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Page 15
"On the cross beam under the Old South Bell,
The nest of a pigeon is builded well.
In summer and winter that bird is there,
Out and in with the morning air.
I love to see him track the street,
With his wary eye and active feet;
And I often watch him as he springs,
Circling the steeples with easy wings,
Till across the dial his shade has pass'd,
And the belfry edge is gained at last.
'Tis a bird I love, with its brooding note,
And the trembling throb in its mottled throat;
There's a human look in its swelling breast,
And the gentle curve of its lowly crest;
And I often stop with the fear I feel--
He runs so close to the rapid wheel.
"Whatever is rung on that noisy bell--
Chime of the hour or funeral knell--
The dove in the belfry must hear it well.
When the tongue swings out to the midnight moon--
When the sexton cheerily rings for noon--
When the clock strikes clear at morning light--
When the child is waked with 'nine at night'--
When the chimes play soft in the Sabbath air,
Filling the spirit with love of prayer--
Whatever tale in the bell is heard,
He broods on his folded feet unstirr'd,
Or, rising half in his rounded nest,
He takes the time to smooth his breast,
Then drops again with film�d eyes,
And sleeps as the last vibration dies.
"Sweet bird! I would that I could be
A hermit in the crowd like thee!
With wings to fly to wood and glen.
Thy lot, like mine, is cast with men,
And daily, with unwilling feet,
I tread, like thee, the crowded street;
But, unlike me, when day is o'er,
Thou canst dismiss the world and soar;
Or, at a half-felt wish for rest,
Canst smooth the feathers on thy breast,
And drop, forgetful, to thy nest."
A DAY IN THE WOODS.
"School!" said Richard White, to himself; "School! I don't want to go to
school. Why am I sent to school every day? What good is there in learning
grammar, and arithmetic, and geography, and all them things? I don't like
school, and I never did."
"Dick!" called out a voice; and the lad, who had seated himself on a cellar
door, and placed his satchel beside him, looked up, and met the cheerful
face of one of his school-fellows.
"What are you sitting there for, Dick? Don't you hear the school bell?"
"Yes; I hear it, Bill."
"Then get up and come along, or you will be late."
"I don't care if I am. I don't like to go to school."
"You don't?"
"No, indeed. I'd never go to school if I could help it. What's the use of
so much learning? I'm going to a trade as soon as I get old enough; and
Pete Elder says that a boy who don't know A B C, can learn a trade just as
well as one who does."
"I don't know any thing about that," replied William Brown; "but father
says, the more learning I get when a boy, the more successful in life will
I be when a man; that is, if I make a good use of my learning."
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