Into thy cell, to thy straw it rolled;
Now have I come to reclaim my gold.'
Then the poor cobbler upraised a board,
Extracted the purse and the prize restored.
And scarce had the nobleman turned away,
Ere he heard the fiddler begin to play,
And he had not reached his terrace again
Ere the voice was chirping a jocund strain.

THE OLIVE TREE.

SAID an ancient hermit, bending
Half in prayer upon his knee,
'Oil I need for midnight watching,
I desire an olive tree.'

Then he took a tender sapling,

Planted it before his cave,

Spread his trembling hands above it, As his benison he gave.

But he thought, the rain it needeth, That the root may drink and swell : 'God! I pray Thee send thy showers!' So a gentle shower fell.

'Lord! I ask for beams of summer,

Cherishing this little child.'

Then the dripping clouds divided,

And the sun looked down and smiled.

'Send it frost to brace its tissues,
O my God!' the hermit cried.
Then the plant was bright and hoary,
But at evensong it died.

Went the hermit to a brother
Sitting in his rocky cell :
'Thou an olive-tree possessest;
How is this, my brother, tell?

'I have planted one, and prayed, Now for sunshine, now for rain; God hath granted each petition, olive-tree hath slain!'

Yet

my

Said the other, 'I intrusted

To its God my little tree;

He who made knew what it needed

Better than a man like me.

'Laid I on Him no condition,

Fixed not ways and means; so I Wonder not my olive thriveth,

Whilst thy olive tree did die.'

BISHOP BENNO AND THE FROGS.

Ar the closing of the day
Bishop Benno took his way,

With his book beneath his arm,
Through the meadows for a stroll,

The disturbance of his soul

To reduce again to calm.

Walking by a marish bank,

Where the yellow iris lank

Shot its bluish, bending sheath,

Whilst upon the surface, light

Floated chalices of white,

Anchored to the slime beneath.

G