’s-Day book. 
    A few lost leaves blushed crimson with their shame,
      And drowned themselves despairing in the brook,
    While the wild wind went moaning everywhere,
    Lamenting the dead children of the air!

        THE RETURN OF THE BIRDS.

    But the next Spring a stranger sight was seen,
      A sight that never yet by bard was sung,
    As great a wonder as it would have been
      If some dumb animal had found a tongue! 
    A wagon, overarched with evergreen,
      Upon whose boughs were wicker cages hung,
    All full of singing birds, came down the street,
    Filling the air with music wild and sweet.

    From all the country round these birds were brought,
      By order of the town, with anxious quest,
    And, loosened from their wicker prisons, sought
      In woods and fields the places they loved best,
    Singing loud canticles, which many thought
      Were satires to the authorities addressed,
    While others, listening in green lanes, averred
    Such lovely music never had been heard!

H. W. LONGFELLOW.

* * * * *

THE MAGPIE.