The skies are dark!  No moonbeams mark
   Or wall, or traveller’s way: 
  O’er rock and wood thick storm-clouds brood,
    And doubts our steps delay.

  No beacon-light yet cheers the night: 
    How gloomy grows the hour! 
  Ah! there it shines, in lance-like lines,
    Sharp through the misty shower.

  Shine on, fair star, through storms, afar! 
    Still bless the nightly way! 
  Always the same, a vestal flame,
    Love shall maintain thy ray.

THE FOURTH OF JULY.

It was the anniversary of our Glorious Fourth.  The evil genius who specially presides over the destinies of unoffending college boys put it into the heads of five of us to celebrate the day by an excursion by water to Nahant Beach.  The morning was delightful,—­the cool summer air just freshening into a steady and favoring breeze, the sun tempered in his ferocity by an occasional cloud above us, the sea calm and pleasant—­and all that sort of thing, you know—­just what you want on such occasions,—­and we set sail from Braman’s, resolved to have “a jolly good time.”  I can’t describe our passage down.  It was altogether too full of fun to be written on one sheet.  Suffice it to say, we laughed, and sang, and joked, and ate, and drank (’t was when we were young), and so on, all the way, and in fact I felt rather disappointed at arriving so soon as we did at our destined port.  Here new pleasures awaited us, in the shape of acquaintances unexpected and unexpecting, rides on the beach, bowling, and loafing in general,—­much too rich to be described here and now.  But there is an end to all sport, and ours came quite too soon.  The shadows had begun to lengthen considerably before we thought of starting on our return, and certain ominous indications in the heavens above us warned us, that, as our passage homewards was not by land, further delay was unadvisable.

Dolefully we set our sail, and made for Boston Harbor.  We began to feel the reaction which always follows a season of extreme joviality, and our spirits were down.  Our chief wit, Tom B——­, who had before kept us in a perpetual roar all the way, sat moody and desponding, and answered gruffly every question put to him; speaking only when spoken to, and then in monosyllables rarely used in polite circles.  Our other joker, second only to Tom, the above named, having amused us during the whole day by long yarns spun out from a varied experience and a rich imagination, betook himself to slumber, and tried to dream that he was safe home again.  The rest of us performed our duties about the boat in gloomy silence, looking occasionally with some anxiety at the clouds gathering slowly over our heads, but keeping our opinions within our own breasts.  I had no apprehension of danger, for nothing indicated a gale; in fact, the breeze was gradually deserting us.  All that was to be feared was a calm, steady rain, which, visiting us at a distance of several miles from home, and late at night, promised any thing but an agreeable conclusion to our day’s excursion.  At last it came.  First, a heavy drop, then a few more, and then a regular, straight, old-fashioned pour.