A year ago, I bade my little son
      Bear on a pilgrimage a sacred load
      Of alms; he cried out, fainting on the road,
    ‘Mother, O mother, would that this were done!’
    Him I reproved with tears, and said:  ’Go on,
      Nor feebly sink ere half thy task be o’er.’ 
      Would not God say to me the same, and more? 
    I will not sing that song.  Thou, dearest one,
    Husband—­no, brother—­stretch thy steadfast hand
    Across the void!  Mine grasps it.  Now I stand,
    My woman-weakness nerved to strength divine. 
    We’ll quaff life’s aloe-cup as though ’twere wine,
    Each to the other; journeying on apart,
    Till at heaven’s golden doors we two leap heart to heart.

FOOTNOTES: 

[4] From Kingsley’s Saint’s Tragedy.  Elizabeth, Princess of Bohemia, the most sincere among the mistaken devotee saints of the middle ages, renounced her royal state, her husband and children, and spent her life in the sternest asceticism, and in the most self-denying acts of charity.

A MAN-OF-WAR, OR A MAN OF PEACE.

It will probably be remembered that, a few years ago, a great excitement was caused by the discovery of vast deposits of guano upon the island of Ichaboe, situated on the west coast of Africa.  The remarkable fertilising qualities of guano gave it great value as an article of commerce, and a large number of vessels were despatched from various ports to take in cargoes at the island.  It was computed that at one time not less than 500 vessels were lying off Ichaboe, and as there was no settled authority to regulate the trade of the place, a scene of indescribable confusion and tumult soon presented itself.  The crews of several of the ships having established themselves upon the table-land at the top of the island (the island being little more than a huge rock, rising with almost perpendicular cliffs from the ocean), a dispute arose between them and their captains, which soon proceeded to open mutiny on the part of the men.  The only access to their position being by long ladders, the men set their masters at defiance, and held possession of their stronghold, which was inaccessible, except by permission of the mutineers.  The captains despatched a vessel to the Cape of Good Hope, for the purpose of laying a complaint before the governor, and soliciting his aid.  The governor was about to despatch a man-of-war—­the only remedy that is generally thought of in such cases—­when a good, devoted man, a missionary at Cape Town, named Bertram, hearing of the affair, represented to the governor his earnest desire to spare the effusion of blood, and his conviction that, if he were allowed to proceed to the island, he could bring the quarrel to an amicable settlement.  Mr Bertram obtained the consent of the authorities, and the order for the