Like outcast spirits who wait THE AGE OF WISDOM. HO, pretty page, with the dimpled chin, All That never has known the barber's shear, your wish is woman to win, This is the way that boys begin,— Wait till you come to Forty Year. Curly gold locks cover foolish brains, Wait till you come to Forty Year! Forty times over let Michaelmas pass, Pledge me round, I bid ye declare, All good fellows whose beards are gray, Did not the fairest of the fair Common grow and wearisome ere Ever a month was passed away? The reddest lips that ever have kissed, The brightest eyes that ever havé shone, May pray and whisper, and we not list, Gillian's dead, God rest her bier; Alone and merry at Forty Year, THE END OF THE PLAY. THE HE play is done; the curtain drops, A moment yet the actor stops, And looks around, to say farewell. It is an irksome word and task; And, when he's laughed and said his say, One word, ere yet the evening ends, *These verses were printed at the end of a Christmas Book (1848 -49), “Dr. Birch and his Young Friends." Good-night!--I'd say, the griefs, the joys, I'd say, your woes were not less keen, Your hopes more vain than those of men; Your pangs or pleasures of fifteen At forty-five played o'er again. I'd say, we suffer and we strive, Not less nor more as men than boys; With grizzled beards at forty-five, As erst at twelve in corduroys. And if, in time of sacred youth, We learned at home to love and pray, Pray Heaven that early Love and Truth May never wholly pass away. And in the world, as in the school, I'd say, how fate may change and shift; The kind cast pitilessly down. Who knows the inscrutable design? Why should your mother, Charles, not mine, *C. B. ob. 29th November, 1848, æt. 42. We bow to Heaven that willed it so, This crowns his feast with wine and wit: Who brought him to that mirth and state? His betters, see, below him sit, Or hunger hopeless at the gate. Who bade the mud from Dives' wheel So each shall mourn, in life's advance, Amen! whatever fate be sent, Pray God the heart may kindly glow, Come wealth or want, come good or ill, And bear it with an honest heart. But if you fail, or if you rise, Be each, pray God, a gentleman. A gentleman, or old or young! (Bear kindly with my humble lays); The sacred chorus first was sung And peace on earth to gentle men. My song, save this, is little worth; And wish you health, and love, and mirth, As fits the holy Christmas birth, Be this, good friends, our carol still- William Edmondstoune Aytoun. THE EXECUTION OF MONTROSE. I. OME hither, Evan Cameron ! COME Come, stand beside my knee I hear the river roaring down Towards the wintry sea. There's shouting on the mountain-side, There's war within the blast Old faces look upon me, Old forms go trooping past. I hear the pibroch wailing Amidst the din of fight, |