Mary Hannay Foott

The parting of King David and Barzillai the Gileadite after the revolt of Absolam. A little way farther to guide thee I go Where the footing is firm and the waters are low;

The coup d'etat is blotted out With fresher blood, with blacker crime, As midnight horrors put to rout

Thou wast hard pressed, yet God concealed this thing From me; and thou wast wounded very sore, And beaten down, O son of Israel's king,

Above our dear Romancer's dust Grief takes the place of praise, Because of sudden cypress thrust

A fringe of rushes, one green line Upon a faded plain; A silver streak of water-shine,

Devotion! When thy name is named, What matchless visions rise! The Hebrew, leaving Pharoah's house,

'The river of God is full of water.' - Psalm. The rushes are black by the river bed,

A bridle-path in the tangled mallee, With blossoms unnamed and unknown bespread, And two who ride through its leafy alley,

A vision of a savage land, A glimpse of cloud-ringed seas; A moonlit deck, a murderous hand;

His silent spirit from the place Slid forth unseen; amid the throng Of those whose love outlived disgrace,

A blue line to the westward that surely is not cloud; A green tinge in the waters; a clamorous bird-crowd; Then far-off foamy edges, and hill-tops timber fringed;

Cond' had come with us all the way, Eight hundred miles, but the fortnight's rest Made him fresh as a youngster, the sturdy bay!

She heard the story of the end, Each message, too, she heard; And there was one for every friend;

O happy day, with seven-fold blessings set Amid thy hallowed hours, the memories dear Of childhood's holidays, and household cheer,

With supple boughs and new-born leaflets crowned, Rejoicing in fresh verdure stands the tree, Though weather-scarred and scooped by fire may be

A radiance in the midnight sky No white moon gave, nor yellow star; We thought its red glow mounted high

'Twas brave De Quiros bent the knee before the King of Spain, And 'sire,' he said, 'I bring thy ships in safety home again From seas unsailed of mariner in all the days of yore,

'And the birds of the air have nests.' Belated swallow, whither flying? The day is dead, the light is dying,

The Fate Of Bass1 - (A Fancy) On the snow-line of the summit stood the Spaniard's English slave; And the frighted condor westward flew afar,

Sing us the Land of the Southern Sea, The land we have called our own; Tell us what harvest there shall be

I. Thanksgiving. Star, on thy Heaven-returning way, Our message of thanksgiving bear;

The sunlight from the sky is swept, But, over Snowdon's summit kept, One brand of cloud yet burns,

Australasian, 2nd October, 1880 Argument. I. - The House being ready, Victoria prepares to receive the nations whom she has invited. They approach the various countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, of the American continent, the Australian colonies, and those of Polynesia, some of them greater than any which ever paid tribute to Rome, or did homage to a mediaeval monarch, and their products superior to those which in olden times were fit gifts from one king to another.

My youth was passing, Sire, whilst you among The cradle-wrappings slept; my morning-song Sung o'er your pillow. Winds of heaven have thrown

Mother of Him we call the Christ, No halo round thy brows we paint, Incense and prayer we offer not,

'The white Julienne remains the flower of Marie Antoinette.' - ALPHONSE KARR Again above thy fragile flowers

Into Thy hands let me fall, O Lord, Not into the hands of men, And she thinned the ranks of the savage horde

Midnight, musical and splendid, And the Old Year's life is ended, And the New, 'born in the purple,' babe yet crowned, among us dwells;

'Tis a new thing for Australia that the waters to her bear One who seeks not strength of sunshine, or the breath of healing air; One who reeks not of her riches, nor remembers she is fair;

The unexplored parts of Australia are sometimes spoken of by the bushmen of Western Queensland as the home of the pelican, a bird whose resting place, so far as the writer knows, is seldom, if ever, found. The horses were ready, the rails were down, But the riders lingered still,