Moonlight gleams upon the lake;
Noiselessly the waters break
On the white and pebbly shore,
Then return, to break once more.
Yonder moon, the sky’s bright green,
Glitters in its depths serene,
And the stars, above that glow,
Seem another heaven below.
On the white lake shore I stand,
Where the waters meet the land,
Shadows all around me lie,
Shutting out the starry sky—
Shutting out the world around,
In their close and narrow bound,
And the past awhile doth seem,
But a half-forgotten dream.
In the starry night, alone,
Earthly cares and thoughts are gone.
In this silence, deep and still,
Who could harbor thought of ill?
Far from all the care and strife,
All the agony of life,
Who would deem the sun could rise
On earth’s thousand miseries?
One by one my thoughts come back
To the old, familiar track,
And I turn me from the shore,
To the busy world once more.
Adelbert Older.
Kind words revive the weary soul,
And cheer its saddest hours,
As dew refreshes drooping leaves,
And brightens fading flowers.
They fall, like sunshine, round the path
Of those who weary roam,
And are the "open sesame"
To every heart and home.
We know the spring will soon appear,
When round us flies the swallow,
So kind words should be harbingers
Of gentle deeds which follow.
Upon the brow of want and care
The joys of life they fling,
And change the soul’s dark night to-day,
Its winter into spring.
Then let your deeds be gentle deeds,
Your words be words of love;
They are the brightest gems which shine
In angels’ crowns above.
Mattie Bell.