'God-made woman! man may roam Years from thee, but thou art home,

Whither with the olive leaf

Must his whitest longings wing,

And their purest treasures bring;
Solace thou to every grief.

'Let me pass! in very truth, Sighs my spirit after Ruth,

Clear a passage to the door!

Back, sirs! we must meet alone,

That true heart is mine,-mine own.

See! her dear eyes trickle o'er.

'Let me pass, to wipe those tears, We have not met for fourteen years.

If in all the mighty store:

Of my learning garnered,

Aught is worthless--from my head

Shall her fingers pluck the straw.'

THE MINER OF FALUN.

[AFTER TRINIUS.]

IN an ancient shaft of Falun
Year by year a body lay,
God-preserved, as though a treasure,
Kept unto the waking day.

Not the turmoil nor the passions
Of the busy world o'erhead,
Sounds of war, or peace-rejoicings,
Could disturb the placid dead.

Once a youthful miner, whistling

Hew'd that chamber, now his tomb. Crashed the rocky fragments on him,

Closed him in abysmal gloom.

Sixty years pass'd by, ere miners

Toiling, hundred fathoms deep, Broke upon the shaft where rested That poor miner in his sleep.

As the gold-grains lie untarnish'd
In the dingy soil and sand,
Till they gleam and flicker, stainless,
In the digger's sifting hand;

As the gem in virgin brilliance
Rests, till usher'd into day:

So, uninjured, uncorrupted,

Fresh and fair the body lay.

And the miners bore it upward,

Laid it in the yellow sun,

Up; from out the neighbouring houses
Fast the curious peasants run.

Who is he? with eyes they question;
Who is he? they ask aloud;

Hush! a wizen'd hag comes hobbling,

Panting, through the wondering crowd.

Oh! the cry-half joy, half sorrow

As she flings her at his side, 'John the sweetheart of my girlhood,

Here am I, am I, thy bride.

'Time on thee has left no traces,

Death from wear has shielded thee;

I am aged, worn, and wasted,

Oh! what life has wrought on me!'

Then his smooth unfurrow'd forehead Kiss'd that ancient wither'd crone ; And the death which had divided,

Now united them in one.

HUMOROUS POEMS.